The present generation affirms that it cannot away with _Pickwick_,
and is not attracted by _Vanity Fair_. The balance of modern opinion
would be rather in favour of THACKERAY than of DICKENS. Take, for
example, the two works already quoted, _Pickwick_ and _Vanity Fair_.
A common modern objection made to _Pickwick_ is, that the characters
in _Pickwick_ are perpetually guttling or imbibing, or both
simultaneously. This is, to a certain extent, true. But how about
THACKERAY'S characters in _Vanity Fair?_ A careful student has sent
us a list of the numerous eatings and drinkings in both novels. In
_Pickwick_, reckoning from the brandy-and-water partaken of by _Mr.
Jingle_, at the Pickwickians' expense, after the scene with the
pugnacious hackney-coachman, and finishing with the breakfast that
celebrated the marriage of _Mr. Snodgrass_ with _Miss Emily Wardle_,
there are exactly (so we are informed) one hundred and one instances
of drinking and eating; some of them being of drinking only,
unqualified.
In _Vanity Fair_, from the introduction of _Miss Pinkerton's_ "seed
cake," to _Becky_ taking _Amelia_ a cup of tea, _vide_ chapter
sixty-seven, we learn, on the same authority, that there are one
hundred and fifteen cases "allowed for refreshment" in some form or
other.
A collection of the meals of heroes and heroines in the most popular
works of fiction, and _menus_ compiled therefrom, might be found
interesting, especially if carefully criticised by Sir HENRY THOMPSON
in a separate chapter to be added to the next edition of his really
invaluable work, namely, _Food and Feeding_. Do the modern novelists
feed their characters as plentifully as did DICKENS and THACKERAY
theirs? Be this as it may, these two great Twin Brethren--so utterly
dissimilar in every thing except in the possession of the gift of
genius--fed their readers well and bountifully.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note:
_ _ represents italic script.
^ represents a superscript.