Dickens and Music
‘THE series Dickens and His Music, which is at. present being broadcast from 3¥A for My Lady’s entertainment, reminds me rather of the enthusiast for the cause of Poland who entitled his study of elephant life "The Elephant and the Polish Question." I just don’t see the connection. Dickens’s writing extends to many volumés, and it would have been remarkable, in my opinion, if he had not included a number of references to music. But I fail to see just how: it helps our appreciation of Dickens or of music to know that A Tale of Two Cities finishes appropriately to the strains of the Marseillaise, or that in Book III, Chapter 14, of Our Mutual Friend Mr. Wegg misquotes two lines of "Drink To Me Only." What did interest me in this last was the preliminary concealment of Mr.+ Boffin behind the stuffed alligator ("Get your head well behind his smile, Mr. Boffin, and you'll be comfortable there. He’s a little dusty, but he’s very like you in tone.") Nor do I consider the fact that Dickens, on a visit to Edinburgh, was once greeted with a _ rendering of "Charlie Is My Darling" a good and sufficient. reason for introducing a recording of this song. But all this is, in the long run, mere carping criticism, if the programme enables one to say, as Mr. Boffin did of the alligator, and’ its companions--"They make a queer show, Venus, and I should like to be better acquainted with them some day." —
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19471024.2.32.4
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 435, 24 October 1947, Page 16
Word count
Tapeke kupu
254Dickens and Music New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 435, 24 October 1947, Page 16
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in