Charles Dickens - Revision history

NDG: Reverted edits by Jqqqqqqqqq (talk) to last version by Ficaia

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Reverted edits by Jqqqqqqqqq (talk) to last version by Ficaia

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	[[File:Dickens Gurney head.jpg\|thumb\|No one is useless in this [[world]] who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.]]		[[File:Dickens Gurney head.jpg\|thumb\|No one is useless in this [[world]] who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.]]
	'''[[w:Charles Dickens\|Charles John Huffam Dickens]]''', [[w:Royal Society of Arts\|FRSA]] ([[7 February]] [[1812]] – [[9 June]] [[1870]]) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Charles Dickens was trying to ~~show his love for~~ workhouses his whole career.		'''[[w:Charles Dickens\|Charles John Huffam Dickens]]''', [[w:Royal Society of Arts\|FRSA]] ([[7 February]] [[1812]] – [[9 June]] [[1870]]) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Charles Dickens was trying to ban workhouses his whole career.
	:See also:		:See also:
	:: '''''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''''' (1836)		:: '''''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''''' (1836)

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	[[File:Dickens Gurney head.jpg\|thumb\|No one is useless in this [[world]] who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.]]		[[File:Dickens Gurney head.jpg\|thumb\|No one is useless in this [[world]] who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.]]
	'''[[w:Charles Dickens\|Charles John Huffam Dickens]]''', [[w:Royal Society of Arts\|FRSA]] ([[7 February]] [[1812]] – [[9 June]] [[1870]]) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Charles Dickens was trying to ~~promote~~ workhouses his whole career.		'''[[w:Charles Dickens\|Charles John Huffam Dickens]]''', [[w:Royal Society of Arts\|FRSA]] ([[7 February]] [[1812]] – [[9 June]] [[1870]]) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Charles Dickens was trying to show his love for workhouses his whole career.
	:See also:		:See also:
	:: '''''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''''' (1836)		:: '''''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''''' (1836)

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	[[File:Dickens Gurney head.jpg\|thumb\|No one is useless in this [[world]] who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.]]		[[File:Dickens Gurney head.jpg\|thumb\|No one is useless in this [[world]] who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.]]
	'''[[w:Charles Dickens\|Charles John Huffam Dickens]]''', [[w:Royal Society of Arts\|FRSA]] ([[7 February]] [[1812]] – [[9 June]] [[1870]]) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Charles Dickens was trying to ~~ban~~ workhouses his whole career.		'''[[w:Charles Dickens\|Charles John Huffam Dickens]]''', [[w:Royal Society of Arts\|FRSA]] ([[7 February]] [[1812]] – [[9 June]] [[1870]]) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Charles Dickens was trying to promote workhouses his whole career.
	:See also:		:See also:
	:: '''''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''''' (1836)		:: '''''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''''' (1836)

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Ficaia: /* Dombey and Son (1846-1848) */

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Dombey and Son (1846-1848)

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	** Ch. 8		** Ch. 8

	* "Wal'r, my boy," replied the Captain, "in the Proverbs of Solomon you will find the following words, 'May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him!' When found, make a note of."		* "Wal'r, my boy," replied the Captain, "in the Proverbs of Solomon you will find the following words, 'May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him!' '''When found, make a note of.'''"
	** Ch. 15		** Ch. 15
			**:<small>The motto of [[w:Notes and Queries\|''Notes and Queries'']]</small>

	* Cows are my passion.		* Cows are my passion.

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Simon Peter Hughes: /* External links */ Has an entry on Wikispecies.

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External links: Has an entry on Wikispecies.

