Critical Response #1 - Michael Uhl

While I was reading in the Rare Books Room I found it astounding to be among all of that history. It was a privilege to hold some of Dickens’ original works and to be engrossed in the literature as much as the Victorians were. I have to admit I feel the books have been kept in amazing shape for how old they must be. The print has not faded that much and although I did not think of testing this, the spines of the books seemed very study and well maintained for their age. The pages were yellowed, and the covers of the books were made of different material than they are made of today. Again I felt so privileged to be surrounded and immersed in that environment of the Rare Books Room.

Furthermore, with reading the material I found it quite interesting how the serial was organized. It was well designed that it had, everything from stories to articles to poems in there. Dickens was brilliant for being able to connect all of these and put them into one publication, but the difference was with his serials compared to a newspaper, there was a general flow from one topic to another; newspapers generally are cut up into concrete sections. For instance, two pieces I very much enjoyed reading about were mainly in the publication of Household Words on June 8^th, 1850. The topics were about prisons and orphans, the prison piece mainly discussed how prisons were not rehabilitating the prisoners at all rather they were mainly making them worse. There were dark cells in which the prisoners were nearly starved to death on only bread and water, and it went on to talk of the poor treatment and corruption of these prisons.(Household Words Vol I, 250).  Generally after thinking about that we do not think of orphans, but I feel Dickens saw that though the orphans and criminals were not the same, they occupied some of the same places. It goes from an article that has to do with something quite depressing, and it goes into a poem that is beautiful but rather sad at the same time. It addresses two orphans in the freezing cold and wishing to be in a better place, the elder tells the younger we will not have to suffer much longer for we will be with our parents soon. Unfortunately they, die but in the larger picture they are essentially put out of their misery, not belonging in society and not having any parents. They rejoice in the fact they go to their parents in heaven, and finally have a home(Household Words Vol I, 253). It was interesting to see the general flow Dickens established in his serial and it was comforting to see fiction and nonfiction side by side. He made them seem as if they were not that different, the two realities of fiction which greatly benefited the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era greatly benefited from Dickens and his many array of topics in this publication having something for everyone.

In conclusion, I found it fascinating how the works of Dickens were so well maintained in our small but great institution. The privilege to handle these resources is an incredible honor and I hope I get to handle these resources at a later date as well. The most fascinating aspect of this experience was the flow Dickens demonstrated between fiction and nonfiction showing that though we separate them in life, the realities are not that different.