review - dickens and education

7/25/2019 Review - Dickens and Education

1/4

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Nineteenth-Century

Fiction.

http://www.jstor.org

ReviewAuthor(s): R. D. McMasterReview by: R. D. McMasterSource: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Dec., 1964), pp. 306-308Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2932622Accessed: 01-09-2015 12:46 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 155.207.206.166 on Tue, 01 Sep 2015 12:46:33 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2932622http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2932622http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/


2/4

306

Nineteenth-Century

iction

nology s theengineofdemocratic rogress nd his lifelongdis-

tinction between

the

industrialist

who

runs

it

and

the

stock

market

world.

Furthermore,nsisting hat

Twain failed to show

how technology

ould

remold Arthurian

eople misses

n

effect

his

faith-more constantthan

many

of

his attitudes-that the

gloriousnineteenthenturymade this

elf-evident.o come to the

deepest

question,when Smith sserts hat

A

ConnecticutYankee

set

out

to study

American

apitalism nd

then showshow far t

fell

hort, hould we

decide

that

t

never

meantto try? n arguing

that tdid, he grantsts conscious drivesbutdwellsmuch onger

on the

latent.Finally,he does not allow

for

the problemsTwain

incurredby going back into

finishedhistory;Hank could not

succeed beforeThomas

Edison, say,

had been

born.Still, t is all

too

much easier

to

make such

objections

than

build a book

as

original

s

Mark Twain's Fable

ofProgress. do

so because tstone

seemsto

welcome

further

ebate.

Louis

J. BUDD

Duke

University

PHILIP

COLLINS,

Dickens

and

Education

Philip

Collins'

Dickens and

Education

(Macmillan:

$8.25) is

notable for

ts

clear

and

temperate

balancing of

Dickens'

strengths

and

limitations. Not

only

does

[Dickens]

lack

objectivity:he

has

no

respect for

it-and,

indeed,

little

understanding

of

what

it

means.

Prejudice

was the

typical

habit

of

his

mind.

Although he

neither

understandsnor

respects

the more

profound and

abstract

activities of the intellect, he nevertheless s often more sensible

than

many

people

who

were better

informed,

better

educated,

more

reflective

nd

clever than

himself.

His ideas

may

not be

very

original

or

even

admirable,

but neither

are

they

cranky: It

takes

a

cleverer mind

than his

to think

up

really

silly

and

nasty

ideas

such

as

those

of

Shaw....

Clearly

Collins

is

neither

en-

thusiast

nor

detractor.

His book

is

a

model

of

sound

and

thorough

scholarship,

of

learning

combined

with

common

sense.

While

it

is

his

business to

single

out

the

schools,

teachers,

nd

opinions

on

education fromDickens' works and set them in their social con-

text, he

is

thoroughly

capable of

understanding

and

enjoying

Dickens'

artistry

in

the

process-even

when

Dickens

exag-

gerates -and

he often

shows himself

to

be such

a

shrewd

and

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/4

Notes

and

Reviews

307

convincing nterpreterf individual works thatone wishesfor

more such

interpretation-his nalysis

f

Our Mutual Friend is

especiallynoteworthy.

Accepting he fact hatDickens tended to superlatives,

hat

he

was the kind of

Whole Hog he himself rotested gainst,

hat his

intellectual oundarieswerenarrow, nd thathis range

of nterest

was short

universities

nd

public schools seldom

come

into his

works), ne naturally sks whyhis views

re

important nough

to

merit

uch

a

study this is the thirdbook on the subject).

Two

answers re important:first, hat in giving the child, and the

child'speculiarway

of

seeingthe world, major place

in

popular

fiction, ickens made people more fully ware

of

the

children

themselves n whose behalfwere being fought ll thesebattles

f

organisationnd ideology ; econd, hat

ven when

his

views

were

conventional nough when compared with

the ideas

of

people

who

directly ormulated

nd

enacted

reforms,

e was nevertheless

the intimate f everyhousehold, s

The

Times observed,

or

a

third

f

a

century: he helped

to

create

he mbiencewithinwhich

thesechanges, n legislation nd in spirit, ould take place.

