[7] LETTER OF BARON TAUeCHNITZ.
Having had the privilege to see a letter which the late Mr. Charles
Dickens wrote to the author of this work upon its first appearance, and
which there was no intention to publish in England, it became my lively
wish to make it known to the readers of my edition.
I therefore addressed an earnest request to Mr. Forster, that he would
permit the letter to be prefixed to a reprint not designed for
circulation in England, where I could understand his reluctance to
sanction its publication. Its varied illustration of the subject of the
book, and its striking passages of personal feeling and character, led
me also to request that I might be allowed to present it in facsimile.
Mr. Forster complied; and I am most happy to be thus enabled to give to
my public, on the following pages, so attractive and so interesting a
letter, reproduced in the exact form in which it was written, by the
most popular and admired-of writers--too early gone.
TAUeCHNITZ.