Christmas-eve lashing at former friend Dickens letter heaps scorn on Uriah London, Nov,28:Christmas spirit was short supply when Charles Dickens sat down to write a letter denouncing a former friend. It was Christmas Eve 1849 and Thomas Powell, who had written unflattering things about the novelist, had fled to America having embezzled 10,000 of his employers money. Powell is widely believed to have been the model for the character of Uriah Jeep, the villain in the novel David Copperfield, which Dickens was working on at the time. The letter was sent to the editor of the Manchester Examiner, who had published an article about Powells book The Living Authors of England, which contained an uncomplimentary portrait of Dickens. Ignoring his familys demands for his attention at the height of the festive season, Dickens, who practically invented the victorian Christmas, shut himself in his study at his home in London at 1 Devonshire Terrace to write the three-page letter. He wrote:I think Our London correspondent one of the great nuisances of this hound to know everything and becomes in spect of the truthfulness of his intelligence. In your paper sent to me this morning, I see the correspondent mentions one Thomas Powell, and records how I was wont to feast in the house of said Thomas Powell. As I was never in the mans house in my life, or within five miles of it that I know or, I beg you will do me the favour to contradict this You will be less surprised by my begging you to set this right when I tell you that hearing of his book, and knowing his history, I wrote to New York denouncing him as a Forger and a Thief. Powell was a clerk who forged cheques from his employer, Thomas Chapman, a friend of Dickens. He had also ingratiated himself with the Dickens family and dined several times at the authors home. When Powells fraud was uncovered, he begged forgiveness and Chapman agreed not to press charges. However, the fraudster continued to steal before having himself declared insane to avoid criminal prosecution. He then fled to New York where he claimed to be an important figure in literary London and defrauded a number of authors including Herman Melville, the writer of Moby Dick. Gabriel Heaton, of Sothebys auction house, which is selling the letter on December 10, said:Powell was a character worthy of a Dickens novel, which is what Dickens did, basing one of his least pleasant and odious characters, Uriah Heep, a snivelling hypocrite, on him. The feud between Dickens and Powell, which ended in Powell attempting to sue the author for 10,000 London currency for libel, is the subject of at least two books. THE TELEGRAPH
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 05:39:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015