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The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
175
Dickens.
Why,
there
too
was
a
disclosure
of
literary
methods.
Did
not
Forster
make
known
to
all
and
sundry
exactly
how
Dickens'
work
was
done,
and
how
the
bargains
for
its
production
were
made?
The
multitudinous
public
saw
him
at
his
desk,
learnt
how
long
he
sat
there,
were
told
that
he
could
not
get
on
without
having
certain
little
ornaments
before
his
eyes,
and
that
blue
ink
and
a
quill
pen
were
indispensable
to
his
writing;
and
did
all
this
information
ever
chill
the
loyalty
of
a
single
reader?
There
was
a
difference,
in
truth,
between
the
picture
of
Charles
Dickens
sitting
down
to
a
chapter
of
his
current
novel,
and
that
of
the
broad-based
Trollope
doing
his
so
many
words
to
the
fifteen
minutes.
Trollope,
we
know,
wronged
himself
by
the
tone
and
manner
of
his
reminiscences;
but
that
tone
and
manner
indicated
an
inferiority
of
mind,
of
nature.
Dickens--though
he
died
in
the
endeavour
to
increase
(not
for
himself)
an
already
ample
fortune,
disastrous
influence
of
his
time
and
class--wrought
with
an
artistic
ingenuousness
and
fervour
such
as
Trollope
could
not
even
conceive.
Methodical,
of
course,
he
was;
no
long
work
of
prose
fiction
was
ever
brought
into
existence
save
by
methodical
labour;
but
we
know
that
there
was
no
measuring
of
so
many
words
to
the
hour.
The
picture
of
him
at
work
which
is
seen
in
his
own
letters
is
one
of
the
most
bracing
and
inspiring
in
the
history
of
literature.
It
has
had,
and
will
always
have,
a
great
part
in
maintaining
Dickens'
place
in
the
love
and
reverence
of
those
who
understand.
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