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	*{{Wikisource-inline\|Author:Charles John Huffam Dickens}}		*{{Wikisource-inline\|Author:Charles John Huffam Dickens}}
	*{{commonscat-inline}}		*{{commonscat-inline}}
			*{{wikispecies-inline}}
	* {{gutenberg author\|id=Charles_Dickens\|name=Charles Dickens}}		* {{gutenberg author\|id=Charles_Dickens\|name=Charles Dickens}}
	* [http://www.dickens-literature.com/l_quotes.html Charles Dickens Quotes]		* [http://www.dickens-literature.com/l_quotes.html Charles Dickens Quotes]

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	** Letter to John Foster (7 July 1850)		** Letter to John Foster (7 July 1850)

	[[File:DickensSpeeches.jpg\|thumb\|<center>Frontispeice: ''Speeches Literary and Social by Charles Dickens'' (1870)</center>]]		[[File:DickensSpeeches.jpg\|thumb\|{{center/s}}Frontispeice: ''Speeches Literary and Social by Charles Dickens'' (1870){{center/e}}]]
	* If the people at large be not already convinced that a sufficient general case has been made out for Administrative Reform, I think they never can be, and they never will be. ...Ages ago a savage mode of keeping accounts on notched sticks was introduced into the Court of Exchequer, and the accounts were kept, much as Robinson Crusoe kept his calendar on the desert island. In the course of considerable revolutions of time, the celebrated Cocker was born, and died; Walkinghame, of the Tutor's Assistant, and well versed in figures, was also born, and died; a multitude of accountants, book-keepers and actuaries, were born, and died. Still official routine inclined to these notched sticks, as if they were pillars of the constitution, and still the Exchequer accounts continued to be kept on certain splints of elm wood called "[[w:Tally stick\|tallies]]." In the reign of [[George III of the United Kingdom\|George III]] an inquiry was made by some revolutionary spirit, whether pens, ink, and paper, slates and pencils, being in existence, this obstinate adherence to an obsolete custom ought to be continued, and whether a change ought not to be effected.<br />All the red tape in the country grew redder at the bare mention of this bold and original conception, and it took till 1826 to get these sticks abolished. In 1834 it was found that there was a considerable accumulation of them; and the question then arose, what was to be done with such worn-out, worm-eaten, rotten old bits of wood? I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting, memoranduming, and despatch-boxing on this mighty subject. The sticks were housed at Westminster, and it would naturally occur to any intelligent person that nothing could be easier than to allow them to be carried away for fire-wood by the miserable people who live in that neighbourhood. However, they never had been useful, and official routine required that they never should be, and so the order went forth that they were to be privately and confidentially burnt. It came to pass that they were burnt in a stove in the House of Lords. The stove, overgorged with these preposterous sticks, set fire to the panelling; the panelling set fire to the House of Lords; the House of Lords set fire to the House of Commons; the two houses were reduced to ashes; architects were called in to build others; we are now in the second million of the cost thereof, the national pig is not nearly over the stile yet; and the little old woman, Britannia, hasn't got home to-night. ...The great, broad, and true cause that our public progress is far behind our private progress, and that we are not more remarkable for our private wisdom and success in matters of business than we are for our public folly and failure, I take to be as clearly established as the sun, moon, and stars.		* If the people at large be not already convinced that a sufficient general case has been made out for Administrative Reform, I think they never can be, and they never will be. ...Ages ago a savage mode of keeping accounts on notched sticks was introduced into the Court of Exchequer, and the accounts were kept, much as Robinson Crusoe kept his calendar on the desert island. In the course of considerable revolutions of time, the celebrated Cocker was born, and died; Walkinghame, of the Tutor's Assistant, and well versed in figures, was also born, and died; a multitude of accountants, book-keepers and actuaries, were born, and died. Still official routine inclined to these notched sticks, as if they were pillars of the constitution, and still the Exchequer accounts continued to be kept on certain splints of elm wood called "[[w:Tally stick\|tallies]]." In the reign of [[George III of the United Kingdom\|George III]] an inquiry was made by some revolutionary spirit, whether pens, ink, and paper, slates and pencils, being in existence, this obstinate adherence to an obsolete custom ought to be continued, and whether a change ought not to be effected.<br />All the red tape in the country grew redder at the bare mention of this bold and original conception, and it took till 1826 to get these sticks abolished. In 1834 it was found that there was a considerable accumulation of them; and the question then arose, what was to be done with such worn-out, worm-eaten, rotten old bits of wood? I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting, memoranduming, and despatch-boxing on this mighty subject. The sticks were housed at Westminster, and it would naturally occur to any intelligent person that nothing could be easier than to allow them to be carried away for fire-wood by the miserable people who live in that neighbourhood. However, they never had been useful, and official routine required that they never should be, and so the order went forth that they were to be privately and confidentially burnt. It came to pass that they were burnt in a stove in the House of Lords. The stove, overgorged with these preposterous sticks, set fire to the panelling; the panelling set fire to the House of Lords; the House of Lords set fire to the House of Commons; the two houses were reduced to ashes; architects were called in to build others; we are now in the second million of the cost thereof, the national pig is not nearly over the stile yet; and the little old woman, Britannia, hasn't got home to-night. ...The great, broad, and true cause that our public progress is far behind our private progress, and that we are not more remarkable for our private wisdom and success in matters of business than we are for our public folly and failure, I take to be as clearly established as the sun, moon, and stars.
	** "Administrative Reform" (June 27, 1855) Theatre Royal, Drury Lane ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bT5WAAAAcAAJ Speeches Literary and Social by Charles Dickens]'' (1870) pp. 133-134		** "Administrative Reform" (June 27, 1855) Theatre Royal, Drury Lane ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bT5WAAAAcAAJ Speeches Literary and Social by Charles Dickens]'' (1870) pp. 133-134

