Is it necessary for you, Dickensians, to remember another
Dickens from the creator of the Pickwick Papersto recall, indeed,
that in the same year he also wrote the infinitely sadder Oliver
Twist, or that the world of crime is hardly ever absent from even
one of his books I would leave it to the psychiatrists among you
to find an acceptable clarification; I only wish to state here that
Dickens has something more in common with the world of Kafka
and other modern writers than is generally accepted. Jonas
Chuzzlewit possibly no longer belongs to the graded figures in the
book which carries the title bf his cousin Martin, but the chapters
in which are described first the intention to and then the actual
murder of Tigg have a menace and power which seem to have
been the forerunner, and perhaps even of an influential nature,
of Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment.
lb But in this connection there is yet another point of view which
for me, in judging the novel as a special form of literature, seems
of great interest. The world of the novel, as my learned compatriot
Professor Dresden has stated, is before everything a world of words.
The agreement between all novels is, first and last, that of the means
employedthe language. It is not what we call the story, not
the probability of the people who appear in it, not the intrigue,
not the social background and not the philosophical depth which
determine its value, but the way in which the novelist uses the
story form and how, in the structure of his prose, he succeeds in
creating the new and unique reality of the novel itself.
It is only from this technical-literary angle that we can approach
the novel in its own reality without making our judgment hazy
by those additional facts and prejudices from which Dickens, in
spite of century-long and almost universal popularity, has also
suffered continuously. Much of the criticism showered on Dickens
during the years can be attributed to the misunderstanding that
the novel has to measure up to criteria which, in fact, really lie
outside the scope of the literary work of art.
V For example, the fact that nothing about the psychological
discoveries of Freud can be perceived in the books of Dickens is
both true and irrelevant. This latter characteristic applies not
because a novelist could not fruitfully use those discoveries, but
simply because it did not prevent Dickens from creating characters
who, in their individual situations, do not need an Oedipus
complex to be artistically true.
On the other hand, the books of Dickens do not get better
because he refrained from introducing things which in present-day
literature are exhibited with almost provocative frankness.
Dickenslike modern novelists to a greater degree than is gener
ally realisedin his works simply reflects the. morals of his time.
It is a significant fact that the era in which Dickens lived has
become known not because of its wars, revolutions or discoveries,
but because of the prudery of its morals.
In this- respect, too, the British nation is today placing before
us, as Continental Europeans, an enthralling and intriguing
puzzle. Should it not be regarded as paradoxical that the fashion
of the mini-skirt is produced by a country which, 100 years ago
