r's own
intimate knowledge. With the Novelist's career as a Reader he has been
familiar throughout. From its beginning to its close he has regarded
it observantly. He has viewed it both from before and from behind the
scenes, from the front of the house as well as from within the shelter
of the screen upon the platform. When contrasted with the writings of
the Master-Humorist, these readings of his, though so remarkable in
themselves, shrink, no doubt, to comparative insignificance. But simply
considering them as supplementary, and, certainly, as very exceptional,
evidences of genius on the part of a great author, they may surely be
regarded as having been worthy of the keenest scrutiny at the time, and
entitled afterwards to some honest commemoration.

CONTENTS.

CHARLES DICKENS AS A READER 1

THE READINGS IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA 36

THE CHRISTMAS CAROL 92

THE TRIAL FROM PICKWICK 109

DAVID COPPERFIELD 120

THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH 131

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY 140

MR. BOB SAWYER'S PARTY 152

THE CHIMES 162

THE STORY OF LITTLE DOMBEY 176

MR. CHOPS, THE DWARF 189

THE POOR TRAVELLER 195

MRS. GAMP 207

BOOTS AT THE HOLLY TREE INN 220

BARBOX BROTHERS 231

THE BOY AT MUGBY 237

DOCTOR MARIGOLD 243

SIKES AND NANCY 253

THE FAREWELL READING 263

CHARLES DICKENS AS A READER.

A celebeated writer is hardly ever capable as a Reader of doing justice
to his own imaginings. Dr. Johnson's whimsical anecdote of the author
of The Seasons admits, in point of fact, of a very general application.
According to the grimly humorous old Doctor, "He [Thomson] was once
reading to Doddington, who, being himself a reader eminently elegant,
was so much provoked by his odd utterance, that he snatched the paper
from his hand, and told him that he did not understand his own verses!"
Dryden, again, when reading his Amphytrion in the green-room, "though,"
says Cibber, who was present upon the occasion, "he delivered the plain
meaning of every period, yet the whole was in so cold, so flat,