Extract from Charles
Mr Dickenss genius is especially suited
to the delineation of city life. London is like a newspaper. Everything
is there, and everything is disconnected. There is every kind
of person in some houses; but there is no more connection between
the houses than between the neighbours in the lists of births,
marriages, and deaths. As we change from the broad leader
to the squalid police-report, we pass a corner and we are in a
changed world. This is advantageous to Mr Dickenss genius.
memory is full of instances of old buildings and curious people,
and he does not care to piece them together. On the contrary,
each scene, to his mind, is a separate scene,each street
a separate street. He has, too, the peculiar alertness of observation
that is observable in those who live by it. He describes London
like a special correspondent for posterity.