Dickensians! discussion

Here is the thread for our first side read, to accompany our group read of David Copperfield. It is The Life of Charles Dickens: Vol. I by John Forster.

*** IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be aware that this biography does contain SPOILERS for some of Charles Dickens's novels. The first seven chapters are safe, however, for new readers of Charles Dickens. Specifically however, please:

Do not read chapter 8 if you have not read Oliver Twist
Chapter 9 mention the first name of a prominent character who dies in Nicholas Nickleby although there are no other spoilers
Do not read chapter 12 if you have not read The Old Curiosity Shop

Any edition of this 3 part biography by Charles Dickens's friend and mentor John Forster is fine, but the one I have linked to is an illustrated version on kindle.

I hope we all enjoy the read, which should cast new light on many of the stories we know by Charles Dickens, and in particular his most autobiographical novel, David Copperfield.

Reading begins whenever you like, and the read stays current at least through June and July.

Jean, thank you, I wanted to read this book for a while! Tried to download it from Project Gutenberg, with no success. Found it on National Emergency Library site.

One of the last books I managed to grab from our library before it closed for coronavirus was Claire Tomalin's "Life of Charles Dickens". (You should have seen me running along the bookshelves at the last moment just before the closing bell. By the time my husband arrived at the scene, I managed to get about 10 books, and it was time to go.)

Still, probably better to start with John Forster, as he was a longtime friend of Dickens.

Hi Helen! Great that you have it, so can join in :) Actually, the other one you chose by Claire Tomalin was the one I'd planned to have as our first side-read, until the coronavirus reared its ugly head :( Then I realised that we needed to have one with easy access for all, and John Forster's fits the bill.

I'm not sure why you had problems with the Gutenburg version, but maybe it was how they divide it? I downloaded the complete work - all three volumes - on to my old kindle (as that one has a matte screen and I can see it outside!) and the one volume illustrated on to my tablet (as that's in colour:) ) That's the one linked to for our group read, so people don't think we are reading all 3 volumes! The illustrated version cost me 99p, so I think it is probably only pennies elsewhere too.

John Forster by Charles Edward Perugini

John Forster was Charles Dickens's lifelong friend and mentor. It was John Forster with whom Dickens would share his plans for writing. He was privy to most of Charles Dickens thoughts regarding where a plot should go, or how a character should develop, and often advised Dickens for or against a certain idea. He wrote several biographies.

After Charles Dickens's death in 1870, John Forster abandoned the biography he had been writing on Jonathan Swift to write this one about his dear friend. It comprises 3 volumes. The first volume (which we are reading) appeared in 1872, and the biography was completed in 1874.

I've started now, and am pleased to find that it ties in so very well with our read of David Copperfield, as I'd thought it probably would. As John Forster himself said, so much of the descriptions of David Copperfield's early years is taken verbatim from Charles Dickens's autobiographical notes, which he never published.

We talk of this in our group read of David Copperfield. If anyone joining in with this one isn't currently reading David Copperfield, but knows the book, it might be a good idea to take a peek at our first thread of it LINK HERE to refresh your memory.

(The chapter summaries begin at comment 95 LINK HERE )

Has anyone else started yet?

I am anxious to get started, Jean, but it looks like I won’t have a chance to start reading this until tomorrow.

I just read Chapter 1, and there were so many similarities between Charles Dickens' life and personality and those of David Copperfield that I'm almost confusing the two boys in my mind!

Dickens was a highly observant young boy, and that quality served him well later when he created characters with mannerisms that seemed distinct and real. He also had a vivid imagination and performed plays with his older cousin.

Dickens had a love of learning, and missed the intellectual challenge and company of other boys at times when his family was unable to send him to school. His mother was his first teacher, and reminded me of Clara teaching David in the Copperfield book. Dickens enjoyed reading and was reading classics at a young age. It was wonderful that the family had a small collection of books for him to read since he was often too sickly to play sports with the other boys. Reading became a favorite pastime.

I've started as well.

I was surprised, too, to see that Charles Dickens and David Copperfield are so much alike. It's almost like rereading David Copperfield from another point of view in many sections.

Charles Dickens seems to have been a very interesting child. He was very observant. I wasn't that observant at that young age (perhaps never).
I hadn't realized that Charles Dickens was a sickly child. Made me wonder whether had he been more robust, would we have the pleasure of his novels now?

