A Victorian Celebration Wrap Up

Two months have been running so fast…and suddenly we have arrived in the last day of July, meaning that A Victorian Celebration, the event hosted by Allie will soon end. I suddenly realized that for the last two months (or at least the entire July) all my readings are classics-victorian-in-english books. Wow! I mean, I am Indonesian, and reading seven books—all in English—for the whole two months was a new record to me, really! When I first put the list, I did not think I will “survive”, I only thought…yeah, it’s only a list, I can just scrap few books of them if it turned out I could not make it. But in the end, instead of scrapping few books, I managed to add one book and three short stories into the list :) Here are they:

The original list:

Sketches by Boz - Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens: Dickens Bicentenary 2012 - Lucinda Dickens Hawksley

Black Beauty - Anna Sewell

The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens

Twenty Years After - Alexandre Dumas

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson

In the end, I scrapped Dr Jekyll, and replaced it with

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

…and added this to the list:

The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

Besides those novels, I have also added three short stories:

The Three Strangers - Thomas Hardy

A Terribly Strange Bed - Wilkie Collins

The Half-Brothers - Elizabeth Gaskell

Other than the books, I also posted two author profiles, both of them are Non English Victorian Authors:

Emile Zola

Alexandre Dumas

And from Sketches by Boz, I posted four independent posts about Victorian London based on the description in the book:

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Amusements

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Occupations

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Streets & Shops

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Transportation

Finally, I can only say that I really-really enjoyed A Victorian Celebration. It was fun, very fun! All with the posts of all participants (and I must admit I only read several of them), Victorian book reviews, Victorian authors, also quiz and giveaways. Thanks a bunch to Allie, for all your efforts to host this event, it gave me the opportunity to savour the privilege of Victorian readings! I hope we can do something like this again i the future!. :)

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Transportation

Here we are again, in the Victorian London of 19^th century, still in our leisure walk together with Boz. Before this, we have seen many interesting things in London, from the amusements to the streets andshops. Boz has also introduced us to some interesting people from severaloccupations, back in the Victorian era. Today, I will accompany you in an exciting Victorian London excursion, by four different means of transportation. Of course, there are more than the four modes of transports at that time, however I choose only them which were often mentioned in Charles Dickens’ Sketches by Boz, from which I got the idea. 

And ladies and gentlemen…let us know begin our excursion…

Hackney Coach

Hackney coach—hackney means horse for hire—is a four-wheeled carriage having six seats and drawn by two horses you can hire (cab) in the 19^th century.  Hackney coaches were often the discarded and outdated coaches of the nobility, often still bearing their faded coats of arms. The hackney coaches were shabby with dirty interiors. They operated out of inn yards and from coach stands located near main streets [source].

And here is how a hackney coach stand looks like, just as Dickens illustrated in Sketches by Boz:

Cabriolet (Cab)

A two-wheeled, doorless, hooded, one-horse carriage; may come from the French cabriole, an indication of its light, bounding motion. A cabriolet can be driven by someone seated in the carriage. The design is intended to accommodate two comfortably. The collapsible leather hood allows passengers to enjoy sunny weather or shelter from rain. But the original cabriolets were for a single passenger beside the driver and were a kind of hooded chaise. Cabs were introduced into England in the 1820s from France, and they quickly replaced hackney coaches.

There is an interesting thing about cab that Dickens wrote in Sketches by Boz, something that only people at that era who experienced being in a cab, who can described it just as Dickens did in a funny style that made me laugh by just imagining it… J

“Some people object to the exertion of getting into cabs, and others object to the difficulty of getting out of them. (…) The getting into a cab is a very pretty and graceful process, which, when well performed, is essentially melodramatic.

You single out a particular cab, and dart swiftly towards it. One bound, and you are on the first step; turn your body lightly round to the right, and you are on the second; bend gracefully beneath the reins, working round to the left at the same time, and you are in the cab.

