CHAPTER FOUR: WHEN THE DICKENS?
Dickens and his times
It is a truism to say that Dickens lived in changing times – when are times not changing? It is perhaps more useful to remember that Dickens lived at a time when writers, thinkers, politicians, engineers, factory-owners, newpaper editors – and their readers – were more than usually aware of the rapid pace of change. In front of their very eyes, Britain was being transformed from a largely rural and agricultural society into an urban and industrial one. On the whole, they considered that this was Progress, and good.
The best of times, the worst of times
What was happening while Dickens was writing? (Rather a lot, actually…)
1812 Angry, skilled hand workers, nicknamed ‘Luddites’, riot and destroy new machines which they fear will do their work more quickly and cheaply and leave them unemployed.
1813 Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice.
1813–1845 Elizabeth Fry campaigns for prison reform.
1815 Battle of Waterloo – Britain and its allies defeat Napoleon’s France.
1817 Wild-child novelist Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein.
1819 Peterloo Massacre: Peaceful protesters, meeting to listen to a radical speaker in Manchester, are charged by troops on horseback; many die.
1819–1824 Scandalous poet Lord Byron publishes Don Juan.
1820 Prince Regent becomes George IV.
1824 Combination Acts (that banned trade unions) repealed; union membership now legal.
1825 First public railway opens, from Stockton to Darlington (north-east England). Sir Marc Brunel builds first tunnel under the River Thames, London.
1829 Catholic Emancipation Act gives Roman Catholics in Britain equal civil rights with Protestants. Home Secretary Robert Peel sets up the Metropolitan Police. George Stephenson builds fast, reliable Rocket locomotive. First horse-drawn buses in London. Isambard Kingdom Brunel builds revolutionary suspension bridge at Clifton, Bristol.
1830 William IV becomes king.
1831 Michael Faraday makes breakthrough experiments with electric current. Discovers electromagnetic induction.
1832 Parliament passes First Reform Act; voting system is made less corrupt; a limited number of men get the vote.
1833 Slavery abolished in British colonies (it has been illegal in Britain since 1772). Factory Act bans children under 9 from full-time work.
1834 Tolpuddle Martyrs: six working men transported to Australia for joining a trade union. Poor Law Amendment Act (also known as the New Poor Law) ends ‘outdoor relief’ (local payments) to poor. Sets up workhouses where poor people live and work in grim conditions in return for basic rations; they are hated and feared. Like many other people at that time, Dickens hopes that workhouses will solve the problem of poverty; sadly, hindsight proves him wrong.
1835 Municipal Corporations Act: local government is reformed. Town councils can now collect rates (local taxes) to pay for street lights, street cleaning and firefighters.
1835–1860 Houses of Parliament in London rebuilt in grand style.
1836 Charles Darwin completes voyage to southern hemisphere in HMS Beagle; gathers evidence that will later help him formulate theory of evolution (published 1859).
1837 Victoria becomes queen. Isaac Pitman invents shorthand system of rapid writing.
1838 The People’s Charter published in Birmingham: for the next 10 years, its supporters (known as Chartists) campaign for the right to vote for all adult men, annual parliaments, and secret ballots. First regular steamship service between England and USA, in Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western. Anti Corn-Law League founded; campaigns for cheaper bread prices, to feed poor working people.
1839 Riots by Chartists. Photography publicly demonstrated by Fox Talbot (UK) and Daguerre (France). Steam hammer (immensely powerful machine tool, used to make metal parts for tall buildings, ships and locomotives) invented by James Nasmyth.
1840 Penny Post service founded by government minister Rowland Hill.
1840–1870 ‘Railway Mania’ – peak age of railway building in Britain.
1842 Mines Act bans women and children under 10 years old from working underground.
1843 Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches SS Great Britain, first steam-powered propeller-driven ocean-going liner.William Wordsworth appointed Poet Laureate.
1844 Factory Act limits the number of hours per day that women and children are allowed to work. Ragged Schools Union set up, funded by churches and charitable individuals. It aims to provide education for the very poor.
