Charles Dickens; The Man and His Work Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ... XIII LITTLE DORRIT The first number of the romance of "Little Dorrit" 1 was issued on January 1, 1856, and it was concluded in June (a double number), 1857. The work has a twofold interest: first, because, in writing it, Dickens had begun to doubt the fertility of his genius in creating new forms of character; and, secondly, because he was discontented with his home, and was brooding over the ideal ills which led to his separation from his wife. It may be said also that his misgivings regarding the continuance of his creative impulse were connected with his domestic disappointments. Both seem to have sprung from a pervading restlessness of body and mind, beginning about the year 1854, and culminating 1 Dickens at first purposed calling the book Nobody's Fault. in the breaking up of his home in May,1858. As his representations of life and character increased in earnestness and depth with the growth of his genius, they required more and more isolation of mind to be adequately embodied; and this isolation he either found it difficult to secure, or was indisposed to make sacrifices in order to obtain it. Apart from social distractions interfering with his serious work, he threw himself with ardor into political agitation for administrative reforms, and engaged heartily in "quasi-public" private theatricals for charitable objects. This mode of life, however consistent with the comparatively superficial characterization of "Pickwick" and "Nickleby," springing as it did from the happy combination of spontaneous genius with glad animal spirits, was not favorable to the more intense and profound characterizations of his later works, which exacted complete and long-continued self-absorption in the imagined persons whose interior and external life...