The getting out of a cab is, perhaps, rather more complicated in its theory, and a shade more difficult n its execution. We have studied the subject a great deal, and we think the best way is, to throw yourself out, and trust to chance for alighting on your feet. If you make the driver alight first, and then throw yourself upon him, you will find that he breaks your fall materially…”

Really, I think it’s only Dickens can do that! And I am just wondering, whether the cab he illustrated is perhaps something like this? Can you imagine yourself getting in and getting out of it? J

Omnibus

In 1829, drawing his inspiration from a new and successful system in Paris, George Shillibeer launched the first regular omnibus service in London, running from Paddington to Bank, via the Angel.  They ran fixed routes and were pulled by horses. From the beginning of 1832 the fiercely competitive omnibus companies were authorised to stop for passengers anywhere on their licensed routes. Clusters of people assembled on the routes waiting for buses at peak times; the clusters, in turn, collected pick pockets. The omnibuses were designed to carry 12 or 15 passengers, but since more travelers meant more fares, people were often squashed on board, again presenting opportunities for petty thieves. By the 1880s, a circular staircase leading to the roof added more seating on top.  They carried 12 passengers inside and 14 on top. 

the inside of an omnibus

‘Omnibus Life in London’ 1859 by William Maw Egley

[source]

Steamer

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Until the arrival of railways from 1838 onwards, steamers steadily took over the role of the many sail and rowed ferries, with at least 80 ferries by 1830 with routes from London to Gravesend and Margate, and upstream to Richmond. By 1835, the Diamond Steam Packet Company, one of several popular companies, reported that it had carried over 250,000 passengers in the year.

the Gravesend packet

In the early 19th century, Gravesend was a favorite tourist attraction for Londoners, with a very pleasant riverfront, which included a beach, onto the busy Thames and a number of pleasure gardens, including Windmill Hill, which offers unrivalled views of the estuary, and surrounding countryside.

The first steamboat plied its trade between Gravesend and London in the early 19th century, bringing with it a steadily increasing number of visitors to The Terrace Pier Gardens, Windmill Hill, Springhead Gardens and Rosherville Gardens. Gravesend soon became one of the first English resort towns and thrived from an early tourist trade.

From Skecthes by Boz, I learned that water excursion by steamer is one of Londoners favourites to do on Sundays. Sometimes they also have a water party in one of the steamers. There would be a band who played the music on the deck, a place for dancing, or some game for pleasures. The pastrycook’s men would be there earlier to prepare the dinner or lunch table in the cabin for all the guests. This is perhaps one of the water parties at Victorian era looks like…

And this is where our whole lovely excursion in 19^th century London together with Boz must be ended L.

 I only hope you have enjoyed it, as well as the four others previously:

1. The Amusements

2. The Occupations

3. The Streets and Shops

Of course, we must thank Boz for these amusements, for without him, we would never enjoy such fun in the Victorian Celebration event. If you are curious about Boz, you can find more about him in my review of Sketches by Boz.

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Streets & Shops

This is my third post about Victorian London, inspired by Dickens’ Sketches by Boz, for the Victorian Celebration. If this is your first visit, you can find our two previous excursions to Victorian London, where you can find The Amusements of 19^th century Londoners in one of them, and come to learn The Occupations of Londoners at that era, in the other. Today I will take you to see few famous Streets of 19^th century London, as well as Shops where mid-class Londoners used to spend their money at. Here they are… [click the picture to enlarge]

The slum district of Seven Dials

Henry Rushbury  Seven Dials, London in 1744 circa 1930 [source]

Seven Dials is a small but well-known road junction in the West End of London in Covent Garden where seven streets converge. At the centre of the roughly-circular space is a pillar bearing six (not seven) sundials, a result of the pillar being commissioned before a late stage alteration of the plans from an original six roads. [wiki]. However, in the early of 19^th century, Seven Dials became a slum district of London, which Dickens described as:

“The stranger who finds himself in the Dials for the first time...at the entrance of seven obscure passages, uncertain which to take, will see enough around him to keep his curiosity and attention awake for no inconsiderable time...” ~p. 69.

Dudley St., Seven Dials, 1872 [source]

Second hand wearing apparel shops in Monmouth Street

In 19^th century, Monmouth Street is famously known as the emporium of second hand wearing apparel. In this chapter, Dickens specifically brought our imagination to what had happened in a second hand shoes store. But for now, let us entertain ourselves with this picture of a second hand clothes store:

source

Pawnbroker shop

Pawnbrokers, referred to as ‘uncle’, were the poor person’s bank. Clothing and jewellery were handed over in exchange for a loan. If the loan was not repaid within a year, ‘uncle’ could sell the goods. By 1900 there were 700 pawnbrokers in London. Forfeited articles for sale in this window include Sunday best clothing, wedding gifts and ornaments. [source]

the counter in a pawnbroker shop

If you look at the image, the counter at the customer side are divided into several small sub-counter, separated each other with partition. It is built like that to give privacy for people who don’t want others to know that they had a transaction in pawnbroker shop (who knows the guys next to them are their acquaintances?). Pawnbroker shops usually have two entrances. The front one was for shoppers who wanted to buy the sold goods in fair price, the back entrance was for customers who wanted to exchange their belongings for some loan.

