These letters give a good insight to Dickens as a writer and as a family man.
In some letters he declines dinner dates and invitations to spend holidays with others. He has too much work to get on with. He relishes anyway a quiet life at home.
Dickens didn’t have TV, social media or email. Yet he found an equivalent for all of these. He visited the theatre a lot and was quite a critic. Some of his own works were adapted for the stage but he also liked to critique plays written by others. He received many letters and felt obliged to answer them as this was part of his PR and marketing – even those that seem of a more personal nature. In one letter he describes how he finds it hard to muster the energy to answer letters after he has been writing all day. This reminds me of my attitude to email. At one point he burns all of the letters other people have sent to him. I do something similar to my email inbox sometimes. It’s a shame for us though; some of those letters would have made interesting reading.
He didn’t neglect his family and in many letters it is clear how proud he is of them. Some of the letters are to them.
The letters of Charles Dickens Volume 2 1857-1870 is a valuable historic document. There are earlier letters in Volume 1.
