Voorjaar 2009 no.66
Toast to the Dickens Fellowship, at Christmas Dinner
13™ December 2008)
The Dutch Dickensian Volume XXIX 8
Dickensian" ondermeer een artikel over het
Staplehurst treinongeluk dat Dickens lijfelijk mee
maakte. Wat ging er mis, hoe snel reed de trein en
in welke wagon zat Dickens. Geen detail wordt
ongenoemd.
Verder een artikel van twee Belgische academici
van de universiteit van Gent. Zij hebben in het
Koninklijk archief in Den Haag twee brieven
gevonden van ene Servaas de Bruin aan Dickens.
De Bruin was een Nederlandse taalkundige die
Dickens een brief schreef of hij een bijdrage kon
opsturen voor Household Words. Dickens schreef
terug dat dit mocht maar dat hij niets kon toezeg
gen. De Bruin stuurde vervolgens een artikel in
over de eenhoorn waarop Dickens terugschreef dat
het artikel niet geplaatst werd omdat Dickens twij
felde aan het bestaan van het dier.
In de laatste Mr. Dick's Kite ondermeer een stukje
over de postzegel met de afbeelding van Dickens
die in 1912 uitgebracht werd vanwege het feit dat
Dickens 100 jaar daarvoor was geboren. De redac
tie van Mr. Dick's Kite vraagt zich af wie een boek
met een dergelijke postzegel bezit. Uw secretaris
adviseert u om in een dergelijk geval niets los te
laten. Voor u het weet staan ze bij u op de stoep.
door Nolly Bouwens - de Beer
Christmas, a festival so dear to his
heart!
I have often wondered what the word
"inimitable" could mean. Books of a
good size must have been written about
it and the things that come into my
mind are:
Firstly that typical British Victorian fes
tivity of Christmas boxing-day:
Pantomime.
Secondly the Pickwick Papers and
thirdly G.K. Chesterton and some of his
rememberable remarks!
According to Chesterton then, Dickens would
have found Samuel Pickwick full blast from a
cannon to have him in the house of Wardle,
Dingley Dell, in time for Christmas, and when
one time Chesterton gave his opinion of
Pickwick's features it more or less boiled down
to something like this: That roundly sloped
pair of glasses reflecting on that round-shaped
face, making a round and respectful spectacle
of Samuel, while wondering about life around
him.
Just that was what Dickens was doing
throughout all his life, reflecting and wonder
ing, and precisely these reflections, in mind as
well as in sight, come to me in the candle
lights of the Christmas tree.
And what I have in mind is Dickens' contribu
tion to the first extra Christmas number of
Household Words in 1850.
That little, comic jewel, almost a pantomime
in itself. Through time the Christmas Carol
(Scrooge) became world-famous as a symbol
of Dickens Christmas.
Well, I sometimes think we could for a change
read or re-read a Christmas Tree. Not much
drama there, plenty of fairies and maybe lots
of reminiscences of his childhood.
Using the word Dickens we almost immediate
ly have in mind the richly painted figures like
Sarah Gamp, Ebenezer Scrooge, Samuel
Pickwick, Quilp, Mr Guppy, Krook Uriah
Heep, Micawber, Mr Venus, Vagin, Little Nell.
According to Chesterton Dickens once said: "I
am a dedicated father to all the children of my
imagination" and perhaps in his view no
human being is without interest and perhaps
in the process of storytelling he simply could
not make them tedious or "boring".
All the characters we can observe in the
Pickwick Papers remain recognisably the same
through all their adventures and they have
never really ceased to be themselves in vio
lence, emotion and action.
The reader remains a spectator and won't be
involved in any unravelling of plots, intricately
interwoven in the whole length of the book.
Samuel Pickwick encounters many adventures
but in the end he creates a life just as he did in
the beginning: a little circle of good in the
midst of a dangerous world, and that's also
