Difference between revisions of "Douglas-Fairhurst 2011"
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Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert. ''Becoming Dickens: the Invention of a Novelist.'' Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011. Print. | Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert. ''Becoming Dickens: the Invention of a Novelist.'' Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011. Print. | ||
| − | *237: Going through [[Bleak House (1853)|Bleak House]], Forster worried that the spikily satirical representation of Skimpole was too obviously based on the poet and essayist Leigh Hunt. Dickens smoothed it down. Even when he said things Dickens would have preferred not to hear, such as that Little Nell needed to die if ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' was to be completed satisfactorily, a sacrifice both to the marketplace and to the demands of the plot, Dickens listened and did as Forster urged. What these revisions shared was a '''concern for correctness that was as much moral as aesthetic. They reflected Forster's conviction that what his period needed was improving literature''': writing that was better not just because it was funnier or more moving than anything published before, but because it was designed to make its readers feel better, act better. And if Dickens was to be literature's champion, then Forster was happy to act as his squire: a guide, goad, and collaborator all in one. | + | * 45 - "Our Newspaper" which D and his school friends produced based on his favorite miscellany, ''The Portfolio'', "a cheap and cheerful magazine that brought together the pleasures of storytelling with the reassurance of self-improvement.... Moving from page to page was like watching a variety show being put through its paces in double-quick time" |
| + | *89 "Mrs. Joseph Porter, 'Over the Way'" - they put on Othello | ||
| + | *121 popularity of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal "On the Journal's second anniversary, in 1834, William outlined a model of distribution in which "one shepherd, upon a tract of mountain land, receives his copy, perhaps from an egg-market man or a travelling huckstry-woman," and after reading it he places it under a stone for a neighboring shepherd to read, while at the other end of the social scale copies would reach the most refined drawing rooms in the land. "In short," William wrote with urgent italics, "it ''pervades the whole of society.''" | ||
| + | **it's almost a metaphor for what he'd try to do with HW and then do it fictionally in [[Our Mutual Friend (Dickens, 1865)]] and [[Bleak House (1853)]] | ||
| + | ** Sources: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, Altick English Common Reader | ||
| + | * 126 "public life became a site on which individuals and groups negotiated roles," Boyd Hilton, ''A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People? England, 1783-1846,'' Oxford, 2006. | ||
| + | *140: another novel about the small world of mid century literary London - Thomas Miller, ''Godfrey Malvern: Or, the Life of an Author'' (1843) | ||
| + | *154 Boz as prototype of a type of figure who processes urban experience | ||
| + | * 182 Newspapers encourage us to entertain fantasies in which the casual is magically transformed into the causal. To put this another way, they encourage us to turn scrapbooks of people and events into novels like Bleak House: "what connection can there be[?]"...In this sense, one of the best answers to the question "What connection can there have been between many people...very curiously brought together?" was Dickens himself. | ||
| + | *200 connecting Sam Weller to the Fool in Lear | ||
| + | *202 new printing tech and the success of Pickwick | ||
| + | *237: Going through [[Bleak House (1853)|Bleak House]], Forster worried that the spikily satirical representation of Skimpole was too obviously based on the poet and essayist Leigh Hunt [who had founded the Examiner, which Forster edited from 1847 - cf. DNCJ]. Dickens smoothed it down. Even when he said things Dickens would have preferred not to hear, such as that Little Nell needed to die if ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' was to be completed satisfactorily, a sacrifice both to the marketplace and to the demands of the plot, Dickens listened and did as Forster urged. What these revisions shared was a '''concern for correctness that was as much moral as aesthetic. They reflected Forster's conviction that what his period needed was improving literature''': writing that was better not just because it was funnier or more moving than anything published before, but because it was designed to make its readers feel better, act better. And if Dickens was to be literature's champion, then Forster was happy to act as his squire: a guide, goad, and collaborator all in one. | ||
**Sources for potential tie to [[Victorian Rebinding Notes|Victorian Rebinding]]: | **Sources for potential tie to [[Victorian Rebinding Notes|Victorian Rebinding]]: | ||
***James A. Davies, ''John Forster: A Literary Life'', Leicester UP, 1983 | ***James A. Davies, ''John Forster: A Literary Life'', Leicester UP, 1983 | ||
| Line 8: | Line 19: | ||
****commenting on Thackeray's representation of the literary profession in [[Pendennis (Thackeray, 1850)|Pendennis]] | ****commenting on Thackeray's representation of the literary profession in [[Pendennis (Thackeray, 1850)|Pendennis]] | ||
***Forster, "The Dignity of Literature," Examiner, 19 Jan 1850, 35 | ***Forster, "The Dignity of Literature," Examiner, 19 Jan 1850, 35 | ||
| + | * 243 A cult of domesticity was starting to settle itself in the national psyche [thru work by Sarah Ellis, Felicia Hemans], and at the same time that Dickens was trying to establish a secure home life with Catherine, he was positioning himself to be the cult's high priest. This is an aspect of Dickens that makes modern readers especially uneasy. | ||
| + | *275ff his reading of Twist is really good | ||
| + | *290 "literary lions" and Harriet Martineau | ||
| + | *306 Dickens extending individuation of identity work that started much earlier | ||
Latest revision as of 16:47, 13 September 2017
Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert. Becoming Dickens: the Invention of a Novelist. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011. Print.
