Ethard Wendel Van Stee
Books and Blogs
Charles Dickens
There is something moving about touching the
hand of a direct descendent of a man as great Charles Dickens. Cedric said that
he lamented not quizzing his grandfather about Dickens with the understandable
excuse that he was a small child and not much into matters literary at the time.
Meeting Cedric Dickens in the shadow of his
illustrious forebear reminded me of the time I spent with Mary Jennie Cheek
(Marie Johnson) during the years I devoted to researching
I Didn’t Come From Nowhere, subtitled
A Documentary Life of Marie Cheek
Johnson, Daughter of a Slave.
Touch someone who touched someone; the links
are closer than you think.
~~~
In 1850 Dickens launched a weekly commentary
called Household Words. Less
well-known than Pickwick Papers and
Oliver Twist, it deserves attention
not least both as a reflection of the author’s basic humanity and as
documentation of Oliver Twist’s real life underpinnings. Some years ago I picked
up a pristine copy of numbers 25 through 54 hard bound in 1851, for a quarter at
a used book sale.
Oliver
Twist sprang from Dickens’s own
early-life experiences and later influences of Jeremy Bentham and Thomas Carlyle
who, collectively, were appalled at the living and working conditions of the
poor vis-a-vis the rich and privileged class, the 1% of their day. Oliver
famously said of the gruel he was being fed . . .
"Please, sir, I want some more."
The master was a fat, healthy man; but he
turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some
seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralyzed
with wonder; the boys with fear.
"What!" said the master at length, in a
faint voice.
"Please, sir," replied Oliver, "I want some
more."
The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head
with the ladle; pinioned him in his arms; and shrieked aloud for the beadle.
The board were sitting in solemn conclave,
when Mr. Bumble rushed into the room in great excitement, and addressing the
gentleman in the high chair, said,
"Mr. Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver
Twist has asked for more!"
There was a general start. Horror was
depicted on every countenance.
"For more!" said Mr. Limbkins.
"Compose yourself, Bumble, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he
asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?"
"He did, sir," replied Bumble.
"That boy will be hung," said the gentleman
in the white waistcoat. "I know that boy will be hung."
Today he would just be tasered.
~~~
When he was in his mid-forties, Charles Dickens
suffered a colossal mid-life crisis. When he was fifty-eight he died. It took
fifteen years of emotional suffering and overwork for him to make his way to his
final resting place in the Poet’s Corner of
Dickens’s capacity for suffering was a
two-edged sword. On the one hand it fueled his creative impulses when planning
and executing the death of Little Nell in
The Old Curiosity Shop. He said, I am
afraid of disturbing the state I have been trying to get into, and having to
fetch it all back again. On the other hand, it also fed the anguish and
inner turmoil that troubled him throughout his life.
Dickens was an artist of preternatural talent,
but he was also a mortal man whose energies were fed by a sensuous nature. After
years of desultory sex and ten children he left his depleted wife Catharine in
pursuit of Nelly Ternan, the great love of his life who happened to be
twenty-seven years his junior. The history of Charles and Nelly is murky, but
there can be little doubt that they were lovers and may even have had a son who
died in infancy.
Dickens wrote up to the end of his life. His
health declined during his final years and he finally succumbed to a stroke in
1870. In a side bar we can note that Nelly married George Wharton Robinson six
years after the death of Dickens. She was thirty-seven and still a beauty. They
had a son and a daughter and she died in 1914 (if you are of a certain age that
seems not too long ago).
And now you must kindly excuse me as Mr.
Dickens has invited me for a chinwag and a cup of his famous gin punch.
 |
Whatever happened to style in writing? Has it grown so transparent as to disappear altogether?
Good writing is good writing, wherever it is found. My goal is to help you
become a sculptor of words as you pursue the art of fiction. Some of what I
have gleaned over the years, as heir to an older tradition, I offer to you
in this extended essay
|
 |
Keep that young adult reader in your family with her nose in a book. The Monks of Arden is a another gem from the pen of Ethard Wendel Van Stee. Set in medieval England, it will keep her enchanted for hours. Princesses disappointed in love, wicked knights who seek to take advantage of them, they’re all here. Don’t miss it. Click Enter Here to read much more |
 |
Madimi should definitely be a best seller, better than Dan Brown. It is a marvelous mix of mystery, blood and gore, sex, and supernatural forces. You have painted many vivid representations of various ages 13th – 20th century. I love your splendid, rich vocabulary and language, details of history, geography and daily lives of people, their clothing, their utensils jobs, baths etc. It’s a gripping page-turner, as they say. One reason I like your work so much better than, for instance, Tolkein, is that, while you have overlaid the piece with supernatural forces, your references to historical people and places are accurate, and even add to our understanding and appreciation of some of the roots of our Western civilization. Bravo. Well done. Daniel Hoyt Daniels, Translator of Moliere Read Dan Daniels' Full Review |
||
 |
Coming in 2012 Watch for it. The Boy Who Would Be King is a feast for the ears. Seven plays that will stir your love of story and language. |
Please order all books through your local bookseller,
Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble Online, Booksamillion,
or any of dozens of other Internet booksellers.
Contact the author at evanste@islc.net
©2010 Ethard Wendel Van Stee