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DICKENS (CHARLES) Autograph quotation signed ("Charles Dickens"), from A Christmas Carol, 1859
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DICKENS (CHARLES)
Footnotes
'AND SO, AS TINY TIM OBSERVED, GOD BLESS US EVERYONE!': Dickens presents his famous quotation from A Christmas Carol.
Dickens began a series of public readings (or rather performances) of his works to great acclaim in 1858, taking the show from London on tour to a number of English towns and cities in subsequent years, audience favourites being A Christmas Carol and the Bardell trial from The Pickwick Papers. During his tour in the autumn of 1859, he travelled to East Anglia and the north of England, spending three nights from 24 to 27 October at the Hen & Chickens, Birmingham. On the 24 October, his reading of Carol and The Trial in the Town Hall was attended by the Prince of Wales and the Vice-Chancellor. Whilst our signed quotation is not published in the Pilgrim Edition of the Letters, he wrote to W.H. Wills prior to setting out for the Music Hall that evening, complaining of the weather ('...all mud and water...') and fearing that '...we may not get a good room tonight...' (Letters, p.143). The Birmingham Daily Post of 27 October reported that he had repeated these readings at the Music Hall the previous night, commenting that, although attendances were down due to the bad weather, the galleries and floor were 'pretty well filled' (Letters, p.144, note 3).
Dickens had a close relationship with Birmingham and his performances raised significant funds for the construction of the Birmingham and Midland Institute. William Powell Frith's portrait of Dickens (V&A, F.7), also of 1859, depicts him at his desk with the manuscript of A Tale of Two Cities (serialised in All the Year Round from April to November in that year), with a calendar and address from the City of Birmingham displayed behind him.

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