“I am getting to like Dickens.”
Lavinia Goodell, March 1, 1866
At this time of year many people have a tradition of either reading A Christmas Carol or watching one of the many screen adaptations. From 1867 until she moved to Janesville, Wisconsin in 1871, Lavinia Goodell worked at Harper’s Bazar, a fashion magazine that was part of the prestigious Harper & Brothers publishing empire. Harpers had many well-known writers in its stable, including A Christmas Carol’s author, Charles Dickens.
Lavinia Goodell was an avid reader and her letters often mentioned her current reading choice. She mentioned Dickens multiple times. In 1862 she reported that she had finished reading Pickwick Papers and planned to read Great Expectations when time permitted. In 1866 she praised David Copperfield, saying “really am quite interested in it. It is better than anything else of his I ever read.” (In the summer of 1867 for some reason Lavinia seemed less enchanted with the British author, telling her sister that she liked Thackeray “even less than Dickens, though he doesn’t indulge so much in low characters.”)
Continue reading →