1845–1849 Potato Famine in Ireland; over a million people die, almost 8 million emigrate, many to the USA.
1846 Corn Laws repealed; price of grain no longer kept high to protect British farmers.
1847 Charlotte Brontë publishes Jane Eyre; Emily Brontë publishes Wuthering Heights. Factory Act sets maximum working day at 10 hours for young people.
1848 ‘The Year of Revolutions’: Socialist riots in many European cities. Karl Marx publishes The Communist Manifesto. Major outbreak of deadly cholera in London. First Public Health Act aims to improve living conditions in towns by setting up local Boards of Health.
1850 For the first time, over half the British population lives in cities and towns. Factory Act limits length of working week for women and young people to 60 hours. Public Libraries Act encourages building of public reading rooms for all. Alfred Tennyson becomes Poet Laureate.
1851 Great Exhibition in London displays British manufactured goods and other industrial achievements to the world.
1853 Elizabeth Gaskell publishes Cranford.
1854 Second cholera epidemic in London. John Snow discovers that the disease is spread by polluted drinking water. Reform Schools set up in England and Wales to train young criminals for honest, useful work. In France, Louis Pasteur discovers bacteria.
1854–1856 Britain fights Crimean War against Russia. Florence Nightingale nurses wounded soldiers.
1855 First cheap newspaper in London (The Daily Telegraph). In Austria, Alfred Mendel discovers the laws of heredity.
1855–1875 Sir Joseph Bazalgette builds new underground sewerage system to improve public health in London.
1856 Police Act: there must be trained police offers in all regions of Britain. Sir Henry Bessemer invents new method of mass-producing steel, using a hot-air blast furnace.
1857 The last prison-hulk (old ship, used as a dirty, unhealthy floating prison) destroyed by fire.
1858 ‘The Great Stink’ in London caused by the polluted River Thames. The smell is so bad that Parliament cannot meet.
1860–1890 ‘The Scramble for Africa’: Britain and other European nations compete to take over African lands.
1861–1865 Civil War in USA.
1863 First underground railway in London. Slavery abolished in USA.
1864 International Red Cross humanitarian organisation founded.
1865 Joseph Lister discovers antiseptics; uses carbolic acid to kill bacteria. The Salvation Army founded; it spreads the Christian message by providing help and welfare to poor people. Lewis Carroll publishes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
1867 Second Reform Act. Voting rights extended to more working men. London Society for Women’s Suffrage set up to demand votes for women. Transportation overseas is abolished as a punishment for criminals.
1868 Trades Union Congress founded. Wilkie Collins (a great friend of Charles Dickens) publishes the first ‘proper’ detective story: The Moonstone.
1869 In Russia, Leo Tolstoy publishes War and Peace.
1870 Education Act. Local councils must provide elementary (primary) schools for all children. Married Women’s Property Act: wives can now keep their own earnings.
Instant Dickens 12: Household Words and All the Year Round
What are they? Monthly magazines founded and edited (or ‘conducted’, as he liked to say) by Dickens.
When were they published? Household Words, 1850–1859; All the Year Round, 1859–1895
What was the plot or subject matter? To combine good-quality modern fiction (including much by Dickens, of course) with campaigning journalism that would improve and reform society.
How were they received? They were very popular; cheap, intelligent, approachable, easy to read. Sold between 40,000 and 100,000 copies per month.
Anything else? Dickens was a ‘hands-on’ editor. He himself said that the proofs he checked had so many lines and marks that they looked like inky fishing nets.
And? Dickens wrote Christmas stories for both magazines – trebling the sales!
Instant Dickens 13: Bleak House
What is it? A novel that marks a change in Dickens’s writing. He now wants to make the world a better place, rather than chiefly to entertain readers.
When was it published? In monthly instalments, 1852–1853
What is the plot or subject matter? This book is an attack on the delays and corruption of the law, and on the hypocrisy that surrounded children born out of wedlock. There is a saintly heroine, Esther Summerson, a noblewoman with a shameful secret, a murder, a sinister lawyer – and a rag-and-bone merchant who dies of spontaneous combustion!
