John, Twain makes many references to reading Dickens, and the responses are mixed, just as he left behind two very different accounts of the Dickens reading at New York's Steinway Hall on December 27, 1867. Although Twain once said that the humor of "The PIckwick Papers" was lost on him, he very much enjoyed "A Tale of Two Cities," to the point of rereading it. We also know he read several of Dickens' novels, including "Martin Chuzzlewit" and David Copperfield." The first account of the Steinway Hall performance was for the Alta California and, in that review, Twain called the readings "glittering frostwork, with no heart." But in an October 1907 autobiographical dictation, Twain said that Dickens "read with great force and animation, in the lively passages, and read with stirring effect." The two accounts are strikingly different. Twain also mentions in Dickens in several interviews, sometimes acknowledging the similarities between them. In a 1905 interview with the New York Times, for instance, he told a reporter: "Dickens had his troubles when he tried to stop jesting. The 'Sketches by Boz' introduced him as a funny man, but when Boz began to him seriously, people began to shake their heads and say, 'That fellow Boz isn't as funny as he was, is he?' But Boz and his creator kept right on being in earnest, and they listened after a time, just as they always will listen to anybody worth hearing." Harold G. Baetzhold's "Mark Twain & John Bull: The British Connection" (1970) is a terrific source. I also presented a paper at the 2005 Elmira conference on the many Twain-Dickens parallels (a paper I turned around and did from a Dickensian perspective for the 2009 International Dickens Fellowship Conference). If you or your Montclair State friend would like a copy, drop me an e-mail and I'll send it to you. The similarities are many and intriguing.
On Tuesday, August 30, 2016 10:41 PM, John R. Pascal <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Good Evening Everyone,
One of my former thesis readers is of course a college professor at =
Montclair State University in New Jersey.
He has asked me to submit this question to all of you:
"Does anyone know how well Twain had read Dickens, especially The =
Pickwick Papers? Can anyone recommend good scholarship on the topic?
Further, if he did so, does he discuss it anywhere? It's got some =
remarkable overlap with Huck Finn and I'm including both books in a =
treatment of the picaresque novel=20
I'm writing.=E2=80=9D
Whatever insights you can give, I will gratefully pass them onto my =
professor who will also be most appreciative of your thoughts.
Thank you and enjoy the waning days of August!
John
John R. Pascal, M.B.A., M.A.
Teacher of 9th Grade English Honors, 11th Grade English, & The Writings =
of Mark Twain
Seton Hall Preparatory School
Contributing Author to Mark Twain and Youth, available at Amazon and =
Bloomsbury Academic Publishing by the links below:
=
https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Twain-Youth-Studies-Writings/dp/1474225381/ref=
=3Dsr_1_1?ie=3DUTF8&qid=3D1471631434&sr=3D8-1&keywords=3Dmark+twain+and+yo=
uth =
<https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Twain-Youth-Studies-Writings/dp/1474225381/re=
f=3Dsr_1_1?ie=3DUTF8&qid=3D1471631434&sr=3D8-1&keywords=3Dmark+twain+and+y=
outh>
http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/mark-twain-and-youth-9781474225380/ =
<http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/mark-twain-and-youth-9781474225380/>
Book Signing at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Livingston Mall on =
Saturday, Sept. 17 from 9 AM to 10 PM. A portion of the proceeds from =
the book sales along with all other products in the store go back to =
Seton Hall Prep as well as the four Mark Twain Centers in the USA! Come =
and support the Prep as well as getting great insight on Mark Twain and =
Youth!
Review--
=E2=80=9CThe very theme of youth is a crucial one in Twain ... the list =
of authors who have agreed to write for this collection provides a kind =
of who's who of the very best critics working in Twain Studies at the =
present moment. This is a book which I would eagerly anticipate reading, =
as would any scholar with an interest in Twain.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=95Peter =
Messent, Emeritus Professor of American and Canadian Studies, Nottingham =
University, UK
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