The front entrance of pawnbroker shop with its glass window display

Maybe George Cruikshank illustration for Sketches by Boz can reflect the more real atmosphere inside a pawnbroker shop...

Oyster shops

In the 19th century, there were three oyster capitals in the world: London is one of them, with Paris and New York as the others.

I found this in a blog post about oyster shop in 19^th century in London: “Astonishing though it is now, at the beginning of the 19th century oysters were cheap and very much a working class food. I suppose the change must have been well underway when Sheeky's oyster bar opened at the end of the 19th century. Joseph Sheekey was the market stall-holder who in 1893 was graciously allowed by Lord Salisbury to sell fish and shellfish on his new manor of St Martin's Court, provided he served meals to Salisbury's theatre-going pals. These days its reputation seems a little variable.” [source]

The front of an oyster shop looked perhaps like this: 

The Whistling Oyster [source] 

And this was a stall selling oysters.

Gin shops

A gin palace is an English name originally for a lavish bar selling gin, later transferred by association to late Victorian pubs designed in a similar style. In the 18th century, gin shops or 'dram shops' were just small shops (often originally chemist's shops as gin originally had medicinal associations) that sold gin mostly to take away, or to drink standing up. In the late 1820s the first 'Gin Palaces' were built, Thompson and Fearon's in Holborn and Weller's in Old Street, London. They were based on the new fashionable shops being built at the time, fitted out at great expense and lit by gas lights. They were thought to be vulgar at the time, although hugely popular. [wiki]

From Sketches by Boz:  “The gin-shops in and near Drury-Lane, Holborn, St. Giles's, Covent-garden, and Clare-market, are the handsomest in London. There is more of filth and squalid misery near those great thorough-fares than in any part of this mighty city.” For his sketch, Dickens picked a large bar in Drury Lane as a setting of a gin shop.

“... All is light and brilliancy. The hum of many voices issues from that splendid gin-shop which forms the commencement of the two streets opposite; and the gay building with the fantastically ornamented parapet, the illuminated clock, the plate-glass windows surrounded by stucco rosettes, and its profusion of gas-lights in richly-gilt burners, is perfectly dazzling when contrasted with the darkness and dirt we have just left.”

The Dram-drinker by Kenny Meadows [source]

From both images, I see that children are allowed to be in gin shops with their parents! What a bad habit they had already been introduced in their young age!

Drury Lane

Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. In the 17th century it was the London house of the Earl of Craven, then a public house under the sign of his reputed mistress, the Queen of Bohemia, but by the 18th century Drury Lane had become one of the worst slums in London, dominated by prostitution and gin palaces. [wiki]

I especially picked Drury Lane among other streets, because this street appeared quite often in Dickens’ sketches. The scenes of both gin shop and pawnbroker shop were located in Drury Lane, and the story in which Dickens described about oyster shop had also mentioned Drury Lane (but it’s not the oyster shop’s location).

Louis Rayner [source] 

Note: In the process of searching an image of Drury Lane, I came across this site which is exhibiting the paintings of Louise Rayner. The theme is about 19th century London, and they are all very beautiful!!! Louise can picture the scene as if we are there ourselves. So, before we end our today’s outing, let me take you to London on 19^th century through these lovely pictures….

Don’t forget, next week is our last outing to Victorian London. I will prepare some means of transportations so that you don’t have to tiring yourself during our excursion J. See you next week!

Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens

[Conclusion in English is in the bottom of this post]

Andai pada musim gugur 1832 itu seorang penulis muda—dengan gemetar ketakutan—tidak jadi memasukkan naskah tulisannya ke kotak surat gelap di sebuah kantor, dan andai sang Editor yang kemudian membacanya tidak kemudian menerbitkannya di The Monthly Magazine dengan judul ‘A Dinner At Poplar Walk’, maka dunia mungkin takkan pernah menikmati karya-karya menawan seorang Charles Dickens. Ya, penulis muda yang kuceritakan tadi adalah Charles Dickens. Dan dari naskah awal yang diterbitkan itu, mengalirlah pesanan tulisan berupa sketsa jurnalistik yang mengisi The Monthly Magazine secara berkala. Saat itu sang penulis menggunakan nama pena “Boz”. Di kemudian hari, sketsa-sketsa Boz akhirnya diterbitkan sebagai buku yang aku review ini: Sketches by Boz.

