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les collections aristophil
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DICKENS CHARLES
(1812-1870).
L.A.S., [Londres] 8 février 1836, à Lord STANLEY (secrétaire
d’État pour l’Irlande) ; 2 pages et demie in-4 ; en anglais.
6 000 / 8 000 €
Rare lettre de l’écrivain débutant, présentant son premier livre.
[Dickens avait fait ses débuts comme journaliste parlementaire au
Mirror of Parliament.
En 1833, il commença à faire paraître ses
esquisses de la vie de Londres dans des périodiques, qu’il rassembla
en 1836 sous le titre
Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life,
and Every-Day People,
avec des gravures de George Cruikshank.
À l’époque où il était journaliste du
Mirror of Parliament
, il eut l’honneur
de rendre compte fidèlement du discours de Sa Seigneurie, lors de
la seconde lecture du projet de loi sur les troubles irlandais ; Dickens
rappelle cet incident pour faire pardonner la liberté qu’il prend en lui
adressant des volumes, les premiers qu’il ait publiés. Cette requête peut
paraître singulière ou présomptueuse, mais il n’y a rien de singulier
dans le fait d’être un admirateur enthousiaste du caractère distingué
de son correspondant. Le souhait des auteurs de placer leurs œuvres
entre les mains de ceux dont les fonctions publiques éminentes ne
sont dépassées que par l’éclat de leurs talents individuels, est si
général, même chez les plus grands hommes qui aient jamais orné
la littérature de ce pays, qu’il espère que ce sera pardonné chez un
candidat à la faveur publique aussi jeune, et aussi humble…
DICKENS CHARLES
(1812-1870).
Signed autograph letter, [London] 8 February 1836, to Lord
STANLEY (Secretary of State for Ireland); 2 pages and a half,
in-4 format; in English.
6 000 / 8 000 €
Rare letter in which the budding author presents his first book.
Dickens was a parliamentary reporter for a newspaper called
Mirror
of Parliament.
By 1833, he started to publish in periodicals his first
sketches of London life and in 1836 they were gathered in
Sketches
by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life, and Every-Day People,
with
plates by George Cruikshank. The success of his first volume enabled
Dickens to marry Catherine Hogarth in 1836, though it was to her
sister Mary that he was romantically attached.
“When I was connected with ‘the Mirror of Parliament’ in the capacity
of a reporter, I had the honor to wait on Your Lordship, for the purpose
of taking a faithful report of a portion of Your Lordship’s Speech,
on moving the Second reading of the Irish disturbances bill, from
your own mouth: Your Lordship having been pleased to express so
high an opinion of the report of that part of your Speech which had
originally fallen into my hands, as to select me for the task. I trust
Your Lordship will forgive my recalling so unimportant a circumstance
to your recollection when I advert to it, merely as an apology for
the liberty I take, in entreating Your Lordship ‘s acceptance of the
accompanying Volumes-the first I ever published…”
“If there be anything singular or presumptuous in this request My
Lord, there is so little singularity in my being an enthusiastic, though
humble Admirer, of your distinguished character, that I feel almost
confident in the strength of my excuse. The wish of authors to place
their works in the hands of those, the eminence of whose public
stations, is only to be exceeded by the lustre of their individual talents,
is, as always has been, so generally felt, even by the greatest Men
who have ever adorned the Literature of this Country, that I hope it
may be pardoned when it displays itself in so young, and so humble
a candidate for public favour.”