I have a little list!

‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ is the next in the Dickens series and another of the novels that I have convinced myself that I have read because I know the characters and the narrative; but I’m not sure that I really have. We will see when I re-enter the Dickensian world.

The last novel was dark, and the characters in this one promise to be equally sinister. I wonder if, on this re reading, I will find a character who I can despise so completely as Mrs Nickleby. Out and out baddies I can take; they are at least interesting in their own assessment of their deviation from the weak norms that their fellow characters use to limit their development, as they slavishly subordinate their desires to the publicly accepted morality of society.

As Ralph Nickleby says when attracted by the obvious attractions of Kate Nickleby’ face, “There is a grinning skull beneath it, and men like me who look and work below the surface see that, and are not its delicate covering.”

I think that the real horror of a character like Mrs Nickleby is that not only does she publicly, and vociferously advocate the mores of her society, but she also convinces herself that she is the living embodiment of those values while, at the same time, she is a monster of self obsession, delusion and destructive selfishness.

For me, she is the “grinning skull.”

The Old Curiosity Shop will have to produce a pretty vile character to take over from Mrs Nickleby.

However, before I go down to my more than excellent local library in Rumney, I would like my reader to think of letters in literature.

This was prompted by the letter from Fanny Squeers to Ralph Nickleby describing the attack by Nicholas after his rescuing of Smike from the clutches of the sadistic Yorkshire schoolmaster, Squeers. Her wonderfully misspelled letter stays in the memory through the bizarrly humerous line, “I am screaming out loud all the time I write and so is my brother which takes off my attention rather, and I hope will excuse mistake” together with the postscript about Nicholas, “P.S. I pity his ignorance and despise him.” A truly character revealing missive!

So taking this letter as the first in my thoughts I wondered how I would fill out a list of five – I only hope I do better than my attempts to complete a list of British World Music!

Letters in Literature

1 Fanny Squeers letter to Ralph Nickleby concerning the assault of Nicholas on Squeers in ‘Nicholas Nickleby.’

2 William Boot’s telegram to The Daily Beast from Africa in Evelyn Waugh’s, “Scoop.” The startling telegram which starts: “NOTHING MUCH HAS HAPPENED EXCEPT TO THE PRESIDENT WHO HAS BEEN IMPRISONED IN HIS OWN PALACE BY REVOLUTIONARY JUNTA” and which end with, “LOVELY SPRING WEATHER BUBONIC PLAGUE RAGING”

3 Pinky’s viciously, inhuman recorded message to Rose at the end of ‘Brighton Rock.’

4 The servant girl Win Jenkins to Mary Jones in ‘Humphrey Clinker’ by Tobias Smollett in the misspelled letter towards the end of the novel which starts, “O MARY JONES! MARY JONES!”

5 Henchard’s profoundly depressing will at the end of ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge.’

I admit that I have interpreted the meaning of letter somewhat freely so that it covers different forms of communication, but all of the above have lodged themselves in my memory some because of their fantastic implausibility, others because they perfectly suit their contexts, others because they touch a deeply human chord.

Anyway the books are worth reading (even if my second year tutor dismissed ‘Humphrey Clinker’ as first rate journalism, but second rate literature); Hardy is the only major British writer whose novel (‘Jude the Obscure’) I have thrown against a wall; how can one have respect for a writer like Graham Greene who, thanks to the Byzantine politics of the committee, was never awarded the Nobel Prize for literature; Dickens was not exactly noted for his respect towards women and Evelyn Waugh was a thoroughly unscrupulous, vindictive, curmudgeonly grump.

What does anyone expect from a group of talented British writers?