Arthur Machen

“ Whether Dickens could draw real people or not his critics are not certain; but it is certain that he did draw chiefly caricatures, each character being chiefly differentiated by its absurdities and peculiarities. . . . Dickens never created off-hand—his people are mostly evolutions, at so many stages a month. Out of a bibulous, semi-imbecile little protoplasm evolved the amiable, almost respectable Mr. Pickwick, and out of the merely priggish Mr. Pecksniff evolved a complete villain. ”

“ And it seems to me that Thomas Hardy holds so high a place in literature that his character-drawing is quite unimportant, though good and pleasant in its place. His true praise is that he has made the Great Projection, that in his crucible the dull matter of earth has assumed the glory of the great dream that has always troubled or rejoiced the heart of man. There is a certain story of a rather thankless and heartless young clergyman who studied astronomy and got on in the world ”

“ This would be a merit of a sort—the sort of merit that one would expect from first-rate wax works, the merit of the Greek painter who depicted grapes so cleverly that the birds came and pecked the picture. But this is not the merit of the high art of letters, which, like all the high arts, is an art of enchantment, the passage into a region which is earth, and yet earth translated, seen in a light neither of the sun nor of the moon. ”

“ For heaven's sake let us rid ourselves of this notion that literature is a sort of glass in which we may behold our friends, or some people like our friends, whether of South Kensington or Little Pedlington. ”

“ For ever since man was man he has longed for that city of vision, for that golden and blessed place where all doles shall be healed, where all desires shall be fulfilled, where all delight shall be afforded, and the thirst of his soul shall be quenched fully at springs and fountains of quickening water. ”

“ Ayscough, in instituting his comparisons between Dickens, Thackeray, and Hardy, adopts in the main this matter of character-drawing as his great test and touchstone, and I think that he is unsound in his choice of a criterion; while, by the way, he does injustice to all the three great men that he names. To take the least important question first, is it just to say that the spots on a man's face were dearer to Thackeray than the man himself? ”

“ Dickens, then, was a symbolist. Let it be said quite frankly, without shame, that no persons such as Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Micawber, or Mr. Pecksniff ever walked this earth. They are creatures of the world of vision, of that other world which is beside us always, which transcends the sight of unpurged eyes. I think it is Mr. G. K. Chesterton that has pointed out that somewhere in the heavens there is an immortal tavern where there sits an immortal company. Pantagruel, who is ever athirst, is there enthroned, Falstaff there renews his abjuration of thin potations, and Mr. ”

“ I protest that I have said enough of these people as people—as characters; that their sayings as sayings, and their actions as actions are, in themselves, of no particular interest; that in mere logical analysis the story about them might be described as "painful" and "unpleasant," as good material for one of our "serious" dramatists; and no worse word can I utter than that. What? Great ladies are some times indiscreet; a peasant "on the make" has no doubt been hard and graceless ”

“ They are very good indeed, many of them, especially those admirable Dorset peasants; but their goodness is not the main point, and it is not the main point in the finest literature to draw people so well that the reader begins to think that they must be "real" people, and that the author is a sort of journalist with supernatural means of finding out all the "facts" about them. ”

“ Pickwick can only summon to their vision the image of the Licensing Bill; they read of Falstaff, and wonder how the County Council would have dealt with such a case; and as for Pantagruel he would manifestly have been scheduled as an habitual drinker.
But Dickens will long be a refuge to those who refuse all assent to these follies, who care not twopence for all the "problems" of the "serious" drama. For Dickens is, as I have said, the true realist—the man who symbolizes, by means of phenomena, eternal verities. One has never seen anybody like Mr. Pickwick, like Mr. ”