File:Pen photographs of Charles Dickens's readings (1871) (14594424560).jpg

Identifier: penphotographsof01fiel (find matches)
Title: Pen photographs of Charles Dickens's readings
Year: 1871 (1870s)
Authors: Field, Kate, 1838-1896
Subjects: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 British Novelists, English Oral reading
Publisher: Boston, J. R. Osgood and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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happiness for all, as Tiny Tim exclaims, God bless us, every one! I do not see how The Christmas Carol can be readand acted better. The only improvement possible is in The Ghosts, who are perhaps too monotonous, — a wayghosts have when they return to earth. It is generallybelieved that ghosts, being damp, moist, uncomfortablebodies, lose their voices beyond redemption and areobliged to pipe through eternity on one key. I am at aloss to see the wisdom of this hypothesis. Solemnity andmonotony are not synonymous terms, yet every theatricalghost insists that they are, and Dickens is no exceptionto the rule. If monotony be excusable in any one, how-ever, it is in him; for when one actor is obliged to rep-resent twenty-three different characters, giving to everyone an individual tone, he may be pardoned if his ghostsare not colloquial. Talk of sermons and churches ! There never was amore beautiful sermon than this of The ChristmasCarol. Sacred names do not necessarily mean sacredthings.
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l;Sa. DAVID COPPERFIELD. 37 III. DAVID COPPEEFIELD. XTOTHIISlG is more unjust than severe criticism of an-^ ^ artist heard or seen but once. Dickenss first ren-dering of David Copperfield disappointed me sadly inthe more serious portions, and had I been obliged to givean opinion then and there, I should have declared thathis tragedy needed force, and that his description of theshipwreck at Yarmouth lacked vividness and intensity.Second and third hearings proved to me that Dickens de-pends upon the sympathy of his audiences for inspiration,and does not do-himself full justice, unless warmly sup-ported by them. This dependence is especially apparentin David Copperfield, wdiich is undoubtedly the mostdifficult and most exhausting of his five readings, — beingthe most dramatic. I write of the reader at his best. Ordinarily, descriptions are most tolerable and not tobe endured. In novels the eye -blinks at them, andrushes off in pursuit of dialogue. In hearing them read,the ear stops its

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