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Charles Dickens, Francophile
Oct. 17th, 2012 12:54 pmAs a postcript to yesterday's review, something I mentioned very briefly but which tickles me so much that I have to provide a lengthier quote to the general public: Dickens' attitude towards France and all things French, which for a 19th century novelist wasn't just refreshingly non-jingoistic (which is rare), but was openly admiring (which for a novelist who in this year, apropos his 200th birthday, has been declared the incarnation of Englishness is just delicious) and contained an interesting self-criticism regarding his own characters.
In May 1856 he had a fierce disagreement with Miss Coutts' companion, Mrs. Brown, on the subject of the French. When she spoke against them, he praised their openness about social problems, telling her that a leading difference between them and the English was that 'in England people dismiss the mention of social evils and vices which do nevertheless exist among them; and that in France people do not dismiss the mention of the same things but habitually recognise their existence.' Mrs. Brown cried out, 'Don't say that!' and Dickens insisted, 'Oh but I must say it, you know, when according to our national vanity and prejudice, you disparage an unquestionably great nation.' At which Mrs. Brown burst into tears. A few months later he wrote to Forster grumbling about the constraints placed on English novelists compared with the French - he named Balsac and Sand - who were able to write freely and realistically, while 'the hero of an English book' was 'always uninteresting - too good'. Dickens went on to tell Forster that 'this same unnatural young gentleman (if to be decent is to be necessarily unnatural), whom you meet in those other books and in mine, must be presented to you in that unnatural aspect by reason of of your morality, and is not to have, I will not say any of the indecencies you like, but not even any of the experiences, trials, perplexities, and confusions inseparable from the making or unmaking of all men!'
In May 1856 he had a fierce disagreement with Miss Coutts' companion, Mrs. Brown, on the subject of the French. When she spoke against them, he praised their openness about social problems, telling her that a leading difference between them and the English was that 'in England people dismiss the mention of social evils and vices which do nevertheless exist among them; and that in France people do not dismiss the mention of the same things but habitually recognise their existence.' Mrs. Brown cried out, 'Don't say that!' and Dickens insisted, 'Oh but I must say it, you know, when according to our national vanity and prejudice, you disparage an unquestionably great nation.' At which Mrs. Brown burst into tears. A few months later he wrote to Forster grumbling about the constraints placed on English novelists compared with the French - he named Balsac and Sand - who were able to write freely and realistically, while 'the hero of an English book' was 'always uninteresting - too good'. Dickens went on to tell Forster that 'this same unnatural young gentleman (if to be decent is to be necessarily unnatural), whom you meet in those other books and in mine, must be presented to you in that unnatural aspect by reason of of your morality, and is not to have, I will not say any of the indecencies you like, but not even any of the experiences, trials, perplexities, and confusions inseparable from the making or unmaking of all men!'
