"
We are all sufficiently familiar with the vast amount and variety of
humour with which Dickens enriched his writings. It is not aphoristic,
but flows along in a light sparkling stream. This is what we should
expect from a man who wrote so much and so rapidly. His thoughts did not
concentrate and crystallize into a few sharply cut expressions, and he
has left us scarcely any sayings which will live as "household words."
Moreover, in his bold style of writing he sought to produce effects by
broad strokes and dashes--not afraid of an excess of caricature, from
which he left his readers to deduct the discount. Taine says he was "too
mad." But he was daring, and cared little for the risk of being
ludicrous, providing he escaped the certainty of being dull. He was not
afraid of improbabilities, any more than his contemporary Lever was, and
owing to this they both now seem somewhat old-fashioned. Lever here
exceeded Dickens, and his course was different; his plan was to sow a
few seeds of extravagant falsehood, whence he would raise a wonderful
efflorescence of ludicrous circumstances. For instance, he makes a
General Count de Vanderdelft pay a visit to the Dodd family, and bring
them an invitation from the King of Belgium. Great preparations are of
course made by the ladies for so grand an occasion. The day arrives, and
they have to travel in their full dress in second and third class
carriages.
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