Sketches byBoz adalah cerita-cerita pendek yang merupakan ilustrasi dari hasil observasi Charles Dickens terhadap denyut kehidupan kota London saat itu (jaman Victoria), mulai tahun 1833 hingga 1836. Dickens menulis tentang banyak hal, dari suasana jalanan kota London dari pagi hingga malam hari, tempat-tempat hiburan yang diminati penduduk London, toko-toko, kebiasaan-kebiasaan orang-orangnya, sampai ke masalah-masalah yang sepele maupun serius yang sering mereka hadapi. Semuanya ia tuliskan dengan gayanya yang khas, kadang lucu yang sinis, kadang juga lucu yang membuatku sungguh-sungguh terbahak.

Membaca Skecthes by Boz kita jadi seolah hidup juga di London abad 19. Kita jadi mengenal tipe dan cara pandang orang-orang saat itu, gaya berbicara mereka, singkatnya budaya mereka. Inilah yang paling menarik dari buku ini, karena tidak gampang dengan sabar melahap 60 cerita pendek dengan gaya bertutur Dickens yang penuh kalimat-kalimat panjang. Dan salah satu kelemahanku adalah selalu tidak sabar membaca cerita pendek, sehingga kenikmatan membaca buku ini menjadi sedikit berkurang. Yang jelas, Sketches by Boz menawarkan perkenalan pertama pada karya Charles Dickens, karena dari variasi cerpen-cerpen di buku ini, kita akan menemukan humor sinis yang menyindir keabsurdan sosial jaman itu, dan melankoli dalam ketidakadilan yang kelak menjadi tema utama karya-karya besar Dickens berikutnya.

Tiga setengah bintang untuk Boz!

Conclusion:

Being his earliest work, Sketches by Boz has already shown Dickens’ witticisms and satires that we would find later in most of his works. Consisting of 60 short stories, Boz is a combination of literary journalisms and fictional stories, as the result of Dickens’ thorough observation of his surroundings. Sketches by Boz was first published as installments in The Monthly Magazine from 1833 to 1836. Later on, the sketches were sorted and categorized under four big parts: Our Parish, Scenes, Characters, and Tales, to be made into a book. Outside the four parts, there are three more collections of sketches, and the book is finally closed with Familiar Epistle From A Parent To A Child, which is—no doubt—something Dickens wrote for one of his children. So far, the epistle is one of my favorites from all sketches.

The tale of The Black Veil—which is the most touching of all stories—is also one of my favorites. It depicted the faith of a widow after her son hanged for a crime he committed. The touching part is when the young surgeon who attained the case, being a generous and kind hearted fellow, was willingly to take care of the widow now and then, despite of his unfruitful business. The widow on the other hand, always prayed heartily for her young supporter, that at the end her prayers was heard by the Heaven and resulting a good business for the young surgeon in return. A tale of love always touches my heart!

The most intriguing tale is perhaps The Drunkard’s Death. It’s about a drunkard who neglected everything in his life for drinking. Dickens wanted to speak about the risk of alcohol which can lead men and women into poverty and death. This tale is very similar to Emile Zola’s L’Assommoir, although Dickens wrote it more on the melancholy aspect, rather than its brutality as depicted by Zola. It’s interesting to see two different ways of writing, from two great authors, for the same topic at the same era. But of course, in this case, my winner is Zola.

I think the main strong point of this book is Dickens’ thorough observation, especially on human’s character. I am only imagining, if I was being in a dinner party where Dickens was also invited; would I become his observation object too? And if I happened to subscribe The Monthly Magazine, would I find myself illustrated on one of his sketches few days after the party? What would he write of me? That’d be interested! But of course I wouldn’t know whether Dickens was going to write good things or bad things about me. Anyhow, I think, people cannot get angry with him for writing about them. In worst cases, I think they would only put sour smiles on their lips. Or it is most likely that they would laugh heartily on their own sketches. Like Dickens said in ‘The Pantomime of Life’: “A pantomime is to us a mirror of life; nay more, we maintain that it is so to audiences generally, although they are not aware of it, and that this very circumstance is the secret cause of their amusement and delight.” For people who lived at that certain time, Sketches by Boz is also a mirror of their own everyday life, either they were aware of it or—most likely—not. Boz was like a pantomime, where people can see and laugh at themselves. And that’s why they love Boz. Boz was something new and different than any other Victorian readings when it is first published. And the success of Boz then brought further success for Charles Dickens, until today!

