r of
solace when in weariness and pain, to these novels, will be glad to look
upon them as each sheet was sent last to the printer, full of
innumerable corrections from the hand of Charles Dickens."

The manuscripts are fifteen in number, bound up into large quarto
volumes, and comprise:--

1. _Oliver Twist_--two Volumes, with Preface to the _Pickwick Papers_,
and matter relating to _Master Humphrey's Clock_.

2. _Sketches of Young Couples._

3. _The Lamplighter_, a Farce. This MS. is not in the handwriting of
Dickens.

4. _The Old Curiosity Shop_--two Volumes, with Letter to Mr. Forster of
17th January, 1841, and hints for some chapters.

5. _Barnaby Rudge_--two Volumes.

6. _American Notes._

7. _Martin Chuzzlewit_--two Volumes, with various title-pages, notes as
to the names, &c., and dedication to Miss Burdett Coutts.

8. _The Chimes._

9. _Dombey and Son_--two Volumes, with title-pages, headings of
chapters, and memoranda.

10. _David Copperfield_--two Volumes, with various title-pages, and
memoranda as to names.

11. _Bleak House_--two Volumes, with suggestions for title-pages and
other memoranda.

12. _Hard Times_--with memoranda.

13. _Little Dorrit_--two Volumes, with memoranda, Dedication to Clarkson
Stanfield, and Preface.

14. _A Tale of Two Cities_--with Dedication to Lord John Russell, and
Preface.

15. _Edwin Drood_--unfinished, with memoranda, and headings for
chapters.

John Forster says:--"The last page of _Edwin Drood_ was written in the
chalet in the afternoon of his last day of consciousness."

Of the above-mentioned, the calligraphy of Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, is seen
at a glance to be larger, bolder, and to have fewer corrections. In Nos.
5 to 15 it is smaller, and more confused by numerous alterations.
According to Forster--"His greater pains and elaboration of writing
became first very obvious in the later parts of _Martin Chuzzlewit_."

The manuscripts of the earliest works of the Author, _Sketches by Boz_,
_Pickwick_, _Nicholas Nickleby_, &c., were evidently not considered at
the time worth preserving. The manuscript of _Our Mutual Friend_, given
by Dickens to Mr. E. S. Dallas--in grateful acknowledgment of an
appreciative review which (according to an article in _Scribner_,
entitled "Our Mutual Friend in Manuscript") Mr. Dallas wrote of the
novel for _The Times_, which largely increased the sale of the book, and
fully established its success,--is in the library of Mr. G.