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	== Quotes ==		== Quotes ==
	[[File:Francis Alexander - Charles Dickens 1842.jpeg\|thumb\|To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my [[nature]]. I can never close my lips where I have opened my [[heart]].]]		[[File:Francis Alexander - Charles Dickens 1842.jpeg\|thumb\|To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my [[nature]]. I can never close my lips where I have opened my [[heart]].]]
	[[File:Charles Dickens

	[[File:Charles Dickens by Antoine Claudet, 1852.png\|thumb\|It was a [[good]] thing to have a couple of thousand people all rigid and frozen together, in the palm of one's hand.]]		[[File:Charles Dickens by Antoine Claudet, 1852.png\|thumb\|It was a [[good]] thing to have a couple of thousand people all rigid and frozen together, in the palm of one's hand.]]

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	[[File:Charles Dickens		[[File:Charles Dickens

	Dickens by Antoine Claudet, 1852.png\|thumb\|It was a [[good]] thing to have a couple of thousand people all rigid and frozen together, in the palm of one's hand.]]		[[File:Charles Dickens by Antoine Claudet, 1852.png\|thumb\|It was a [[good]] thing to have a couple of thousand people all rigid and frozen together, in the palm of one's hand.]]

	[[File:Charles Dickens 3.jpg\|thumb\|Reflect upon your [[present]] [[blessings]] — of which every man has many — not on your [[past]] [[misfortunes]], of which all men have some.]]		[[File:Charles Dickens 3.jpg\|thumb\|Reflect upon your [[present]] [[blessings]] — of which every man has many — not on your [[past]] [[misfortunes]], of which all men have some.]]
	[[File:Charles Dickens 1867.jpg\|thumb\|The men who learn [[endurance]], are they who call the [[whole]] [[world]] [[brother]].]]		[[File:Charles Dickens 1867.jpg\|thumb\|The men who learn [[endurance]], are they who call the [[whole]] [[world]] [[brother]].]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:51, 25 August 2025
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	[[File:Dickens Gurney head.jpg\|thumb\|No one is useless in this [[world]] who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.]]		[[File:Dickens Gurney head.jpg\|thumb\|No one is useless in this [[world]] who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.]]
	'''[[w:Charles Dickens\|Charles John Huffam Dickens]]''', [[w:Royal Society of Arts\|FRSA]] ([[7 February]] [[1812]] – [[9 June]] [[1870]]) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Charles Dickens was trying to ban workhouses his whole career.		'''[[w:Charles Dickens\|Charles John Huffam Dickens]]''', [[w:Royal Society of Arts\|FRSA]] ([[7 February]] [[1812]] – [[9 June]] [[1870]]) was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Charles Dickens was trying to ban workhouses his whole career.
	:See also:		:See also:
	:: '''''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''''' (1836)		:: '''''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''''' (1836)
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	** ''Our Parish'', Ch. 5 : The Broker’s Man		** ''Our Parish'', Ch. 5 : The Broker’s Man