Three and a half stars for Boz, as although it’s a unique work, Sketches by Boz is sometimes boring. Anthologies have not been my favorite, so maybe this is why I cannot put a high appreciation on Boz. It is good but unfortunately flat…

Title: Sketches by Boz

Author: Charles Dickens

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1987

Pages: 688

*This is my 2nd review for The Classic Bribe 2012*

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Occupations

Last week we have amused ourselves on several outing places back in 19th century’s Victorian era in London. I hope you enjoyed it! Today, together with Boz, I’d like to introduce you to some interesting people from that era. If you happened to live at that time in London, you would certainly meet these people quite often. They are people who provided services for your family and daily household, but maybe…just maybe..some of them don’t get much appreciation from the society at that time. So, right on this Victorian Celebration, why don’t we get to know some of them? Let’s leave whatever you are doing right now behind you, and just imagine yourself as someone who lived in London on 19^th century… After you ladies and gentlemen… J

Note: These are the occupations which appeared quite often in Dickens’ Sketches by Boz. Of course there are many other unique occupations that existed in Victorian era, but I limited my post only with them who are described in the book, and which I found quite interesting.

Coachman

source

As we all know, a coachman is the driver of a horse-drawn coach. Driving them was a special skill, and the driver of them played an important role in the society of the time. The coachman had a specialized skill set, not unlike the modern taxi or bus driver. He had an unusual position in society because of his important role in commerce, travel, and even mail delivery, often working directly with the rich upper classes despite coming from an impoverished, uneducated background. Some coachmen took pride in the speed of their service, and carriage racing remains a sport to this day. [source]

Waterman

Waterman is one of the workers you would find in a hackney coach stand, an occupation you can found on the early 19^th century. Public houses are kept open during the night for the accommodation of the coachmen.  The figure represented upon this plate is employed as waterman to the stand, who is licensed, and wears a badge with his number engraved thereon: his business is to feed and water the horses, and to open the door for the passengers, that the driver may remain upon his box: he also has charge of the coaches during the time that the coachmen take their meals. [source]

Costermonger

Costermonger, or simply Coster, is a street seller of fruit (apples, etc.) and vegetables, in London and other British towns. They were ubiquitous in mid-Victorian England, and some are still found in markets. As usual with street-sellers, they would use a loud sing-song cry or chant to attract attention. Their cart might be stationary at a market stall, or mobile (horse-drawn or wheelbarrow). Costers met a need for rapid food distribution from the central markets (e.g., Spitalfields for fruit and vegetables, Billingsgate for fish). Their membership as a coster was signalled by their large neckerchief, known as a kingsman, tied round their necks. [wiki]

source

A costermonger selling fresh herring from a barrow in a street market near Seven Dials

Chimney Sweepers

A chimney sweep is a worker who clears ash and soot from chimneys. It was a job children could do better than adults, thus most of chimney sweepers are children. Children as young as four years old were sold to master chimney sweeps most often by orphanages but sometimes by their own families. The children would do the work in exchange for learning a trade and being housed and fed. All the money the children earned was turned over to the master sweeper. Tales of mistreatment abounded and the children often begged for food from the customers they served.

A chimney sweep was required to climb up the inside of the chimney, sweeping and scraping soot into a bag. The tight spaces occasionally caused the sweeps to become stuck. A chimney in poor condition might cause the sweep to lose a grip or footing and fall to his death. Another hazard of the job was the illness caused by inhaling the soot. [ehow].

Chimney sweepers were often linked with The 1st of May event. They usually perform the dancing.

Parish Beadle

R. Ackermann. Published in 1824

Beadle, sometimes spelled "bedel," is a lay official of a church or synagogue who may usher, keep order, make reports, and assist in religious functions; or a minor official who carries out various civil, educational, or ceremonial duties. Dickens emphasized the important role of a parish beadle at that time in Sketches by Boz [chapter 1 of 'Our Parish']: "The parish beadle is one of the most, perhaps the most, important member of the local administration. He is not so well off as the churchwardens, certainly, nor is he so learned as the vestry-clerk, nor does he order things quite so much his own way as either of them. But his power is very great, notwithstanding; and the dignity of his office is never impaired by the absence of efforts on his part to maintain it."

If you have already read Oliver Twist, you might remember the character of Mr. Bumble who took Oliver to the working house. Mr. Bumble was a parish beadle.

