More re: Dickens

[pegkerr]

I was dead on target when I remarked earlier today that Dickens’ work was all about the contrast between the heart of flesh and the heart of stone. After I wrote that, I came across this passage in Chapter 11 of Nicholas Nickleby:

It was a curious contrast to see how the timid country girl [Kate, lovely sister of our hero, Nicholas] shrunk through the crowd that hurried up and down its streets, giving way to the press of people and clinging closely to Ralph [boo, hiss, our villain] as though she feared to lose him in the throng; and how the stern and hard-featured man of business went doggedly on, elbowing the passengers aside, and now and then exchanging a gruff salutation with some passing acquaintance, who turned to look back upon his pretty charge with looks expressive of surprise. But it would have been a stranger contrast still, to have read the hearts that were beating side by side; to have laid bare the gentle innocence of the one, and the rugged villainy of the other; to have hung upon the guileless thoughts of the affectionate girl, and been amazed that among all the wily plots and calculations of the old man, there should not be one word or figure denoting thought of death or of the grave. But it was so; and stranger still—though this is a thing of every day—the warm young heart palpitated with a thousand anxieties and apprehensions, while that of the old worldly man lay rusting in its cell, beating only as a piece of cunning mechanism, and yielding no one throb of hope, or fear, or love, or care, for any living thing.

Bounce, bounce. Ha!

Peg

Comments

[tiger-gelhardt.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm so glad you posted this. That is such a beautiful paragraph. I think I'm going to have to read this book now.

Also, I love the first name you picked for your Mr. X and reading your entries. :]