Marcus Lemke Dr. Augustus McCrae English 1102 January 19, 2008 The Author Speaks: Precept versus Practice The correspondence of Charles Dickens the editor offers valuable insight into the artistic principles of Charles Dickens the novelist. As proprietor and editor of from Household 1850-1859 and from 1859-1870, Dickens was tactfully candid in criticizing All the Year Round fiction submitted by writers of all levels of talent and experience. One frequent theme of Dickens’s editorial advice involves the of the author from the text.” In some “disappearance respects, it seems that Dickens anticipated Henry James and Percy Lubbock in formulating the golden rule of modern fiction, the rule that authors must and not readers what to make show tell of their stories. A brief glance at Dickens the editor’s correspondence will demonstrate, perhaps surprisingly, that like James and Lubbock, and Flaubert before them, Dickens felt authors should avoid self-conscious intrusion into their texts in propria persona. In rejecting the novel for publication in Dickens Only George All the Year Round, cautioned Jane Brookfield against a tendency to inject herself, plainly as author, into her text: constantly hurry your narrative . . . . . . “you by telling in your own person, when the people My notion always is, that when I have made the people to should tell it and act it for themselves. play out the play, it is, as it were, their own business to do it, and not mine.” He added, don’t “I want you, in a novel, to present to tell such things, but I want the things to be there” yourself (Letters 11: 160-61). Or, as he explained in initial rejection of Louisa King’s and “Mother people do not sufficiently work out their own purposes in dialogue and dramatic “The
Marcus Lemke Dr. Augustus McCrae English 1102 January 19, 2008 The Author Speaks: Precept versus Practice The correspondence of Charles Dickens the editor offers valuable insight into the artistic principles of Charles Dickens the novelist. As proprietor and editor of Household from 1850-1859 and All the Year Round from 1859-1870, Dickens was tactfully candid in criticizing fiction submitted by writers of all levels of talent and experience. One frequent theme of Dickens’s editorial advice involves the “disappearance of the author from the text.” In some respects, it seems that Dickens anticipated Henry James and Percy Lubbock in formulating the golden rule of modern fiction, the rule that authors must show and not tell readers what to make of their stories. A brief glance at Dickens the editor’s correspondence will demonstrate, perhaps surprisingly, that like James and Lubbock, and Flaubert before them, Dickens felt authors should avoid self-conscious intrusion into their texts in propria persona. In rejecting the novel Only George for publication in All the Year Round, Dickens cautioned Jane Brookfield against a tendency to inject herself, plainly as author, into her text: “you constantly hurry your narrative . . . by telling . . . in your own person, when the people should tell it and act it for themselves. My notion always is, that when I have made the people to play out the play, it is, as it were, their own business to do it, and not mine.” He added, “I don’t want you, in a novel, to present yourself to tell such things, but I want the things to be there” (Letters 11: 160-61). Or, as he explained in initial rejection of Louisa King’s “Mother and “The people do not sufficiently work out their own purposes in dialogue and dramatic
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