How was it received? It was a great success – but Dickens was exhausted.
Anything else? It features the first detective in English fiction, Inspector Bucket.
And? It also features a homeless, hopeless young crossing-sweeper, and London fog, everywhere.
A better future?
Throughout Dickens’s lifetime, civil rights were being extended (rather grudgingly) by a small ruling elite to larger groups within society – although the majority of British people remained relatively poor and powerless long after Dickens’s death in 1870.
What did Dickens think about the times he lived in? And how – if at all – did he reflect contemporary changes and controversies in his work?
Dickens admired Progress; he believed that it was the natural goal of all civilised societies. To stand in its way or to wish to turn the clock back to an imaginary golden age were both wrong. However, like many other thinking, feeling 19th-century men and women, Dickens was not content simply to admire the latest scientific and technical achievements. He criticised them, as well. And he strongly disapproved of the ‘make money at all costs’ ethos of many 19th-century entrepreneurs.
In fact, apart from in his northern factory-city novel Hard Times, scientific discoveries, new machines, booming overseas trade and fast-growing industries do not play a large part in his books. Nor do many other inventions developed during his lifetime, such as piped coal gas, which brought light to millions of houses, or the electric telegraph, which revolutionised communications, making it possible to send urgent signals vast distances, within minutes. Sometimes, ‘inhuman’ new inventions, such as railways, are unfavourably compared with older, more natural and humane, customs and practices.
Although many of Dickens’s novels are written as if they were contemporary with his own adult lifetime, they are actually set in the generation just before – in the early years of the 19th century, when he was a boy. Perhaps that was part of their rather nostalgic charm for his readers.
A ‘sentimental radical’
• Did Dickens want to overthrow existing political and social institutions, and build a brave new world?
No. He wanted ‘improvement’, through steady, gradual reform. His support for the poor and downtrodden sprang from sympathy, not ideology. But he hated snobbery, corruption, complacency, privilege and patronage – and was scornful of upper-class ‘high society’.
• Did he support trade union marches, strikes and picketing, to demand better pay and working conditions for ordinary people?
Generally, no. But Dickens did sympathise with direct action if poor workers’ reasonable demands had been ignored, describing them as ‘that unhappy class of society who find it so difficult to get a peaceful hearing’.
• Did he want rights for women (such as the vote, or the right to own property independently)?
No. Although there were good schools for girls in London, he chose to have his daughters educated by old-fashioned private tutors, at home. And he thought women who had men to support them should stay at home, too. Their task was to create a loving, comfortable ‘refuge’ for their families.
• Did he worry about the way in which British Empire traders and soldiers treated overseas peoples?
No – he wrote that many non-Europeans were ‘savages’, who needed to be ‘civilised’. However, as we have seen, he strongly opposed slavery.
• Did he want better schools, cleaner cities, healthier houses, kinder prisons, better treatment for child labourers?
Did he want more dedicated, less dishonest politicians, and a swifter, fairer system of justice for all? Yes, of course. But he did not think that these failing institutions and wretched conditions were wrong in themselves; they just needed to be made to work better.
But ‘Wait a minute!’, we can hear some people say. Isn’t Dickens famous for his campaigning journalism, and his support of good causes, public and private? his novels full of compassion for the weak and underprivileged? his call for the end of abuses of all kinds – from child abuse in boarding schools to procrastination and corruption in the law courts? Is he not shocked by the poverty, squalor, ignorance and sheer hopelessness of lives led in inner-city slums?
Yes, yes, yes and yes – of course he is. Dickens saw that there were many things wrong with British society – and said so, in his novels, and in letters, speeches and newspaper articles.
