1868 LONIN: low to be conscious of the whole that is implied in this close approximation; but for the common enjoyment of which I speak such consciousness is not required; and for the present Fagin may be left undisturbed in his school of practical ethics with only the Dodger, Charley Bates, and his other promising scholars. 'Surgit amari aliquid.' A night mare of an With such work as this in hand, it will hardly seem surprising that as the time for beginning Nickleby came on, and as he thought of his promise for November, he should have the sense of something hanging over him like a 'hideous nightmare.' He felt that he could not complete agreement. the Barnaby Rudge novel by the November of that year as promised, and that the engagement he would have to break was unfitting him for engagements he might otherwise fulfil. He had undertaken what in truth was impossible. The labour of at once editing the Miscellany and supplying it with monthly portions of Oliver, more than occupied all the time left him by other labours absolutely necessary. 'I no sooner get myself up,' he wrote, 'high and dry, to attack Oliver manfully, than up come the 'waves of each month's work, and drive me back again 'into a sea of manuscript.' There was nothing for it but that he should make further appeal to Mr. Bentley. 'I have Appeal to recently,' he wrote to him on the 11th of February 1838, C. D. to J. F. Mr. Bent ley. 'been thinking a great deal about Barnaby Rudge. Gri'maldi has occupied so much of the short interval I had 'between the completion of the Pickwick and the com'mencement of the new work, that I see it will be wholly 'impossible for me to produce it by the time I had hoped, 'with justice to myself or profit to you. What I wish you 1838. Proposes Barnaby Mr. Bent ley. 'to consider is this: would it not be far more to your LONDON: 'interest, as well as within the scope of my ability, if 'Barnaby Rudge began in the Miscellany immediately to write on the conclusion of Oliver Twist, and were continued in the 'there for the same time, and then published in three Miscellany. ' volumes? Take these simple facts into consideration. 'If the Miscellany is to keep its ground, it must have some continuous tale from me when Oliver stops. If I 'sat down to Barnaby Rudge, writing a little of it when 'I could (and with all my other engagements it would 'necessarily be a very long time before I could hope to 'finish it that way), it would be clearly impossible for me 'to begin a new series of papers in the Miscellany. The Letter to 'conduct of three different stories at the same time, and 'the production of a large portion of each, every month, 'would have been beyond Scott himself. Whereas, having 'Barnaby for the Miscellany, we could at once supply the 'gap which the cessation of Oliver must create, and you 'would have all the advantage of that prestige in favour 'of the work which is certain to enhance the value of 'Oliver Twist considerably. Just think of this at your 'leisure. I am really anxious to do the best I can for you 'as well as for myself, and in this case the pecuniary advantage must be all on your side.' This letter never- Result of theless, which had also requested an overdue account of the sales of the Miscellany, led to differences which were only adjusted after six months' wrangling; and I was party to the understanding then arrived at, by which, among other things, Barnaby was placed upon the footing desired, and was to begin when Oliver closed. it. LONDON: 1838. Progress of Oliver Twist. Birth of Of the progress of his Oliver, and his habits of writing at the time, it may perhaps be worth giving some additional glimpses from his letters of 1838. 'I was thinking 'about Oliver till dinner time yesterday,' he wrote on the 9th of March,* 'and, just as I had fallen upon him tooth 'and nail, was called away to sit with Kate. I did eight 'slips however, and hope to make them fifteen this morn'ing.' Three days before, a little daughter had been born to him, who became a little god-daughter to me; on which occasion (having closed his announcement with a postscript of 'I can do nothing this morning. What time 'will you ride? The sooner the better, for a good long 'spell '), we rode out fifteen miles on the great north-road, and, after dining at the Red-lion in Barnet on our way Celebration home, distinguished the already memorable day by bringof the day. ing in both hacks dead lame. his eldest daughter. Young Gentlemen and Couples, and Sunday under Three Heads. On that day week, Monday the 13th, after describing himselt sitting patiently at home waiting for Oliver Twist who has not yet arrived,' which was his pleasant form of saying that his fancy had fallen into sluggishness that morning, he made addition not less pleasant as to some piece of painful news I had sent him, now forgotten. 'I have not yet seen the paper, and you throw There is an earlier allusion I may quote, from a letter in January, for its mention of a small piece written by him at this time, but not included in his acknowledged writings. 'I am as badly off as you. I have not done the 'Young Gentlemen, nor written the preface to Grimaldi, nor thought of 'Oliver Twist, or even supplied a subject for the plate.' The Young Gentlemen was a small book which he wrote as the companion to a similar half-crown volume of Young Ladies (not written by him), for Messrs. Chapman and Hall. He had before written for them, without his name, Sunday under Three Heads; and he added subsequently a volume of Young Couples. 1838. C. D. to J. F. First num ber of Nicholas 'me into a fever. The comfort is, that all the strange LONDON: 'and terrible things come uppermost, and that the good ' and pleasant things are mixed up with every moment of 'our existence so plentifully that we scarcely heed them.' At the close of the month Mrs. Dickens was well enough to accompany him to Richmond, for now the time was come to start Nickleby; and, having been away from town when Pickwick's first number came out, he made it a superstition to be absent at all future similar times. The magazine-day of that April month, I remember, fell upon a Saturday, and the previous evening had brought me a peremptory summons: 'Meet me at the Shakespeare on 'Saturday night at eight; order your horse at midnight, and 'ride back with me.' Which was done accordingly. The smallest hour was sounding from St. Paul's into the night before we started, and the night was none of the pleasantest; but we carried news that lightened every part of the road, for the sale of Nickleby had reached that day the astonishing number of nearly fifty thousand! I left Its sale. him working with unusual cheerfulness at Oliver Twist when I left the Star-and-garter on the next day but one, after celebrating with both friends on the previous evening an anniversary* which concerned us all (their 2nd of April 1838. second and my twenty-sixth), and which we kept always in future at the same place, except when they were living out of England, for twenty successive years. It was a part of his love of regularity and order, as well as of bis kindliness of nature, to place such friendly meetings as these under rules of habit and continuance. VOL I * See ante, p. 91. K LONDON: 1838. the close of Oliver Twist. CHAPTER VIII. OLIVER TWIST. 1838. THE whole of his time not occupied by Nickleby was now given to Oliver, and as the story shaped itself to its close it took extraordinary hold of him. I never knew him work so frequently after dinner, or to such late hours (a practice he afterwards abhorred), as during the final Interest in months of this task; which it was now his hope to complete before October, though its close in the magazine would not be due until the following March. 'I worked pretty 'well last night,' he writes, referring to it in May, 'very 'well indeed; but although I did eleyen close slips before half-past twelve I have four to write to complete the chapter; and, as I foolishly left them till this morning, 'have the steam to get up afresh.' A month later he writes: 'I got to the sixteenth slip last night, and shall 'try hard to get to the thirtieth before I go to bed.' Then, on a ‘Tuesday night' at the opening of August, he C. D. to J. F. * Here is another of the same month: 'All day I have been at work on 'Oliver, and hope to finish the chapter by bed time. I wish you'd let me know what Sir Francis Burdett has been saying about him at some Birming'ham meeting. B. has just sent me the Courier containing some reference to 'his speech; but the speech I haven't seen.' |