ABSTRACT
… we will neither enter upon a review of the author’s general merits, not attempt to illustrate this particular work by quotations. The former would require a wide scope (wider than we deem advisable at present, when Mr Dickens occupies us under so many shapes, and in so many places); and the latter could only be a repetition of that with which almost every body has already become familiar. We cannot, however, pass over this production so very briefly; and we would advert to one quality which Mr Dickens has displayed to an extent altogether unequalled, if we except, perhaps, the mighty names of Shakespere and Scott. We allude to the creation of individual character: to the raising up and embodying of a number of original human beings in so substantial a form, and endowed with such living feelings and passions, and acting in so real and natural a manner, that they immediately become visibly, personally, and intimately known to us; and we no more doubt of their existence than if we had seen them in the flesh, conversed with them, and observed their conduct. This was made curiously manifest on the appearance of the characters at the Adelphi and Surrey theatres. All classes instantly recognised them; and boxes, pit, and gallery, exclaimed ‘That’s such a one, and that’s such another,’ through the whole of the dramatis personæ of Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. This is true fame; and let us offer a few remarks on its cause.
