omething of the make and manners of the low Jew, who is generally
the successful one. Most of us know the Jew who calls himself De
Valancourt. Now to any one who knows a low Jew by sight or hearing, the
story called _Our Mutual Friend_ is literally full of Jews. Like all
Dickens's best characters they are vivid; we know them. And we know them
to be Hebrew. Mr. Veneering, the Man from Nowhere, dark, sphinx-like,
smiling, with black curling hair, and a taste in florid vulgar
furniture--of what stock was he? Mr. Lammle, with "too much nose in his
face, too much ginger in his whiskers, too much sparkle in his studs and
manners"--of what blood was he? Mr. Lammle's friends, coarse and
thick-lipped, with fingers so covered with rings that they could hardly
hold their gold pencils--do they remind us of anybody? Mr. Fledgeby,
with his little ugly eyes and social flashiness and craven bodily
servility--might not some fanatic like M. Drumont make interesting
conjectures about him? The particular types that people hate in Jewry,
the types that are the shame of all good Jews, absolutely run riot in
this book, which is supposed to contain an apology to them. It looks at
first sight as if Dickens's apology were one hideous sneer. It looks as
if he put in one good Jew whom nobody could believe in, and then
balanced him with ten bad Jews whom nobody could fail to recognise. It
seems as if he had avenged himself for the doubt about Fagin by
introducing five or six Fagins--triumphant Fagins, fashionable Fagins,
Fagins who had changed their names. The impeccable old Aaron stands up
in the middle of this ironic carnival with a peculiar solemnity and
silliness. He looks like one particularly stupid Englishman pretending
to be a Jew, amidst all that crowd of clever Jews who are pretending to
be Englishmen.

But this notion of a sneer is not admissible. Dickens was far too frank
and generous a writer to employ such an elaborate plot of silence. His
satire was always intended to attack, never to entrap; moreover, he was
far too vain a man not to wish the crowd to see all his jokes. Vanity is
more divine than pride, because it is more democratic than pride. Third,
and most important, Dickens was a good Liberal, and would have been
horrified at the notion of making so venomous a vendetta against one
race or creed. Nevertheless the fact is there, as I say, if only as a
curiosity of literature. I defy any man to read through _Our Mutual
Friend_ aft