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 DICKENS 89 cal editor he was not successful, and at the end of four months his connection with the " News " was terminated. " Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son " was published serially in 1847- 1 8, and "David Copperfield" in 1849-'50. In 1850 Dickens started " House- hold Words," a weekly periodical, in which appeared his "Child's History of England" (1852) and "Hard Times" (1854). It is said to have attained a circulation of 90,000 in Great Britain. " Bleak House " appeared seri- ally in 1852-'3, and " Little Dorrit " in 1856-7. In 1858 Dickens and his wife arranged an ami- cable separation for reasons which have never been fully given to the public. In 1859, in- cidental to this separation, he had a disa- greement with the publishers of " Household "Words," which ended in his buying out their interest and suspending the publication. He then started "All the Year Bound," a similar periodical, and in this appeared " A Tale of Two Cities" (1860), "Great Expectations" (1861), and "The Uncommercial Traveller." " Our Mutual Friend " was published in month- ly numbers in 1864-'5. In this form also he commenced publishing in April, 1870, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," which was uncom- pleted at the time of his death. Besides the works already enumerated, he produced a num- ber of short stories, no complete collection of which has yet been made. Among them are " Chops the Dwarf," " The Holly Tree Inn," "Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings," "Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy," and " A Child's Dream of a Star." Dickens's works began a new era in fictitious literature. No predecessor had made so many studies from actual and ordinary life, from the scenes and characters nearest at hand, or had been so imaginative in their delineation ; and no novels had appealed so powerfully to the universal sympathies and best impulses of man- kind. They are full of faults in plot, in style, and in character, and there is scarcely one of them that could not be improved by cutting out extraneous matter ; but their great excel- lences override everything, and captivate every reader who has the slightest interest in the common virtues and foibles, or sympathy with the common joys and sorrows of humanity. Most of tli em are written with a purpose, more or less obvious, beyond the mere production of a story. Thus "Oliver Twist" exposes the abuses of the poorhouse system and the train- ing of boys to crime ; " Nicholas Nickleby " was aimed at the horrors of cheap boarding schools ; " Hard Times " delineates the sufferings of the manufacturing population, "Bleak House" the delays of the court of chancery ; while " Our Mutual Friend" has for its theme the idea that prosperity only expands natural goodness and intensifies natural meanness. Almost all of them attack some notable form of vice, or social wrong, or abuse of power. None of them deal with the past, except "Barnaby Rudge" and "A Tale of Two Cities." They have all gone through numberless editions in England and America; but they have not borne very well the test of translation, and are not so popular in foreign languages as in Eng- lish, for the obvious reason that much of their charm depends on a kind of humor peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race, and is often conveyed in idioms that are not translatable. Dickens al- ways had a love for the drama, and was a fre- quent performer in private theatricals. He wrote an opera and a few farces and light comedies, one of which was afterward trans- formed into his burlesque story of "The Lamplighter." In 1851 he organized, with other authors and artists, a company of ama- teur actors, under the name of "Guild of Literature and Art," intended for the special benefit of authors, artists, and actors ; and con- siderable charitable funds were raised by their performances, notably that for the relief of the family of Douglas Jerrold. Having often given readings of his shorter stories for benevolent objects, in April", 1858, Dickens first appeared in London as a public reader for his own bene- fit; and from that time he read frequently in the chief cities of Great Britain and Ireland, giving a course also in Paris. In November, 1867, he visited the United States for the same purpose, and gave his first reading in Boston, Dec. 2, his last in New York, April 20, 1868. His tour comprised the chief cities of the east- ern and middle states, but extended no further west than Buffalo. The success of these per- formances on both sides of the Atlantic was probably beyond his own expectations. Ar- tistically they were almost perfect, for Dickens was an excellent actor, and gave long and hard study to the minutest details. Financially they were more profitable than all his publications had been. He gave his last reading in Eng- land on March 15, 1870. Few literary men have ever maintained so large an interest as Dickens in whatever was going on around them ; and scarcely one has so well exhibited his ability for taking care of his own business affairs. His share in the profits of his first two or three books was comparatively small ; but thereafter he always dictated the terms to his publishers, and looked sharply after his own interests. It had been his dream when a boy to own Gadshill house, which he frequently passed by and admired ; and in 1857 he pur- chased it and made it his home. His first visitor there was Hans Christian Andersen, and for 13 years it was the scene of a generous hos- pitality. Dickens had few of the hobbies and superstitions that are generally supposed to be inseparable from genius ; one, however, is no- ticeable : having been out of London when the first number of " Pickwick " appeared, he in- variably left town just before the publication of the initial numbers of his subsequent stories. On June 8, 1870, as he sat down to dinner, it was observed that he appeared unwell, but he declared that he was only suffering from a toothache, and declined to have a physician called. At the same time he requested that