Charles Dickens Simon Callow First (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: New. Limited Edition. This volume is the first-ever facsimile reproduction of the manuscript of OLIVER TWIST by Charles Dickens. Of all of Dickens s novels, Oliver Twist remains among the best loved and indeed most read, so insists famed actor and Dickens enthusiast Simon Callow. The original manuscript of the novel, which appeared in 33 monthly instalments between 1837 and 1839, has never before been reproduced in printed form. Here it is, with its corrections and marks, with every ink blot. With this manuscript, all 474 folios the only ones that survived after the author's death are finally presented to the public in a deluxe edition. In this work, the pages formerly worked on by Charles Dickens are reproduced in a graphically-restored version, accompanied by George Cruikshank s iconic illustrations and prefaced with a foreword by Simon Callow. More than mere relics, they are a living testimony to the development of the narrative and to Dickens s success. The serialised novel form imposes tight constraints on the writer, as it asks him to leave the reader in suspense at the end of every chapter while maintaining a coherent plot, all without the possibility of going back to make corrections. Is it possible that the creator of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Scrooge also pioneered the cliffhanger? This edition was produced in collaboration with the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, where the original manuscripts are housed within the Forster collection. The Charles Dickens Museum, located at 48 Doughty Street, in the house where the writer lived during the two years he wrote Oliver Twist (1837-1839), also provided a handwritten page from Chapter 10 of the novel bearing the inscription original manuscript of Oliver Twist .Charles Dickens: I have thrown my whole heart and soul into Oliver Twist, and most confidently believe he will make a feature in the work, and be very popular . . . When Charles Dickens wrote these lines at the beginning of 1837, the first two chapters of Oliver Twist had just appeared in the pages of Bentley s Miscellany, a new literary magazine founded by Richard Bentley, of which Dickens had just been named editor. Aged only 25, the young writer had already tasted success with his first novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Likewise, it seemed he was already beginning to sense that his young orphaned hero, Oliver Twist, would become a star. From the moment the first two chapters were published, the adventures of Oliver Twist, illustrated with etchings by George Cruikshank, were met with great success: the February issue of Bentley s Miscellany had to be reprinted with an additional 1,000 copies. The following chapters, always accompanied by Cruikshank s illustrations, followed in monthly installments until April 1839, as the young boy s popularity the first boy in English literature to be cast as the hero in a novel soared rapidly. Dickens was on the verge of becoming one of England s most famous writers. Twenty-four illustrations by George Cruikshank are reproduced in colour from a rare edition published in 1911. Born in London in 1792, twenty years before Dickens was born in Portsmouth, the illustrator George Cruikshank found great success through his political cartoons. Following 1820 he began illustrating for books and magazines. In 1836, when the publisher Richard Bentley hired a young Dickens to be the editor-in-chief of his new periodical, he also enlisted Cruikshank to liven up the magazine s pages. The artist consequently became the illustrator of Dickens s first works: Sketches by Boz, The Mudfog Papers and Oliver Twist. From May 1837, he had to provide two etchings per month for Bentley s Miscellany: one of which was always to accompany the serialised novel Oliver Twist.