I was taken aback a little, at first, to hear Charles Dickens referred to in such a direct manner. Since John Forster knew him personally, it makes sense to refer to him with direct memory, of course. I just didn't expect that and it seemed strange to read such direct memories and comments. I got used to it quickly. :D

I’ve started to, but I’m only on paragragh 3 of the first chapter 1, but it’s the first mention of David Copperfield! That didn’t take long.

The second chapter on Dickens’ experience in the blacking factory is very much like David Copperfield though Dickens’ feelings are the same, the people who put him there were not as ill intentioned as in the novel.

I like how we learn where he took inspiration for the names (who would have thought Fagin was a real name!) or the idiosyncrasies of his characters. I wonder how those who had their lives borrowed like that felt? If I was young Fagin grown up I would be elated, but his namesake is not all good is he? So maybe you might get teased for sharing a name with him.

I finished Chapter 1.
I am enjoying seeing how much Charles Dickens used his real life for the opening chapters of David Copperfield.
Throughout this chapter, I get the feeling of a very bright, smart child who would have enjoyed and excelled in a good education. He seems to have had a yearning to learn about everything.
There's a lot of reference to how he was being naturally educated through his everyday dealings and watchfulness of the people & places he came into contact with. He was an observant, intuitive child.
And, of course, in the background is the financial issues of his father. He's too young to know what it means when he hears of "the deed" and what it implies but he knows about it and he feels the difference between his early home and his later home.

He's a very sensitive child to feel pain and hurt in his living conditions. Charles Dickens noticed and never adjusted to the new, lower circumstances.
Once his dad went to Marshalsea and furniture started leaving the home, it must have been a dismal life. I felt so bad for him when his beloved books were taken to the pawnshop.

Throughout this chapter are peppered scenes that later appeared in David Copperfield.

Chapter 2 describes Charles Dickens' life when he was sent out to work in a blacking factory and his father was sent to debtor's prison. He used his experiences as inspiration in writing Chapter 11 of "David Copperfield."

Dickens was so traumatized by the experience, and felt so much shame that his family was living at Marshalsea that he kept it a secret until he gave the autobiographical information to John Forster:

"From that hour until this at which I write, no word of that part of my childhood which I have now gladly brought to a close has passed my lips to any human being. I have no idea how long it lasted; whether for a year, or much more, or less. From that hour until this my father and my mother have been stricken dumb upon it. I have never heard the least allusion to it, however far off and remote, from either of them. I have never, until I now impart it to this paper, in any burst of confidence with any one, my own wife not excepted, raised the curtain I then dropped, thank God."

I am a little late to the party, but I would love to read Forster’s book, so I will see about obtaining a copy.

I have read Claire Tomalin’s biography of Dickens and thought it was excellent. I have not read Ackroyd’s biography, though.

Just as an aside - there is a very short and lesser known biography of Dickens by Andre Maurois as well. I liked Maurois' insight that Dickens was always a highly self-driven and extremely active person.

John You're not late at all! It's only the second day, and this side read will last for at least two months, to take us over the end of David Copperfield and on.

Helen Thank you! That is a lesser known one, as you say, so worth a look. I'm sure we can come to all these biographies in time.

Petra wrote: "I was surprised, too, to see that Charles Dickens and David Copperfield are so much alike. It's almost like rereading David Copperfield from another point of view in many sec..."

Yes, I'm pleased that it's such an ideal companion read :) Following on from that point Connie is actually echoing our comments in the thread for the early chapters of David Copperfield (this is worth mentioning, for those who are not joining our read of that at the moment). I do like this other take, or other perspective, by John Forster, as for this part of Charles Dickens's life, I feel he is about the most reliable witness. And of course his advice was often the only advice Charles Dickens would take.

In fact this biography was enormously popular right from the start. The public were aware that John Forster was a very close friend and mentor of Charles Dickens, and he made it clear that Charles Dickens had given his blessing:

22nd April, 1848 - "I desire no better for my fame ... than such a biographer and such a critic."

6th of July, 1862 - "You know me better ... than any other man does, or ever will."

When he had written the autobiographical fragment which we read in chapter 2, it was only five months later that the first installment of David Copperfield appeared and then in the 11th installment (as Connie says) he adapted it to include in David Copperfield, since he had now abandoned the idea of completing it under his own name. John Forster interestingly points out that the manuscript of the fragment had: "No blotting, as when writing fiction; but straight on, as when writing ordinary letter." Something we could never deduce from typewritten or computer produced early drafts nowadays!