Novels with a cause
1838 Oliver Twist – child poverty and neglect, crime, slums, prostitution, the death penalty
1838–1839 Nicholas Nickleby – appalling schools, cruelty to children
1841 The Old Curiosity Shop – gambling, homelessness, poverty, child servants
1841 Barnaby Rudge – Political riots and disorder.
1843 Martin Chuzzlewit – Disillusionment with USA, hypocrisy, complacency
1843 A Christmas Carol – poverty, illness, unfair treatment of workers, the importance of personal charity
1846 Dombey and Son – avarice and ambition; childhood illness, unfair attitudes to daughters
1849 David Copperfield (Dickens’s most autobiographical work) – children as workers, debt, poverty, imprisonment, the importance of personal charity, attitudes to mental illness
1852 Bleak House – illegitimacy, deceit, inheritance, the law’s corruption and delays. Also, the danger of over-enthusiastic charity: seeking satisfaction from helping strangers (or foreigners), while neglecting local and family responsibilities
1854 Hard Times – ruthless, soulless industrial development, unprincipled politicians, the dangers of workers’ unrest
1855 Little Dorrit – debt, imprisonment, charity, the power of a ‘good woman’
1859 A Tale of Two Cities – the horrors of political violence (set in the French Revolution of 1789)
1860 Great Expectations – the gulf between social classes and between rich and poor, convicts and the treatment of prisoners, transportation, ill-gotten gains
1864 Our Mutual Friend – marriage for money, deceit and falsehood, blackmail, social climbers, the evils of wealth, fear of the workhouse
1870 The Mystery of Edwin Drood – orphans, murder, the London underworld, drugs
Which way forward?
But complaining was not enough. Dickens wanted the social ills he had diagnosed to be treated, or better still, cured. But how? Unlike many other social reformers of his day, Dickens was not a politician. He was invited, several times, to stand for election as a Member of Parliament, but always refused. One of his very first professional posts had been as a parliamentary reporter. The experience had left him with little respect for MPs as individuals, and not very much more for the institution as a whole.
When, in 1832, Parliament proposed laws giving (only a very limited number of) working men the vote, Dickens eagerly supported them. And he was scathing about rich, right-wing politicians (the ‘Young England’ group within the Conservative Party) who called for a return to the ‘Good Old Days’ along with – as one well-known Victorian hymn put it: ‘the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate’ (Mrs C. F. Alexander, ‘All Things Bright And Beautiful’, 1848). Dickens also disagreed with another popular Victorian sentiment: God might very well be ‘in His heaven’, but all was not ‘right with the world’ (from Robert Browning’s poem, ‘Pippa Passes’, 1841). In his private life, Dickens was a sincere, although low-key Christian, but he kept his religious views very much to himself.
Instant Dickens 14: Hard Times
What is it? The second of Dickens’s ‘serious’ novels about social problems, set in a northern industrial city, Coketown.
When was it published? In weekly instalments, 1854
What is the plot or subject matter? Thomas Gradgrind is a practical man; he wants facts, nothing else. He does not know how to love his children; as a result, the children both get into serious trouble…
How was it received? It sold well, but was controversial. Some critics thought that it was ‘sullen socialism’; others said that Dickens was right to make people feel guilty about living in a very unequal society.
Anything else? Hard Times was based on a real strike among starving cotton-workers in Lancashire. It was Dickens’s first and only northern book.
And? Writing the book was extremely difficult; ‘I am three parts mad’, Dickens said.
Words not deeds?
However, compared with many other progressive writers, thinkers and campaigners, Dickens’s views were moderate and cautious. He was, after all, a member of the well-meaning, liberal-minded, comfortably-off middle class. He admired hard work, thrift, determination, self-sacrifice, self-control and self-improvement.
That word ‘self’ is very revealing. Ultimately, Dickens believed that society could only be reformed by sustained individual efforts to be better. As he said in 1869, he had little faith in parliaments (or the ruling class), but enormous respect for people. He put his faith in the power of ‘human decency’ to change the world. He wanted moral reform, not political revolution: ‘Our business is to use life well.’