- 45 - "Our Newspaper" which D and his school friends produced based on his favorite miscellany, The Portfolio, "a cheap and cheerful magazine that brought together the pleasures of storytelling with the reassurance of self-improvement.... Moving from page to page was like watching a variety show being put through its paces in double-quick time"
- 89 "Mrs. Joseph Porter, 'Over the Way'" - they put on Othello
- 121 popularity of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal "On the Journal's second anniversary, in 1834, William outlined a model of distribution in which "one shepherd, upon a tract of mountain land, receives his copy, perhaps from an egg-market man or a travelling huckstry-woman," and after reading it he places it under a stone for a neighboring shepherd to read, while at the other end of the social scale copies would reach the most refined drawing rooms in the land. "In short," William wrote with urgent italics, "it pervades the whole of society."
- it's almost a metaphor for what he'd try to do with HW and then do it fictionally in Our Mutual Friend (Dickens, 1865) and Bleak House (1853)
- Sources: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, Altick English Common Reader
- 126 "public life became a site on which individuals and groups negotiated roles," Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People? England, 1783-1846, Oxford, 2006.
- 140: another novel about the small world of mid century literary London - Thomas Miller, Godfrey Malvern: Or, the Life of an Author (1843)
- 154 Boz as prototype of a type of figure who processes urban experience
- 182 Newspapers encourage us to entertain fantasies in which the casual is magically transformed into the causal. To put this another way, they encourage us to turn scrapbooks of people and events into novels like Bleak House: "what connection can there be[?]"...In this sense, one of the best answers to the question "What connection can there have been between many people...very curiously brought together?" was Dickens himself.
- 200 connecting Sam Weller to the Fool in Lear
- 202 new printing tech and the success of Pickwick
- 237: Going through Bleak House, Forster worried that the spikily satirical representation of Skimpole was too obviously based on the poet and essayist Leigh Hunt [who had founded the Examiner, which Forster edited from 1847 - cf. DNCJ]. Dickens smoothed it down. Even when he said things Dickens would have preferred not to hear, such as that Little Nell needed to die if The Old Curiosity Shop was to be completed satisfactorily, a sacrifice both to the marketplace and to the demands of the plot, Dickens listened and did as Forster urged. What these revisions shared was a concern for correctness that was as much moral as aesthetic. They reflected Forster's conviction that what his period needed was improving literature: writing that was better not just because it was funnier or more moving than anything published before, but because it was designed to make its readers feel better, act better. And if Dickens was to be literature's champion, then Forster was happy to act as his squire: a guide, goad, and collaborator all in one.
- Sources for potential tie to Victorian Rebinding:
- James A. Davies, John Forster: A Literary Life, Leicester UP, 1983
- Forster, "Remarks on Two oft the Annuals," Newcastle Magazine (1829), 27-38
- Forster, "Encouragement of Literature by the State," Examiner, 5 January 1850, 2
- commenting on Thackeray's representation of the literary profession in Pendennis
- Forster, "The Dignity of Literature," Examiner, 19 Jan 1850, 35
- Sources for potential tie to Victorian Rebinding:
- 243 A cult of domesticity was starting to settle itself in the national psyche [thru work by Sarah Ellis, Felicia Hemans], and at the same time that Dickens was trying to establish a secure home life with Catherine, he was positioning himself to be the cult's high priest. This is an aspect of Dickens that makes modern readers especially uneasy.
- 275ff his reading of Twist is really good
- 290 "literary lions" and Harriet Martineau
- 306 Dickens extending individuation of identity work that started much earlier