I especially liked the reference to "how vividly portions of his boyhood are reproduced in his fancy of the Christmas-tree", as I read that story A Christmas Tree just this last Christmas day, and found it very evocative. If you'd like to read my review, please LINK HERE

And I loved the incident of his first teacher sending him a silver snuff-box with an admiring inscription to the "inimitable Boz" about half-way through the publication of The Pickwick Papers. Think how many more stories that teacher would have cause to admire in the future, from his erstwhile pupil :)

All the familiar incidents are here ... his pain when his sister Fanny goes to the Royal Academy of Music and he is left without education, the "school" set up by his mother, which was never in fact attended, and the older "sort of cousin" James Lamert, who took pity on him, and gave Charles Dickens his first taste of the theatre, which remained his life long obsession.

The different is that (as Petra says) it is so direct, almost from the horse's mouth rather than from a later - or even modern - academic.

What strikes me is how similar John Forster's style is to Charles Dickens's in this biography. It's almost as if he soaks up the style alongside the memories, and of course the sections which are lifted verbatim to put into David Copperfield's experience, (as we discussed in that thread) meld the two even closer.

And this part (which I'll quote in full) really touched me, for it reveals how very difficult it must have been for him to create the character of Mr Micawber, without feeling a little treachery. John Forster says he had his "revenge" by so doing, but from our modern perspective we probably incline towards a kinder view, that it was cathartic. Here he quotes Charles Dickens's own words:

"I know my father to be as kind-hearted and generous a man as ever lived in the world. Everything that I can remember of his conduct to his wife, or children, or friends, in sickness or affliction, is beyond all praise. By me, as a sick child, he has watched night and day, unweariedly and patiently, many nights and days. He never undertook any business, charge, or trust, that he did not zealously, conscientiously, punctually, honorably discharge. His industry has always been untiring. He was proud of me, in his way, and had a great admiration of the comic singing. But, in the ease of his temper, and the straitness of his means, he appeared to have utterly lost at this time the idea of educating me at all, and to have utterly put from him the notion that I had any claim upon him, in that regard, whatever. So I degenerated into cleaning his boots of a morning, and my own; and making myself useful in the work of the little house; and looking after my younger brothers and sisters (we were now six in all); and going on such poor errands as arose out of our poor way of living."

I'm probably taking this a chapter a day, as per our group read. But please feel free to set your own pace, as there shouldn't be any need to use spoiler tags :)

Big Spoiler: he dies in the end! That’s what I like about biographies, you know the ending so now learn about the beginning.

Chapter 2:
I was a bit surprised that, despite the financial problems of the family, Franny was kept in the music school (an expensive endeavour).
It seems that John Dickens valued education, yet Charles Dickens' early years did not include that, while Franny's included it, at the expense of the family's situation. Even after John was in Marshalsea, Franny continued to go to the music school.
This seems a bit unbalanced in giving the children a footing in life.
She must have been very talented.

Perhaps this discrepancy was why Charles Dickens found this period of his life so distasteful and shameful. It's one thing to have to work at such a young age; it's another to work at such a young age while a sibling gets a coveted, expensive education.

ETA:
I got curious about the cost of Fanny's education and found this from Spartacus Educational:
In 1822 John Dickens returned to work at Somerset House in London and the family moved to Camden Town. The following year Fanny was awarded a place at the Royal Academy of Music in Hanover SquareShe was to study the piano with Ignaz Moscheles, a former pupil of Ludwig van Beethoven. The fees were thirty-eight guineas a year, an expense that they family could not really afford. One of the consequences of this decision was that her younger brother, Charles Dickens, was denied an education.

France-Andrée wrote: "Big Spoiler: he dies in the end! That’s what I like about biographies, you know the ending so now learn about the beginning."

LOL - you have give me my first laugh of the day, France-Andrée! Although theoretically, I suppose in any biography there could be something which it would be a shame to divulge just before someone read it.

Petra - Thank you so much for the fascinating extra information.

The "Royal Academy of Music" and the "Royal College of Music", both in London, remain our most prestigious music colleges, and set all our examinations. Pianoforte has 8 grades to pass before entry to a Music College, so there must have been some considerable financial outlay before Fanny could ever apply. Perhaps a friend of the family taught her, or perhaps the lessons were begun when the family had more money, and they penny-pinched to continue them.

