[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 9th
of June 1870.
