Existing comment:
Dickens's Own Reading Copies
By the 1850s, Dickens was a world-renowned literary celebrity, and he hearkened back to an early love of performance as he embarked on a new phase of his career: that of professional reader. He had copies of three of his Christmas books, seen here, specially bound with wide margins so that he could revise and emend the text to best effect for a reading. He underlined passages for emphasis and added notes to remind himself of tone (like "Very pathetic" at the opening of the third chapter, or "chirp," in Cricket, at left). He also cancelled and added large portions of text, as in Carol (at center) and The Chimes (at right).
Dickens began given public readings in 1853 to raise money for charity, but the reaction of audiences was so intense that by 1858 he embarked upon a series of weekly paid readings in London. Over the course of the next 16 years, Dickens gave more than 400 such readings. |