I know it was a bit of a struggle to keep mine going, and my teacher was such a "lady" that she didn't like any mention of money! I was asked to discreetly put my 6 shillings and sixpence on the end of the piano every week, and never mention it! :D I passed all the graded exams, but years later went to the "London College of Music" for my diploma as I was also teaching at the time. I didn't even try to get into the demanding RAM! So I'm an ALCM (for this subject) and Fanny would be a more prestigious LRAM.

"It's one thing to have to work at such a young age; it's another to work at such a young age while a sibling gets a coveted, expensive education." Ohhh this reminded me so much of my mother! She came from a poor family, but they were all very clever. Her four older brothers and sisters all passed the exams to go a Grammar school (at that time this was the top 10 per cent academically), and so did she. But my grandparents had no more money to pay for her books and uniform, and said no, she must leave school and work. She was heart-broken; she had been the top in the City for one particular exam.

What saved her from Charles Dickens's fate, was that a new, experimental Grammar school had opened in the city, called the "Pupils and Teachers' Centre", and they paid for her uniform and books, so she was able to continue her schooling.

Sorry, this is all off-topic, but may broaden the picture of Education in England a little. My mother's cousin was not allowed to go to any school at all, ever, but attended what was called a "Dame School", which was just a few children in an elderly spinster's parlour. They started in Elizabethan times, but were still going in the early part of the 20th century. This is probably what Mrs Dickens half-heartedly attempted to set up, and what the young Charles walked around the streets with his leaflets to advertise.

It makes us realise what we now take for granted. And it's always as well to remember when reading anything by Charles Dickens, that many of his readers could not read for themselves at all, and had to spend a precious penny or two to pay someone to read it to them. No wonder the illustrations were so important, and also the "catch-phrases" the characters often used. It all aided their memory of Charles Dickens's performances and books.

I love the image of the tiny young boy, perched on tables singing his comic songs :) It's like a little snapshot of the future. I seem to remember (from other biographies), that his father took him round all sort of places where Charles would literally "sing for his supper"! "Cat's meat" was one of the popular songs.

Petra: thank you for the info. I had assumed winning meant a scholarship, it’s weird saying you win, now you pay. I would think someone else was paying for Fanny’s education (maybe a godmother or godfather à la Charles Dickens jr.?) because if Charles clothes and other possessions were evaluated for they value, surely, a school fee for Fanny would have been balked at by the evaluators?

Jean: my parents didn’t have the chance to finish primary school and we are talking late 1940s-beginning 1950s. My dad, the oldest of 8, was taken out of school at 7 to earn and he had to pay for his sister convent fee because she wanted to be a nun... and then she quit and married the next door neighbour! I feel like he must have felt a little like Charles, but he doesn’t talk about his feelings and since he had his own company and did very well financially, he probably feels that it was worth it? I have no idea though.

My mother was taken out of school at 8 or 9. She was the second of 11 so she had to stay home to take care of the babies. She cried a lot, she loved school. With work over, it is now that she gets more time to read.

I grew up in a house where going to school was not seen has hard work, it was fun! My parents attitude was working is harder, but my view is the opposite.

Chapter 3

Today, children have a multitude of toys. Things were very different in Dickens' time where children had to use their imagination and often make their own playthings. Even scraps of wood were needed to keep the fire burning. I had to laugh when reading the quotes from Dr Henry Danson's letter to John Forster about the boys inventing things and powering them with white mice:

"We kept bees, white mice, and other living things clandestinely in our desks; and the mechanical arts were a good deal cultivated, in the shape of coach-building, and making pumps and boats, the motive power of which was the white mice."

Well, I guess the mice were a step up from dealing with the rats in the cellar of the blacking factory. It reminded me of my brother and his friend finding all sorts of turtles, snakes, frogs, and fish in the pond in the neighborhood where I grew up.

France-Andrée wrote: "I had assumed winning meant a scholarship, it’s weird saying you win, now you pay ..."

Not really, as the places are coveted. Entry has to be earned, through taking the exams I mentioned, and an exceptional performance on your instrument. If you think of it like a University, nowadays because you get a place, does not mean that your fees are paid (unless your country has a system of automatic grants, which we did have for a few decades).

Goodness, your parents had it hard! Was this in Canada?

Sometimes it is a surprise to recollect that this sort of thing is within living memory, as times are so different. When I went to teach in the East End of London, my mother assumed the children would have bare feet, as poor children did when she was a child. Also, my head teacher at that time assumed that up North they all wore clogs!

So Dickensian social conditions did stay in the memory for that generation.

Connie wrote: "Chapter 3

and powering them with white mice:..." LOL!

