The Puzzle of Dickenss Last Plot

The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot,
by Andrew Lang

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Title: The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot
Author: Andrew Lang

Release Date: December, 1996 [EBook #738] [This file was first posted
on December 7, 1996] [Most recently updated: September 8, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PUZZLE
OF DICKENS'S LAST PLOT ***

Transcribed from the 1905 Chapman and Hall edition by David Price,
email [email protected]

THE PUZZLE OF DICKENS'S LAST PLOT

INTRODUCTION

Forster tells us that Dickens, in his later novels, from Bleak House
onwards (1853), "assiduously cultivated" construction, "this essential
of his art." Some critics may think, that since so many of the best
novels in the world "have no outline, or, if they have an outline, it is a
demned outline," elaborate construction is not absolutely "essential."
Really essential are character, "atmosphere," humour.
But as, in the natural changes of life, and under the strain of restless
and unsatisfied activity, his old buoyancy and unequalled high spirits
deserted Dickens, he certainly wrote no longer in what Scott, speaking
of himself, calls the manner of "hab nab at a venture." He constructed
elaborate plots, rich in secrets and surprises. He emulated the manner of
Wilkie Collins, or even of Gaboriau, while he combined with some of
the elements of the detective novel, or roman policier, careful study of

character. Except Great Expectations, none of his later tales rivals in
merit his early picaresque stories of the road, such as Pickwick and
Nicholas Nickleby. "Youth will be served;" no sedulous care could
compensate for the exuberance of "the first sprightly runnings." In the
early books the melodrama of the plot, the secrets of Ralph Nickleby,
of Monk, of Jonas Chuzzlewit, were the least of the innumerable
attractions. But Dickens was more and more drawn towards the secret
that excites curiosity, and to the game of hide and seek with the reader
who tried to anticipate the solution of the secret.
In April, 1869, Dickens, outworn by the strain of his American
readings; of that labour achieved under painful conditions of ominously
bad health--found himself, as Sir Thomas Watson reported, "on the
brink of an attack of paralysis of his left side, and possibly of
apoplexy." He therefore abandoned a new series of Readings. We think
of Scott's earlier seizures of a similar kind, after which Peveril, he said,
"smacked of the apoplexy." But Dickens's new story of The Mystery of
Edwin Drood, first contemplated in July, 1869, and altered in character
by the emergence of "a very curious and new idea," early in August,
does not "smack of the apoplexy." We may think that the mannerisms
of Mr. Honeythunder, the philanthropist, and of Miss Twinkleton, the
schoolmistress, are not in the author's best vein of humour. "The
Billickin," on the other hand, the lodging-house keeper, is "in very
gracious fooling:" her unlooked-for sallies in skirmishes with Miss
Twinkleton are rich in mirthful surprises. Mr. Grewgious may be
caricatured too much, but not out of reason; and Dickens, always good
at boys, presents a gamin, in Deputy, who is in not unpleasant contrast
with the pathetic Jo of Bleak House. Opinions may differ as to Edwin
and Rosa, but the more closely one studies Edwin, the better one thinks
of that character. As far as we are allowed to see Helena Landless, the
restraint which she puts on her "tigerish blood" is admirable: she is
very fresh and original. The villain is all that melodrama can desire, but
what we do miss, I think, is the "atmosphere" of a small cathedral town.
Here there is a lack of softness and delicacy of treatment: on the other
hand, the opium den is studied from the life.
On the whole, Dickens himself was perhaps most interested in