Collins

is

particularly

ffective

n

showing

what

this

ambience

was, considering

ot

only

Dickens' intense

wareness

f

his own

childhood, but

the

books

he wrote

for

his own

children,

the

experience

erivedfrom heir

ducation,

his

limitations

n

coping

with

them

or

fullyunderstanding

he

social

significance

f

edu-

cation in the

kind

of

world

that

was

shaping

round

them, nd

finally

is

magination

f

the

nature nd trials

f

childhood

n

the

infants

f

his

novels.The

chapter

n The

Rights

f

Childhood,

quite apartfrom ts mportancen thestudy fDickens' nfluence

on

education,

s

as

good

an

examination

f

Dickens'

treatment f

childhood as

one can

find.

The

chapters

n

The

Duty

of

the

State and

Teachers n

the

Novels

show,

with

a

wealth

of

pre-

cise

detail,

what

kinds

of

schools, eachers,

nd

trainingDickens

had

in mind n his

works,

oth what

they

were

n

reality

nd

how

Dickens

heightened

hem for his

artistic

purposes: Dickens,

inevitably,

nvents

bad

example

which

concentrates

veryfault

and has none of the

counterbalancing

irtues

f

the species and

rather han resort o professorialndignation t this,Collins con-

tinues,

It

is

a

pleasure

o

quote,

and

does).

Dickens

and

Education is

a more cheerful

book

than

Collins'

Dickens

and

Crime;

Dickens

had

less

time

to

sour

on

the results



4/4

308 Nineteenth-Century

Fiction

of thereforms e sought n education hanon thosehe sought n

penology.Pondering

C. P. Snow's

solemndictum that

Satire is

cheek,

Collins observes hat many

of the educational

practices

Dickens

attacked eservedt, that

On themain issuesof

popular

education

he was right-headed

nd good-hearted. Collins

ob-

viously

has a taste

orDickens'negative maginings:

Mobb's step-

mother,

aid Squeers, took to

her bed on hearing

that he

wouldn't at fat....

She is sorry o findhe is discontented, hich

is sinful nd horrid,

nd hopes

Mr. Squeerswill floghim

into a

happier tate f mind;with hisview, he hasalso stoppedhis half-

penny

weekpocket-money,nd

given double-bladed

nifewith

a

corkscrew

n it to the Missionaries,

whichshe

had

bought

on

purpose

for him.

R.

D.

MCMASTER

University

f Alberta

IVOR BROWN, Dickens

In

His

Time

IvorBrown's

Dickensn His Time

Thomas Nelson and Sons

Ltd.:

$5.00) is

one

of

thoseunfortunate

orkswhich

sets out in

a

modestfashion o

accomplish

modest

goal,

achieves

measure

of

success, ndyet eaves

one with he

feeling hat t is sadlywant-

ing.

For the book courts

omparisons. s we

read we remember

that

we have been here,

or almost

been here, before.

We see

familiar istas,

amiliar anoramas, nd familiar

oints

f

vantage,

but all strangely

eightened

ow by a superficial

lare,

or

just as

strangely

idden

by ayers f drifting

mist.

Brown attempts o place Dickens in his milieu, to give us

the

flavors,extures,

ensions

f Dickens'

world,

nd

then to see

the

writingss

they eflect

his hangingworld,

worldoutwardly

picturesque nd

familiar,

ut nwardly errible nd

remote. rown

writesfacilely, ometimes

hinly,

bout

such intricate

spects

of

Victorian ife

as

politics, conomics,

eligion, ducation,

nd the

like,

usuallydeveloping

each subject in a single

impressionistic

chapter.

He also

includes

more

pecialized

hapters

n

such

themes

as

prisons,

ransportation,rama, the

river, fog and filth, nd

Christmas. e assembles variety fcorroborating etail,mostof

it

familiar, ut he

occasionally ntroduces acts r

vignetteshat

are

new and arresting.

n

some

instances e is

guilty f lapses of

fact for

example, Dickens

was

required to

pawn

his treasured


review - dickens and education

Documents