SLURS CAST ON DICKENS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 454, 8 September 1928, Page 9

SLURS CAST ON DICKENS

WRITER ROUSES ANGER A UTERARY SENSATION (United I*.A.—Bit Telegraph — Copyright) iu.«(rahax and 2i'.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Friday. A literary sensation is expected m the publication of a novel entitled. "This Side Idolatry,” by “Ephesian." the pen-name of Carl Bechhofer Roberts. The publishers claim that the author originally conceived the book as a biography ot Charles Dickens. It was based on research in England, Germany, Italy and America, but that he changed its form to a novel owing

to the restrictions upon quotation from Charles Dickens's letters.

The "Daily Chronicle" says the book is likely to stir the anger of all lovers of Dickens. The author purports to reveal intimate incidents in Dickens's life in the form of dialogue from which a Dickens quite different from the traditional view of the man is set out. The paper says the author accuses Dickens of parsimony, foppery ami vanity, of having spitefully caricature.! his own parents and of having been guilty of effeminate streaks. The author claims that the truth about Dickens's separation from his wife was never told. He says that after she had borne him 10 children he accused her of neglecting them and of mental derangement: also that he quarrelled with her continually owing to her alleged extravagance. Furthermore, says the paper, tin author purports to reveal Dickens's affairs with an actress and with other women. The friends of the Dickens's family are indignant at the slurs cast on the character of the great novelist. They vigorously deny the alleged new facts. The well-known writer, Mr. W. Pett Ridge, In an interview, said: "What is the use of a great novelist qualifving for burial in Westminster Abbcv and to be universally moured by hi» contemporaries if reputation-snatchers are to be allowed to write such muckraking books. If i were a young descendant of Dickens I would break open my money-box and buv a horsewhip." Cat l Erie Bechhofer Roberts was boi u in laondon on November 21, 1894 eldest son of Leopold Bechhofer and Atny Mary Roberts. He assumed ms mother s maiden name as his surname in 1924. His works include five Russian plays. “Russia at the Crossroads,” “Russian Anthology In English ” “The Meaning of National Guilds” (with Maurice B. Reekitt). “The Twelve” (translated from the Russian of Alexander Blok), “In Denikin’s Russia and the Caucasus.” “Through Starving Russia” (partially based on articles contributed to the “Times”), “A Wanderer s Log.” “The Literary Renaissance in America” and “The Brahmin’s Treasure.” “Ephesian” was the name he’ adopted in 1926 in writing a biograrhy of the Earl of Birkenhead. “Ephesiar.” also wrote a biography last year of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Winston Churchill.