THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP CHARLES DICKENS BORE 181 z-DIED r 870 -- Editors Xote The Old Curiosity Shop at rst centres on tlze misfortunes of the kee ers of the she-little N l l and her gambling grandfather and their wanderings. U then widens, in the characteristically Dickensian way, to make room for-among other interests-the comedy of Dick Swiveller in his relation to the lawyer Samfison Brass, Miss Sally Brass, and tlze Marchioness also, the almost diabolic interfere ces of the dwarf, Daniel Quilp, in the ufuirs of the missing wanderers. Dickens became unusually enthralled in this tale as it develo9ed. Once he wrote to his friend Forster who was res9onsible for urging the death of Little Nell All night 1 zave bee pursued by the child . . . . I think the close of the story will be great And later The dificulty has been tremendous-the anguish unspeakable. When ublished 1840-1841 the story was an extrao dinary success. Of its characters, the Marchioness is a portrait of the maid-of-all-work who waited upon Dickenss father and mother when they were in the debtors prison of Marskalsea. The Garlands were his own genial landlord and landlady when he was a boy, aged ten, working in George Lamerts Blacking warehouse. And Mr. Slum was one of the eoets who wyote Lamerts advertisements in rivalry with Robert Warren-famous for his blacking and for, is eoets. The resent edition is 9riPtted from the one carejully corrected by the Aztthor in 1867-1868. -- P R E F A C E -- IN April, 1840, I issued the first number of a new weekly publication, price threepence, called MASTERH UMPHKEYCSL OCK I . t was intended to consist, for the most part, of detached papers, but was to include one continuous story, to beresumed from time to time, with such indefinite intervals between each period of resumption as might best accord with the exigencies and capabilities of the proposed Miscellany. The first chapter of this tale appeared in the fourth number of MASTER H UMPHREYCSL OCKw, hen I had already been made uneasy by the desultory character of that work, and when, I believe, my readers had thoroughly participated in the feeling. The commencement of a story was a great satisfaction to me, and I had reason to believe that my readers participated in this feeling too. Hence, being pledged to some interruptions and some pursuit of the original design, I cheerfully set about disentangling myself from those impediments as fast as I could and, that done, from that time until its completion THE O LD CURIOSITSYH OPw as written and published from week to week, in weekly parts. When the story was finished, that it might be freed from the incumbrance of associations and interruptions with which it had no kind of concern, I caused the few sheets of MASTERH UMPHREYCSL OCK, which had been printed in connexion with it, to be ancelled a nd, like the unfinished tale of the windy night and the notary in The Sentimental. Journey, they became the property of the trunk-maker and butterman. I was especially unwilling, I confess, to enrich those respectable trades with the paper of the abandoned design, in which MASTERH UMPHREdYe scribed himself and his manner of life. Though I now affect to make the confession philosophically, as referring to a byegone emotion, I am conscious that my pen winces a little even while I write these words. But it was done, and wisely done, and MASTERH UMPHREYCSL OCKa, s originally constructed, became one of the lost books of the earth-which, we all know, are far more precious than any that can be read for love or money. In reference to the tale itself, I desire to say very little here...