DICKENS AND THACKERAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1497, 20 July 1912, Page 9

DICKENS AND THACKERAY.

\n admirer of Djckene.. Alice jreynell, draw*, a contrast between him and ThackT y V -?' 3 ? üblhl "Koview." Dickon* she admits, h.Ts many scoundrels, but rha<weray lias no saints." Helen Pendenms, she continues, is not holy, for she is unjust and cruel; Araolia is ~'o t holy for she is fin woist in lovo; Ladv Castlewood is not holy, for she too is cruel; and even Lady Jane is not holy, for she is jealous; .nor-is Colonel JJewcome holv for he is haughty; nor• Dobbin, for lie turns with a'taunt upon a plain sister: nor Esmond, for .ha squanders his best years'in lovn for a material beauty; and "these are the best" of Thackeray's good people. Dickens "closed with ti divine purpo-e divinely different. He consented to the coumels of '■perfection. And thus he made .Toe Gargery, not a man one might easily find in a forge; and Esther Summerson. not a girl one may easily meet at a dance; and Littlo Dorritt, who does not como to do a day's sewing; not that' the man and the women are inconceivable,- but that they are unfortunately improbable." Mrs. Moynell carries the war into Africa *by defending Dickens's rrammar: ■ Those critics who find what thoy call vulgarisms think tliay may safely go on to accusj .Dickens of bad Rrammar. The truth is that his grammar is not only Rood, but stron?; it is far better in construction than Thackeray's, the fine 'aso of v;hcse phraso sometimes exceeds and is Rl-ack. Lately, during-this present centonnrv time, a writer averred that Dickens might not always be parsed, but that we loved him for b,i.s, etc., etc. Dict'-ns's page is to bo parsed ?s strictly ns any man's. It is, anart 'frem tho matter of Erammar, a wonderful thins that he, with his little' education, should Uinve so excellent n ■■ diction: •• . . TJiis is the phrase that reminds us of the eighteenth century writeTs of prose, and amon? writers; of none so Teadily ne of Boling-

broke; it occurs in Mint pswsaso of Esthers hfa in which, hnviit? 'lost her beauty, slip resolves to forego a love iinavowed. "'L'lioro win nothing to bo undone; no cliniu for him to drag or for me to. breali," In ono rcspeol. Mr.«. Meynell thinks hor hero » unfortunate. His public, sho believes, wn.s ns present to film as an actors audionw is (o him, ami thir-s immediate response was not, sood for in'* art. More sptvifirally, "Dickens wrote for a world tlint Htlior was exceedingly 'emotional,' ct. had tho convention oi- tradition of Rveat sentimental excitability. All his people, smWonlv surprised, lese their presenco of mind. Even when the surprise is not extraordinary, their actions arc wild. When 'Pom Pinch calls upon John Wtstlcck in London, after no very lons separation, John, welcoming him at breakfast, puts tho rolls into his boots."