The illustration of Mr. Bumble & Oliver Twist
source

Curate

A clergyman in the Church of England who is employed to perform divine service in the place of the incumbent, parson or vicar. He must be licensed by fixed estate in the curacy, he may be removed at pleasure. But some curates are perpetual. [source]

Henry Singleton. "The Curate of the Parish Returned From Duty." London, circa 1800 
source

So, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of our journey in Victorian London of today. Permit me to order a coach for each one of you, to bring you back to the present. However, before we part, I have the pleasure to remind you that you are invited to our (Boz and I J) journey of next week. We are going to go down the streets and shops of Victorian London. Until we meet again…. J

P.S. If you happened to miss our outing last week, you can still join me and Boz in Victorian London Amusements.

Charles Dickens: Dickens’ Bicentenary 1812 – 2012

[conclusion in English is in the bottom of this post]

Dalam rangka perayaan 200 tahun kelahiran Charles Dickens 7 Februari tahun ini, Lucinda Dickens Hawksley—seorang keturunan Dickens—bekerja sama dengan Charles Dickens Museum, London, menerbitkan sebuah biografi sang penulis besar Inggris ini. Jika sebelumnya telah banyak biografi Dickens yang telah diterbitkan, apa yang membuat biografi yang satu ini berbeda? Tak lain dan tak bukan adalah ciri khasnya yang menjadikannya layak (atau ‘wajib’) dimiliki para Dickensian (penggemar dan pecinta Dickens) di seluruh dunia. Biografi ini bukan hanya mengisahkan kehidupan sang penulis, namun juga karya-karyanya, bagaimana mereka ditulis, dan apa yang melatarbelakangi tema mereka, juga bagaimana kondisi psikologis Dickens saat itu memberikan pengaruh pada novel yang ditulisnya.

Namun yang paling menarik, mungkin, adalah koleksi imitasi relik-relik yang berhubungan dengan kehidupan Dickens dan karya-karyanya yang disisipkan dalam buku ini. Aku sudah pernah ‘memamerkan’ isi buku ini sebelumnya, dan kurasa relik-relik itulah yang membuatku bertekad memiliki (dan membaca) buku ini.

Biografinya sendiri diawali dengan kelahiran Dickens serta sedikit latar belakang kedua orang tuanya, John dan Elizabeth Dickens, dalam chapter Early Years. Kemudian sedikit demi sedikit alurnya maju ke masa kecil Dickens yang pahit saat bekerja sebagai child laborer di blacking factory, cinta pertama Dickens, perkawinannya, dan seterusnya hingga ke saat kematian Dickens. Selain itu, buku ini juga mencantumkan kisah singkat ke-sepuluh anak-anak Dickens. Dan di sela-sela kronologis kehidupan Dickens itu, terselip kisah tentang novel-novel Dickens sesuai dengan waktu penulisannya. Dengan demikian kita jadi mengetahui pada tahap mana dari kehidupan Dickens sebuah novel ditulis, sehingga kita akan memahami latar belakang penulisan dan temanya. Bagian tentang novel-novel ini mengungkap banyak hal menarik yang akan membantu kita memahami kisah dalam novel-novel itu. Maka, biografi ini perlu dibaca untuk melengkapi pemahaman anda akan novel-novel Dickens, apa yang ingin dikatakan Dickens di dalamnya.

Bagian yang paling menarik bagiku, selain tentang karyanya, adalah tentang Ellen Ternan—kekasih Dickens selama 13 tahun terakhir kehidupannya, dan pengalaman Dickens dalam kecelakaan kereta api yang mengubah lima tahun terakhir hidupnya. Dari cerita tentang perceraiannya dengan istrinya Catherine, membuatku mengenal sisi lain kepribadian Dickens yang negatif. Memiliki affair dengan wanita lain mungkin tak mengherankan bagi sosok se-populer Dickens, namun sikapnya yang mencampakkan Catherine begitu saja memang sulit untuk dimaafkan. Bagaimana pun juga, Dickens tetaplah seorang manusia yang memiliki kekurangan, dan hal ini tak menyurutkan kekagumanku pada kejeniusan Dickens dalam menulis, dan perhatiannya yang besar terhadap ketidakadilan di dunia yang ia tuangkan dalam tulisan-tulisannya.

