Rambles in Dickens' Land

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, New Age, History, Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book Rambles in Dickens' Land by Robert Allbut, Library of Alexandria
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Robert Allbut ISBN: 9781465520234
Publisher: Library of Alexandria Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Robert Allbut
ISBN: 9781465520234
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint:
Language: English

It is one of the magic legacies left by the great romancers, that the scenes and characters which they described should possess for most of us an air of reality, so convincing as sometimes to put staid history to the blush. The novelist’s ideals become actual to the popular mind; while commonplace truth hides itself among its dry-as-dust records, until some curious antiquary or insistent pedant drags it forth to make a nine days’ wonder. We sigh over “Juliet’s Tomb” in spite of the precisians, sup in the inn kitchen at Pennaflor with Gil Blas at our elbow, and shudder through the small hours outside the haunted House of the Black Cat in Quaker Philadelphia. At Tarascon they show you Tartarin’s oriental garden; and you must hide the irrepressible smile, for Tartarin is painfully real to these good cap-shooters. The other day an illustrated magazine published pictures of Alexander Selkirk’s birthplace, and labelled them “The Home of Robinson Crusoe.” The editor who chose that caption was still under the spell of Defoe. To him, as to the vast majority, Crusoe the imaginary seemed vividly real, while the flesh-and-blood Selkirk was but a name. And if you have that catholic sympathy which is the true test of the perfect lover of romance, read “David Copperfield” once again, and then, by way of experiment, spend an afternoon in Canterbury. You will find yourself expecting at one moment to see Mr. Micawber step jauntily out of the Queen’s Head Inn, at another to catch a glimpse of the red-haired Heep slinking along North Lane to his “’umble dwelling.” You will probably meet a dozen buxom “eldest Miss Larkinses,” and obnoxious butcher-boys—perhaps even a sweet Agnes Wickfield, or a Miss Betsy Trotwood driving in from Dover.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

It is one of the magic legacies left by the great romancers, that the scenes and characters which they described should possess for most of us an air of reality, so convincing as sometimes to put staid history to the blush. The novelist’s ideals become actual to the popular mind; while commonplace truth hides itself among its dry-as-dust records, until some curious antiquary or insistent pedant drags it forth to make a nine days’ wonder. We sigh over “Juliet’s Tomb” in spite of the precisians, sup in the inn kitchen at Pennaflor with Gil Blas at our elbow, and shudder through the small hours outside the haunted House of the Black Cat in Quaker Philadelphia. At Tarascon they show you Tartarin’s oriental garden; and you must hide the irrepressible smile, for Tartarin is painfully real to these good cap-shooters. The other day an illustrated magazine published pictures of Alexander Selkirk’s birthplace, and labelled them “The Home of Robinson Crusoe.” The editor who chose that caption was still under the spell of Defoe. To him, as to the vast majority, Crusoe the imaginary seemed vividly real, while the flesh-and-blood Selkirk was but a name. And if you have that catholic sympathy which is the true test of the perfect lover of romance, read “David Copperfield” once again, and then, by way of experiment, spend an afternoon in Canterbury. You will find yourself expecting at one moment to see Mr. Micawber step jauntily out of the Queen’s Head Inn, at another to catch a glimpse of the red-haired Heep slinking along North Lane to his “’umble dwelling.” You will probably meet a dozen buxom “eldest Miss Larkinses,” and obnoxious butcher-boys—perhaps even a sweet Agnes Wickfield, or a Miss Betsy Trotwood driving in from Dover.

More books from Library of Alexandria

Cover of the book Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt: Being a Personal Narrative of Events by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Molly Brown's Orchard Home by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book The Golden Mountain by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Halil the Pedlar: A Tale of Old Stambul by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Principal Teachings of the True Sect of Pure Land by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Pascal by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book The Lost Word: A Christmas Legend of Long Ago by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Modern Spiritualism by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Three Heroines of New England Romance: Their True Stories Herein Set Forth by Mrs Harriet Spoffard, Miss Louise Imogen Guiney, and Miss Alice Brown by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book The Iron Boys in The Mines Or, Starting at The Bottom of The Shaft by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron De Pollnitz (Complete) Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels From Prussia Thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England In Letters by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Silver and Gold: A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Over the Seas for Uncle Sam by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book Modern Industrialism and the Negroes of the United States by Robert Allbut
Cover of the book The History and Romance of Crime: Millbank Penitentiary by Robert Allbut
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy