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GREAT MEN'S BODIES
CHARLES DICKENS (1812–1870)
The London Times, June 10, 1870, says: "One to whom young and old, wherever the English language is spoken, have been accustomed as a personal friend is suddenly taken away from among us. Charles Dickens is no more. The loss of such a man is an event which makes ordinary expressions of regret seem cold and conventional. It will be felt by millions as nothing less than a personal bereavement. Statesmen, men of science, philanthropists, the acknowledged benefactors of their race might pass away; and yet not leave the void which will be caused by the death of Dickens.
"They may have earned the esteem of mankind; their days may have been passed in power, honor, and prosperity; they may have been surrounded by troops of friends; but, however pre-eminent in station or public services, they will not have been, like our great and genial novelist, the intimate of every household. Indeed such a position is attained not even by one man in an age. It needs an extraordinary combination of intellectual and moral qualities to gain the hearts of the public as Dickens has gained them. Extraordinary and very original genius must be united with good sense, consummate skill, a well-balanced mind, and the proofs of a noble and affectionate disposition before the world will consent to enthrone a man as their unassailable and enduring favorite. This is the position which Mr. Dickens has occupied with the English and also with the American public for the third of a century. If we compare his reputation with that of the number of eminent men and women who have been his contemporaries, we have irresistible evidence of his surpassing merits. His is a department of literature in which ability in our time has been abundant to overflowing. As the genius of the Elizabethan age turned to the drama, so that of the reign of Victoria seeks expression in the novel. There is no more extraordinary phenomenon than the number, the variety, and the general high excellence of the works of fiction in our own day. Their inspirations are as many as the phases of thought and social life. They treat not only of love and marriage, but of things political and ecclesiastical, social yearnings, and sceptical disquietudes; they give us revelations from the empyrean of fashion and from the abysses of crime. Their authors have their admirers, their party, their public; but not the public of Dickens. It has been his peculiar fortune to
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