The Life of Charles Dickens

The Life of Charles Dickens

Forster, John

London: Chapman & Hall, 1872

Internet Archive

1872

George Eliot to Sara Sophia Hennell, 15 December 1871. “If you have not yet fallen in with Dicken's Life, be on the lookout for it, because of the interest there is in his boyish experience and also in his rapid development during his first travels in America. The book is ill-organized, and stuffed with criticism and other matter which would be better in limbo; but the information about the childhood, and the letters from America make it worth reading. We have just got a photo of Dickens taken when he was writing or had just written David Copperfield -- satisfactory refutation of that keepsakey, impossible face which Maclise gave him and which has been engraved for the Life in all it odious «namby-pambyness» beautification. This photograph is the young Dickens corresponding to the older Dickens whom I knew -- the same face without the unusually severe wear and tear of years which his latest looks exhibited.” GEL 5: 226 

Forster, John, The Life of Charles Dickens, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57244

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/58a0b3711f853fa946751bd1d7658dca.pdf