	* The appearance presented by the streets of London an hour before sunrise, on a summer’s morning, is most striking even to the few whose unfortunate pursuits of pleasure, or scarcely less unfortunate pursuits of business, cause them to be well acquainted with the scene. There is an air of cold, solitary desolation about the noiseless streets which we are accustomed to see thronged at other times by a busy, eager crowd, and over the quiet, closely-shut buildings, which throughout the day are swarming with life and bustle, that is very impressive.		* The appearance presented by the streets of London an hour before sunrise, on a summer’s morning, is most striking even to the few whose unfortunate pursuits of pleasure, or scarcely less unfortunate pursuits of business, cause them to be well acquainted with the scene. There is an air of cold, solitary desolation about the noiseless streets which we are accustomed to see thronged at other times by a busy, eager crowd, and over the quiet, closely-shut buildings, which throughout the day are swarming with life and bustle, that is very impressive.
	** Ch. 1 : The Streets — Morning		** Ch. 1 : The Streets — Morning

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	* Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.		* Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.

	*To procure a refreshing sneeze at anytime by merely stepping out on the staircase (Fortunate location of Dick Swivellers "Chambers" above a Tabacconists)<		*To procure a refreshing sneeze at anytime by merely stepping out on the staircase (Fortunate location of Dick Swivellers "Chambers" above a Tabacconists)<
	** Ch. 7, The Comic World of Dickens. Prof.Bernard N.Schilling, Gloucester Mass. 1973. Page 137 [https://archive.org/details/comicworldofdick00schirich/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater]		** Ch. 7, The Comic World of Dickens. Prof.Bernard N.Schilling, Gloucester Mass. 1973. Page 137 [https://archive.org/details/comicworldofdick00schirich/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater]

	* Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.		* Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.
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	** Ch. 2		** Ch. 2

	* He is a gentleman of strict conscience, disdainful of all littleness and meanness and ready on the shortest notice to die any death you may please to mention rather than give occasion for the least impeachment of his integrity. He is an honourable, obstinate, truthful, high-spirited, intensely prejudiced, perfectly unreasonable man.		* He is a gentleman of strict conscience, disdainful of all littleness and meanness and ready on the shortest notice to die any death you may please to mention rather than give occasion for the least impeachment of his integrity. He is an honourable, obstinate, truthful, high-spirited, intensely prejudiced, perfectly unreasonable man.
	** Ch. 2		** Ch. 2

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	=== ''[[w:Hard Times\|Hard Times]]'' (1854) ===		=== ''[[w:Hard Times\|Hard Times]]'' (1854) ===
	* Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!		* Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!
	** Bk. I, Ch. 1		** Bk. I, Ch. 1

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	** Bk. I, Ch. 10		** Bk. I, Ch. 10

	* The Barnacles were a very high family, and a very large family. They were dispersed all over the public offices, and held all sorts of public places. Either the nation was under a load of obligation to the Barnacles, or the Barnacles were under a load of obligation to the nation. It was not quite unanimously settled which; the Barnacles having their opinion, the nation theirs.		* The Barnacles were a very high family, and a very large family. They were dispersed all over the public offices, and held all sorts of public places. Either the nation was under a load of obligation to the Barnacles, or the Barnacles were under a load of obligation to the nation. It was not quite unanimously settled which; the Barnacles having their opinion, the nation theirs.
	** Bk. I, Ch. 10		** Bk. I, Ch. 10

	* A person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs, to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don't make either of them able to do a walking match.		* A person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs, to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don't make either of them able to do a walking match.
	** Bk. I, Ch. 23		** Bk. I, Ch. 23