Conclusion:

This is not an ordinary biography. Like all biographies, you will find the complete story of Dickens’ life—from his early years, child laboring, first love, children, marriage, love affair, his fond of theatre, his journeys to other countries, to his final years and at last..his death. But besides that, this book also contains facsimile items from Dickens personal clippings, from his handwriting in manuscripts, his marriage certificate, his photographs, to the newspapers which Dickens edited. These items are attached within the pages, and would certainly become valuable collectible items for all Dickensians. Through these items, I feel very close to Dickens himself, as if I was visiting him in his writing room, where he’d showed me his clipping. Looking at the facsimile item of Oliver Twist reading material, for instance, I feel like Dickens was showing me how to read it, adding scribble notes in the margin to emphasize certain parts, and then asked me to read it loud for him (which I actually did! J).

This book is written in a chronological style, including the writing process of his novels. From this part, I get to learn how much Dickens’ personal life affected his writings. As I planned to read all Dickens novels, this book provides me a study of theme and background of each novel, which gives me a better understanding for my readings. I found several interesting facts about his novels, for instance, the ending alteration of Great Expectations. How many of you know, that the first edition of Great Expectation had a different ending than what we read now? It was Dickens’ fellow novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton who had persuaded Dickens to change it to be more acceptable to the readers.

Other interesting fact I find in this book is about Dickens’ love life. Dickens ended his marriage with Catherine soon after he fell in love with Ellen Ternan—who become Dickens’ lover in his last thirteen years of life. One of Dickens’ negative personal characters is, perhaps, his selfish idea about women’s youthfulness. One of the reasons Dickens dump his wife was because Catherine become fat and lazy after giving birth to ten children. The same feeling Dickens had for his first lover, Maria Beadnell. After finding out that Maria wasn’t as pretty and slim-waisted as he remembered from her youth, Dickens dumped her. No wonder, that Dickens’ female main characters in most of his books are always young, tender, and beautiful. More about his separation with Catherine, I don’t agree with his abandoning Catherine after their separation. He didn’t even consult Catherine when their boys were planned to study abroad. I think it’s rather funny, that Dickens had big concerns on child and women injustice, but he just dumped his own wife who—as a woman—didn’t have any power to fight at that time.

Anyway, I realized that Dickens is only a human—an eccentric one perhaps—however his writings and legacies keep inspiring us today and many years ahead. There are still many other interesting aspects of Dickens, including his journey to America, France and Italy, as well as his connection to many famous artists and writers (do you know that Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Elliot and William Makepeace Thackeray had appeared as debutants in Dickens’ magazine: ‘All The Year Round’?). All I can say is, that this book would be a perfect companion for your Dickens reading.

To close this review, I will quote an article of Charles Eliot Norton, an American academic and writer, about Dickens (published on 1868):

“No one thinks first of Mr. Dickens as a writer. He is at once, through his books, a friend. He belongs among the intimates of every pleasant-tempered and large-hearted person. He is not so much the guest as the intimate of our houses. He…helps us to celebrate Christmas with heartier cheer, he shares at every New Year in our good wishes: for, indeed, it is not in his purely literary character that he has done most for us, it is as a man of the largest humanity, who has simply used literature as the means by which to bring himself into relations with his fellow men.”

Note:

This review is published for memorizing the death of Charles Dickens, 142 years ago, on 9^th of June 1870.

The Victorian London from Sketches by Boz: The Amusements

What interested me mostly of Sketches by Boz is that it’s the earliest work of Charles Dickens. After reading three of his books: Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities—and so far I love the way he writes—Sketches by Boz seems to be the perfect further reading, as I am curious of how Dickens’ first writing would be. For example, had his cynical humor and long-but-beautiful-wording already appeared from the beginning? Further on, Dickens later wrote about Sketches by Boz: "They comprise my first attempts at authorship. I am conscious of their often being extremely crude and ill-considered, and bearing obvious marks of haste and inexperience." Don’t you find it interesting too, to read ‘the inexperienced’ Dickens after being familiar with his masterpieces?