I love this post Connie :)

Yes, Jean, my parents were born in Canada. I'm a quarter first nation so my ancestors have been here a long time in a way, but my french ancestors arrived in the late 1800s so my great-great-grand-parents weren't born here. My great-grand-father on my mother's side was born on the boat from Germany.

My father didn't have boots in the winter to go to school, but he went anyway so that must have been something with the snow we get here. The French Canadian were more poor than the English population in Quebec because of the Catholicism and no contraception imposed by the Church.

It is hard to believe it was only my parents generation!

Anyway, off topic a bit.

My father was pulled out of school in 3rd grade (age 8) to work the fields. His father was extremely ill and died when he was 11. They lied to the factory, saying he was 14, which made him legal labor and went to work there. I am highly doubtful that the factory manager was fooled or cared, he was protected because he had a signed document from the family stating he was 14.

Given that background, he was the quickest person in math I ever knew. Could solve an extremely complex problem in his head and often helped me with my math homework. Had seven children and saw us all through school, through his own hard work. It hurts me sometimes to see how little people value their educational opportunities now. Education was the key in those days and valued above all...and, as you say, not really that long ago...for me, one generation.

These are fascinating personal anecdotes! I think children now must find it hard to believe.

What makes me sad is those children who didn’t get to have an education could have given so much more. I think in Dickens we meet a lot of children that with a chance ...

Yes, in Bleak House there is a crossing sweeper called Joe, who survived by clearing the road of horse dung for people to cross. Some would tip him, but the police always tried to move him on. He's a really sad, tragic character.

And he was based on a real boy who used to sweep the crossing outside Charles Dickens's house! Dickens took pity on him, and made friends with the lad, paid for his education, and then paid his passage to Australia. After a couple of years, the young man wrote to Charles Dickens, and told him how well he was doing.

Isn't that just a lovely story? One of the thousands was saved :)

Joe’s story in Bleak House is so sad. I just read that one recently, how the policeman was based on someone Dickens admired but he was so cruel to Joe!

After chapter 3, I agree that reading this without having read David Copperfield once before would have been spoilerish.

I wonder if Dickens falling out with Tobin was really as related? I know that with his celebrity Dickens had some leeches coming out of the woodwork and sadly he was related to a lot of them, but I also know how easily he fell out of friendships over his stubbornness. I guess we have to take Forster word on that one, but since he admits mistaking two friends for each other, it’s not guaranteed that he is right and he only has Dickens pov.

I know it died a long time ago, but that poor mouse that drowned in the inkwell!

Yeah, the mouse story was sad.

I found that Charles sounded like such a cheery, fun-loving kid. I'm surprised (a bit) that his adult memories of this time are so traumatic. I mean, a cheery child would more likely be something like a Traddles…..optimistic and seeing the good side of memory.
It has always stumped me a little that Charles Dickens was so dismal about his childhood. Many Victorian children worked for a living. He only did it for 2 years.
Don't get me wrong. No child should forfeit an education. Just that in these times it wasn't unheard of and mostly all of it would have been excruciatingly boring and repetitive.

I'm glad Charles Dickens made his way back to school. Otherwise his working life and conditions would have robbed us of some very wonderful stories.
Let's you know how many other bright people's lights never shone. It's really about being lucky enough in Life to have the opportunity to be who and what you were born to be. Otherwise, Life can be a matter of just surviving.

I was pretty sure I had a copy of this in a hardback and just found it, a wonderful edition with many photos and drawings and with a foreword by modern novelist Jane Smiley. It is The Life of Charles Dickens: The Illustrated Edition

Robin wrote: "I was pretty sure I had a copy of this in a hardback and just found it, a wonderful edition with many photos and drawings and with a foreword by modern novelist Jane Smiley..."

That sounds a lovely book Robin. I wonder if it has the same illustrations as the kindle copy I Iinked to.

Also, Jane Smiley's own biography of Charles Dickens is excellent! It has a slightly different perspective, perhaps through her being primarily a novelist as you say, but is a straight biography and I really enjoyed it.

France-Andrée - Yes, the detective was based on a real person but I won't go into details as it's a bit off-topic. Ijust share the story about the crossing sweeper as I thought it's a good indication of Charles Dickens's good side, and no one which would have been well known.

I'm still on chapter 2! There's a lot in this ...

The first link I put to my edition didn't work, I just added it and the cover. It is from 2010 and has some additional material, such as excerpts from the books mentioned. It's great how Dickens acknowledges the sources from his life, such as the name Fagin, the portrait of the landlady who became Mrs. Pipchin in Dombey and Son, the rooms later occupied by Bob Sawyer in Pickwick.