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	** [[G. K. Chesterton]], ''The Victorian Age in Literature'' (1913)		** [[G. K. Chesterton]], ''The Victorian Age in Literature'' (1913)

	* The twin root facts of the revolution called Dickens are these: first, that he attacked the cold Victorian compromise; second, that he attacked it without knowing he was doing it—certainly without knowing that other people were doing it. He was attacking something which we will call Mr. Gradgrind. He was utterly unaware (in any essential sense) that any one else had attacked Mr. Gradgrind. All the other attacks had come from positions of learning or cultured eccentricity of which he was entirely ignorant, and to which, therefore (like a spirited fellow), he felt a furious hostility.		* The twin root facts of the revolution called Dickens are these: first, that he attacked the cold Victorian compromise; second, that he attacked it without knowing he was doing it—certainly without knowing that other people were doing it. He was attacking something which we will call Mr. Gradgrind. He was utterly unaware (in any essential sense) that any one else had attacked Mr. Gradgrind. All the other attacks had come from positions of learning or cultured eccentricity of which he was entirely ignorant, and to which, therefore (like a spirited fellow), he felt a furious hostility.
	** [[G. K. Chesterton]], ''The Victorian Age in Literature'' (1913)		** [[G. K. Chesterton]], ''The Victorian Age in Literature'' (1913)

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	* No gypsy on earth is a greater vagabond than myself.		* No gypsy on earth is a greater vagabond than myself.
	** [[Charles Dickens]], The Uncommercial Traveller, Chapter X,		** [[Charles Dickens]], The Uncommercial Traveller, Chapter X,

	* And on that grave where English oak and holly<br>And laurel wreaths entwine,<br>Deem it not all a too presumptuous folly,<br>This spray of Western pine!		* And on that grave where English oak and holly<br>And laurel wreaths entwine,<br>Deem it not all a too presumptuous folly,<br>This spray of Western pine!
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	* '''In ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', ''[[w:Hard Times\|Hard Times]]'', ''[[w:Bleak House\|Bleak House]]'', ''[[w:Little Dorrit\|Little Dorrit]]'', Dickens attacked English institutions with a ferocity that has never since been approached.''' Yet he managed to do it without making himself hated, and, more than this, the very people he attacked have swallowed him so completely that he has become a national institution himself. In its attitude towards Dickens the English public has always been a little like the elephant which feels a blow with a walking-stick as a delightful tickling. Before I was ten years old I was having Dickens ladled down my throat by schoolmasters in whom even at that age I could see a strong resemblance to Mr. Creakle, and one knows without needing to be told that lawyers delight in Sergeant Buzfuz and that ''Little Dorrit'' is a favourite in the Home Office. '''Dickens seems to have succeeded in attacking everybody and antagonizing nobody.'''		* '''In ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', ''[[w:Hard Times\|Hard Times]]'', ''[[w:Bleak House\|Bleak House]]'', ''[[w:Little Dorrit\|Little Dorrit]]'', Dickens attacked English institutions with a ferocity that has never since been approached.''' Yet he managed to do it without making himself hated, and, more than this, the very people he attacked have swallowed him so completely that he has become a national institution himself. In its attitude towards Dickens the English public has always been a little like the elephant which feels a blow with a walking-stick as a delightful tickling. Before I was ten years old I was having Dickens ladled down my throat by schoolmasters in whom even at that age I could see a strong resemblance to Mr. Creakle, and one knows without needing to be told that lawyers delight in Sergeant Buzfuz and that ''Little Dorrit'' is a favourite in the Home Office. '''Dickens seems to have succeeded in attacking everybody and antagonizing nobody.'''
	** [[George Orwell]], in "Charles Dickens" (1939), also in ''Inside the Whale and Other Essays'' (1940)		** [[George Orwell]], in "Charles Dickens" (1939), also in ''Inside the Whale and Other Essays'' (1940)

