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.
