Author Description

It must be owned that this attitude is sometimes made a little difficult by the vigour of yourspecial devotees. They have ceased, indeed, thank Heaven! to imitate you; and even in 'descriptivearticles' the touch of Mr. Gigadibs, of him whom 'we almost took for the true Dickens, ' hasdisappeared. The young lions of the Press no longer mimic your less admirable mannerisms-do notstrain so much after fantastic comparisons, do not (in your manner and Mr. Carlyle's) give peoplenick-names derived from their teeth, or their complexion; and, generally, we are spared second-handcopies of all that in your style was least to be commended. But, though improved by lapse of time inthis respect, your devotees still put on little conscious airs of virtue, robust manliness, and so forth, which would have irritated you very much, and there survive some press men who seem to haveread you a little (especially your later works), and never to have read anything else. Now familiaritywith the pages of 'Our Mutual Friend'and 'Dombey and Son' does not precisely constitute a liberaleducation, and the assumption that it does is apt (quite unreasonably) to prejudice people against thegreatest comic genius of modern time