	*If Dickens were alive to-day he would make a trip to Soviet Russia and come back with a book rather like Gide's ''Retour de L'URSS''.		*If Dickens were alive to-day he would make a trip to Soviet Russia and come back with a book rather like Gide's ''Retour de L'URSS''.
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	** [[w:Sydney Smith\|Sydney Smith]], in a letter dated 1837		** [[w:Sydney Smith\|Sydney Smith]], in a letter dated 1837

	*When I was a child I devoured Dickens. I think there is hardly any volume of Dickens' work that I have not read. There was something that fascinated me about the kind of life he depicted and I remember that in school I read literally all Dickens' novels. I think there was a kind of exotic nature - the transitional life of Victorian England that he captured was to me so exotic.		*When I was a child I devoured Dickens. I think there is hardly any volume of Dickens' work that I have not read. There was something that fascinated me about the kind of life he depicted and I remember that in school I read literally all Dickens' novels. I think there was a kind of exotic nature - the transitional life of Victorian England that he captured was to me so exotic.
	**[[Wole Soyinka]] in ''Talking with African Writers'' by Jane Wilkinson		**[[Wole Soyinka]] in ''Talking with African Writers'' by Jane Wilkinson

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	** [[Queen Victoria]], in a diary entry (11 June 1870)		** [[Queen Victoria]], in a diary entry (11 June 1870)

	* He had his literary weaknesses, [[Charles Dickens]], but they were all dear, big, attractive ones, virtues grown a bit wild and rank. Somehow when you put him -- with his elemental [[humor]], his inexhaustible vitality, his humanity, sympathy, and pity -- beside the Impeccables, he always looms large.		* He had his literary weaknesses, [[Charles Dickens]], but they were all dear, big, attractive ones, virtues grown a bit wild and rank. Somehow when you put him -- with his elemental [[humor]], his inexhaustible vitality, his humanity, sympathy, and pity -- beside the Impeccables, he always looms large.
	** [[Kate Douglas Wiggin]], ''[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Child%27s_Journey_with_Dickens A Child's Journey with Dickens] (1912)		** [[Kate Douglas Wiggin]], ''[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Child%27s_Journey_with_Dickens A Child's Journey with Dickens] (1912)

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	** [[Virginia Woolf]], "David Copperfield" (1925), ''The Moment and Other Essays'' (1947)		** [[Virginia Woolf]], "David Copperfield" (1925), ''The Moment and Other Essays'' (1947)

	* In fact, the real problem with the thesis of [[Friedrich Nietzsche\|A Genealogy of Morals]] is that the noble and the aristocrat are just as likely to be stupid as the plebeian. I had noted in my teens that major writers are usually those who have had to struggle against the odds -- to "pull their cart out of the mud," as I put it -- while writers who have had an easy start in life are usually second rate -- or at least, not quite first-rate. Dickens, [[Balzac]], [[Dostoevsky]], [[Shaw]], [[H. G. Wells]], are examples of the first kind; in the twentieth century, [[John Galsworthy]], [[Graham Greene]], [[Evelyn Waugh]], and [[Samuel Beckett]] are examples of the second kind. They are far from being mediocre writers; yet they tend to be tinged with a certain pessimism that arises from never having achieved a certain resistance against problems.		* In fact, the real problem with the thesis of [[Friedrich Nietzsche\|A Genealogy of Morals]] is that the noble and the aristocrat are just as likely to be stupid as the plebeian. I had noted in my teens that major writers are usually those who have had to struggle against the odds -- to "pull their cart out of the mud," as I put it -- while writers who have had an easy start in life are usually second rate -- or at least, not quite first-rate. Dickens, [[Balzac]], [[Dostoevsky]], [[Shaw]], [[H. G. Wells]], are examples of the first kind; in the twentieth century, [[John Galsworthy]], [[Graham Greene]], [[Evelyn Waugh]], and [[Samuel Beckett]] are examples of the second kind. They are far from being mediocre writers; yet they tend to be tinged with a certain pessimism that arises from never having achieved a certain resistance against problems.
	** [[Colin Wilson]] in ''The Books In My Life'', p. 188		** [[Colin Wilson]] in ''The Books In My Life'', p. 188