It does sound tempting Robin! Thanks for editing the GR entry. Does it include all three parts, or just the first 24 chapters: the first volume?

Chapter 4 was such an exciting chapter. I had thought parliament reporting as something really boring, sitting there in the gallery and taking notes, but Dickens had to literally run after the candidates! It’s also fun to learn something that is not in David Copperfield. How the nickname Boz came about was really interesting too, I have probably forgotten it because I think I knew that before. I’ve read some of the sketches and I found them fascinating and for us it gives a good idea of some part of the then society, to think Dickens had almost to beg to be paid for them! I have complete edition here that is on my TBR, but I have slowed my Dickens reading now that I’m almost done with the « new » ones.

Bionic Jean wrote: "It does sound tempting Robin! Thanks for editing the GR entry. Does it include all three parts, or just the first 24 chapters: the first volume?"

It does have all the parts, although it's possible they are somewhat edited. Besides the intro by Jane Smiley, there is another intro about John Forster and notes about what he left out from Dickens' life.

I found Chapter 4 interesting as well.
I had not known (I think) where the nickname Boz came from.

While there's no mention of how Dickens' stories were received by the reading public, the fact that he had the determination and confidence in his work to ask for a small stipend for them shows (I think) that the public enjoyed the stories.
It must have been a wonderful feeling for Dickens, a man who had some personal issues from his past & his lack of education, to know that the public enjoyed his sketches. I think that would have been a nice ego booster and given the young man a boost of confidence in himself.

It was interesting that Mr George Hogarth asked Dickens to write some sketches for the Evening Chronicle (an offshoot to the Morning chronicle) on a regular basis in 1835. Then Dickens married his daughter, Catherine Hogarth, the following year.

I haven't got time to reread the Forster biography at the moment, but am following the discussion with interest.

Just came across this article about John Dickens which includes some letters from him in 1835 arguing about some money he said he was owed.

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/641067

I think the last one in particular is very Micawberish, with long pompous phrases (we could do with 'in short!') and finishing off:

"The very kind and handsome manner in which you are pleased to express yourself on the score of my services is most gratifying to me, and I do trust the sincerity of my intentions to do the utmost in your service will operate in removing any unfavourable impression which an unintentional misapprehension of your meaning has occasioned. If this favourable result should be realized, a line to that effect will confer an additional obligation on, Sir

Your faithful

& obedient Servant

John Dickens

PS I do remember seeing some witter letters from John Dickens in The Dickensian which were slightly more like his son's style - including one which seems to mock Catherine's Scottish accent by saying her "babby" has arrived! I'm not currently a member of the Dickens Fellowship, but I think I will rejoin and have fun browsing the Dickensian archives!

How interesting the Dickens Fellowship sounds. Maybe when I find myself with more time (should that ever happen).

The Fellowship sounds really interesting.

Judy, do you get The Dicksonian magazine? What do you think of it?

ETA: I love the name of the Newsletter: Mr. Dick's Kite. LOL.

The Winter 2015 Newsletter has a small article on James Steerforth.


I had a fairly quick look through the Newsletters posted. They are chalk full of interesting articles. Seems like the last one was published in Winter 2015.
So....for those who have read a lot of Dickens.....Who is the most important Doctor in Dickens? The answer is found in the May 2012 Newsletter.

Reading Chapter 5, I got really curious about Hablot Browne’s first name, it sounded like a last name to me. I was right it was the last name of Captain Nicholas Hablot which is believed to have fathered illegitimately Mr. Browne with Kate Browne (who Hablot Browne knew has his older sister) that’s per his biographer Valerie Browne Lester his biographer and great-great-granddaughter, I took the info in Wikipedia went down a rabbit hole with that one. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens by Valerie Browne Lester has a 3.40 average on GR, but I’m going to add it to my TBR, I see Jean has it on hers. Has anybody read a biography of Phiz?

Petra wrote: "The Fellowship sounds really interesting.

Judy, do you get The Dicksonian magazine? What do you think of it?

ETA: I love the name of the Newsletter: Mr. Dick's Kite. LOL...."

Petra, I was a member a long time ago but not recently, so I haven't been getting the Dickensian - I remember from when I did subscribe in the past that it had some very interesting articles in it, though.

France-Andrée, I haven't read Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens, but I do own a copy and have been meaning to get to it for ages...