I am now in page 234 (only certain chapters of them, and will come back later for the rest), but so far I have found so many interesting materials that I want to share here. Sketches by Boz contains illustrative of everyday life and people of London—where Dickens live. I don’t know what genre I should put this book in, it’s not a short stories collection (although Dickens wrote several fictions at the last section), for most of the contents are non fictions. Through the illustrations, we came to know London in the 19^th century, the people, the culture and the scenes. For me (who have never been to England), it’s quite difficult to imagine the scenes from Dickens’ description, so I browsed the internet to find out about common places or words. And now, in A Victorian Celebration 2012 event, let me take you to London on the Victorian era of 19^th century, together with Boz…

Note: I will divide my post about Victorian London in four parts, each will discuss about different topics:

1. The Amusements

2. The Occupations

3. The Streets and Shops

4. The Transportations

And this is the first part, The Amusements. In Victorian days, the middle classes have several events throughout the year where they can amuse themselves:

Tea Gardens

Tea garden is one of rural middle class Londoners’ means of leisure in their Sundays. The tea garden was one of the few places ladies could enter a mixed gathering in public without criticism.  It was one place where people from all social classes were welcome.

George Morland, The Tea Garden, circa 1790

Greenwich Fair

The first three days after Easter, beginning on Easter Monday is a carnival season in Victorian London (correct me if I’m wrong, as this is what I gathered about the fair). The fair was an outdoor activity. According to what Dickens described (chapter XII – Greenwich Fair), at those days you would see all kinds of transportation gathered around the park. Houses around there were turned into tea-shops, pedestrians lingered in group at the roadside. The entrance of the park was full of gingerbread, spice nuts, or toys stalls. Here and there would be couples sitting on the grass.

source

There were also traveling menageries with wild beast shows, where they exhibit wild beasts, ‘dwarfs’ (abnormally small person) or other natural curiosities. The heart of the fair—according to Dickens—was in the Richardson’s booth, where they performed a variety of melo-drama, pantomime, comic songs, overture and some incidental music, all in twenty five minutes. There are clowns too, and they also performed some Roman plays. But the numerously-frequented booth of the whole fair was ‘The Crown and Anchor’, the temporary ballroom. There you could get refreshment snack, orchestra, and of course…the dancing area.

Astley’s - circus

Is the famous amphitheatre in Victorian London. The Victorian era marked the golden age of the British circus. Astley's Amphitheatre in Lambeth, London, featuring equestrian acts in a 42-foot wide circus ring, was the epicentre of the 19th century circus [wiki].

From what Dickens described in Sketches by Boz (chapter XI – Astley’s), I think the circus was just like any other circus shows, with horse riding, theatrical performances, orchestra and clowns.

source

May Day Celebration

A celebration held every 1^st of May in Victorian London. May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes and community gatherings. Since the reform of the Catholic Calendar, May 1st is the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of workers. Seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm labourers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the Maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons [wiki].

Besides Maypole, May Day is famous with its ‘Jack in the green’, a participant in traditional English May Day parades and other May celebrations, who wears a large, foliage-covered, garland-like framework, usually pyramidal or conical in shape, which covers his body from head to foot. The name is also applied to the garland itself. May Day dancing is often linked with chimney sweepers.

Vauxhall Gardens

Vauxhall Gardens was a pleasure garden, one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London, England from the mid 17th century to the mid 19th century. Vauxhall Gardens opened at night, but at chapter XIV of Sketches by Boz, Dickens took us to see what Vauxhall Gardens was in the daylight, how ‘the veil of mystery that hung about it’ was vanished. It’s interesting how Dickens put it in his writing: “…then we saw for the first time, that the entrance, if there had been any magic about it at all, was now decidedly disenchanted, being, in fact, nothing more nor less than a combination of very-roughly painted boards and sawdust.”

Vauxhall gardens offered orchestra concert, firework show, comic singers, rope-dancing in the open theatre. A balloon ascent was also one of the interesting attractions at the garden.

A General Prospect of Vaux Hall Gardens, by Johann Sebastian Muller 

The Eagle – a music hall or tavern

The Eagle, on City Road, London, was an East End tavern on the corner of City Road and Shepherdess Walk that presented regular musical entertainment. The Eagle did a roaring trade as one of the first music halls. The Eagle was sold in 1883 to the Salvation Army, perennial enemy of drink and the music halls. The building has since been demolished and the site now boasts a new Eagle pub which has a display of old music hall prints.

The nursery rhyme Pop goes the Weasel features the Eagle. It is about a father spending his weekly wage in the music halls and then having to ‘pop’ or pawn his ‘weasel’ to raise additional money. The ‘weasel’ is thought to refer to a piece of equipment in the tailoring industry. Tailoring was one of the main occupations in London’s East End. [source]

The complete rhyme:

Up and down the City Road

In and out The Eagle

That's the way the money goes

Pop goes the weasel.

And that would be the end of our Victorian London virtual walk of today, hope it amuses you as much as it does me. See you in our next walk—I hope—next week!