I believe…
Dickens writes to his teenage son, who is about to leave home and emigrate to Australia:
‘I have always been anxious not to weary my children with [religious observances] before they are old enough to form opinions respecting them. You will therefore understand the better that I now most solemnly impress upon you the truth and beauty of the Christian religion, as it came from Christ Himself, and the impossibility of your going far wrong if you humbly but heartily respect it… Never abandon the wholesome practice of saying your own private prayers, night and morning. I have never abandoned it myself, and I know the comfort of it.’
Letter from Charles Dickens to his youngest son, Plorn (Edward), 1868
Happy ever after?
To many people, Dickens’s moral approach to social reform was hoplessly optimistic – and limited. As Dickens knew very well (the critics argued) crime, drunkenness, violence, despair and many other social problems were caused by ignorance and poverty. Unless there was greater equality – of wealth, power, education and opportunity – things would never get better. In the light of this, the happy endings (boy gets girl, they have a large family, they are provided with money and/or a house by some amazing stroke of luck, no-one has to work or grapple with big public problems) pictured in many of Dickens’s stories were (in modern language) a ‘cop-out’.
‘[In Dickens’s novels] … Really, there is no objective [aim in life] except to marry the heroine, settle down, live solvently and be kind. And you can do that much better in private life.’
George Orwell, 1937
Instant Dickens 15: Little Dorrit
What is it? Another ‘social issues’ novel. Some say Dickens’s best.
When was it published? In monthly instalments, 1857–1858
What is the plot or subject matter? The book is a fierce attack on government bureaucracy, and the corruption that money can bring to family and social ties. Father Dorrit is in prison for debt; Amy (‘Little’) Dorrit is small and weak but saintly. She has a foolish but glamorous older sister, and a wild brother. Father Dorrit inherits a fortune; the family becomes mean and proud, except for Little Dorrit. She nurses and helps a family friend (whom she secretly loves) when he goes to prison…
How was it received? Attacked by many, who disliked Dickens’s portrayal of official laziness and corruption, and thought the book ‘gloomy’. It sold well, regardless.
Anything else? This was the most profitable of all Dickens’s works during his lifetime.
And? Another book based on Dickens’s childhood memories of prison. It was originally called ‘Nobody’s Fault’.
Cosy Cottage?
As well as writing and campaigning, Dickens often took practial action to help less fortunate members of society. He gave readings of his work for charity, attended countless fund-raising gatherings, found jobs for and gave money to several friends in need (as well as his demanding family) and, for many years, worked closely with heiress Angela Burdett Coutts (1814–1906) helping to organise numerous charitable projects.
The wealthiest woman in Britain, Burdett Coutts spent her life giving her whole fortune to good causes. Founder, among many, many other things, of schools, churches, soup kitchens, a couple of bishoprics, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the British Beekeepers’ Association – and a friend of Florence Nightingale – she was also rumoured to have had the courage to propose marriage to great, formidable national hero, the widowed Duke of Wellington (he refused).
But back to Dickens; with Miss Burdett Coutts, from 1836 to 1843, he planned and organised the ‘Urania Cottage’ experiment. The ‘cottage’ was a large house in Lime Grove, then on the outskirts of London. On Dickens’s orders, it was converted for use as a refuge for homeless, destitute women, including ex-prisoners and prostitutes. Once ‘rescued’ and safely installed there, they were nursed back to health and strength, trained in useful skills such as reading and sewing, then transported, mostly to Australia, to start a new life in a new land, where their past would either not be known, or could hopefully be forgotten, even by themselves.
Dickens took a great personal interest in all aspects of Urania Cottage. He looked for – and found – the building, complete with a pleasant garden. He helped choose the staff, the furnishings – including a piano, the epitome of respectable, womanly, domestic entertainment – and even the women’s ‘uniforms’ (Dickens thought these should be ‘colourful’). He interviewed prospective inmates and privately helped several of those who did not win – or want – admission. He wrote ‘An Appeal to Fallen Women’, and arranged for it to be circulated to prisons, to attract more applicants.
‘She is degraded and fallen, but not lost, having the shelter … the means of Return to Happiness … are now about to be put into her own hands…’
Dickens looks forward to a bright new future for an inmate of Urania Cottage.
