{"id":1914,"date":"2010-07-13T20:00:46","date_gmt":"2010-07-13T20:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saintmichaelsrcc.org\/acs\/?page_id=311"},"modified":"2018-10-30T14:11:39","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T19:11:39","slug":"lecture-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture 9: Charles Dickens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chesterton was once asked the typical question, \u201cWhat book would you want to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island?\u201d As many people know, his quick answer was, \u201cThomas\u2019 Guide to Practical Shipbuilding.” But what many people don\u2019t know is that he went on to name the book he really would settle for if he were stuck on an island. It was Pickwick Papers<\/em> by Charles Dickens.<\/p>\n

In his 1906 book, Charles Dickens<\/em>, devotes a whole chapter to Pickwick<\/em>.\u00a0He explains why that piece of literature is eternal, and why \u201ceternal\u201d is a good thing, not a bad thing. Pickwick himself is \u201cthe Ulysses of comedy\u201d and his story is an epic about living happily ever after, pausing to appreciate some of the uproarious incidents that happen along the way. Popular religion, says Chesterton, has endless joys and endless jokes. But we have lost both. \u201cWe are too weak to desire that undying vigour. We believe that you can have too much of a good thing \u2013 a blasphemous belief, which at one blow wrecks all the heavens that men have hoped for.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is what literary criticism was meant to be. It is not a behind-the-scenes tour, showing us how the tricks are done. It is not an inspection of surface cracks or of structural flaws. No, this is a privileged journey deep inside, where we get to see astonishing sights we would have missed had we ventured in all alone. Chesterton plays the role of Virgil to our Dante, and he guides us with a sure hand into the extraordinary world of Dickens. He justly warns us at the beginning what we\u2019re in for, pointing to the sign above the gate which reads, \u201cAbandon all hopelessness, ye who enter here.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so we step in. We meet the amazing Dickens characters, and we join them on their exploits. Along the way we meet Dickens himself. And we meet him again dressed up as some of his characters. We walk the streets of 19th<\/sup> century London in the light and in the shadows, where hope does battle with despair, and where another adventure waits around the corner. Chesterton explains that while this might not be a world that we would have made, it is also not a world that we could<\/em> have made. \u201cIts merit is precisely that none of us could have conceived such a thing… it is the best of all impossible worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

T.S. Eliot said that Chesterton\u2019s book on Dickens is the \u201cbest on that author that has ever been written.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most surprising things about the book is that at the time it was written, the novels of Dickens were experiencing something of an eclipse in England. But Chesterton\u2019s book helped spark a wide revival of Dickens, prompting J.M. Dent to publish new editions of all his books for the Everyman\u2019s Library \u2013 and to invite G.K. Chesterton to write an introduction for each of the twenty-four volumes.<\/p>\n

In 1942, The Readers Club (with an editorial committee comprised of Clifton Fadiman, Sinclair Lewis, Carl Von Doren, and Alexander Woolcott) brought out a new edition of Chesterton\u2019s book on Dickens with the subtitle, The Last of the Great Men.<\/em> In his introduction to this edition, Alexander Woolcott, says he feels qualified to describe the book as \u201creadable\u201d \u2013 since he himself has read it at least a dozen times. And as anyone else who has enjoyed this book, Woolcott especially relishes its conclusion, which is one of the most uplifting passages in all of Chesterton:<\/p>\n

\nComradeship and serious joy are not interludes in our travel; but… rather our travels are interludes in comradeship and joy, which through God shall endure for ever. The inn does not point to the road; the road points to the inn. And all roads point at last to an ultimate inn, where we shall meet Dickens and all his characters; and when we drink again it shall be from the great flagons in the tavern at the end of the world.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Best Work of Literary Criticism Ever Written<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[929,930],"class_list":["post-1914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chesterton-101","tag-dickens","tag-pickwick-papers"],"yoast_head":"\nLecture 9-Charles Dickens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dale Ahlquist introduces us to Chesterton's love of Charles Dickens' magnificent and "common man" storytelling. 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