Charles Dickens and the Dark Exhibition
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I’m Going To See The Exhibition For A Shilling Let all the world say what they will, I do not care a fig. The Exhibition I will see, If I don’t dash my wig; If I sell the pig and donkey, The frying pan and bed, I will see the Exhibition While it is a bob a head. Never mind the rent or taxes, Dear Polly come with me, To the great Exhibition all The wonders for to see.
London, Disley, Printer, Arthur-street, Oxford-street (1851)
Letter From Charles Dickens to G. W. Curtis (April 1851) “As you do not say that you are coming to see the great exhibition I conclude that you intend to be the man, memorable through future ages, who didn’t see it” (Letters 371)
Mike Smith
Dr. Menke
ENGL 4995
27 April 2010
Dickens and the House of Glass There has been much discussion about the shift in Dickens’ writing starting with Bleak House, how his style and tone darkened. Surely there were a number of different motivations that caused this shift in style and tone; however, there is one event that seems to have some amount of influence in the writing of Bleak House: The Great Exhibition of 1851. The Exhibition is one of those events that modern life has a hard time understanding. How could something that could be described as a museum or a trade show alter society, much less a book? To understand the answer we must first understand the Great Exhibition itself. The Great Exhibition was the first international exhibition ever held. “The history of the world, I venture to say” wrote Henry Cole, one of the most important men involved in the planning and execution of the Exhibition, “records no event comparable in its promotion of human industry, with that of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations in 1851. A great people invited all civilized nations to a festival, to bring into comparison
I’m Going To See The Exhibition For A Shilling Let all the world say what they will, I do not care a fig. The Exhibition I will see, If I don’t dash my wig; If I sell the pig and donkey, The frying pan and bed, I will see the Exhibition While it is a bob a head. Never mind the rent or taxes, Dear Polly come with me, To the great Exhibition all The wonders for to see.
London, Disley, Printer, Arthur-street, Oxford-street (1851)
Letter From Charles Dickens to G. W. Curtis (April 1851) “As you do not say that you are coming to see the great exhibition I conclude that you intend to be the man, memorable through future ages, who didn’t see it” (Letters 371)
Mike Smith
Dr. Menke
ENGL 4995
27 April 2010
Dickens and the House of Glass There has been much discussion about the shift in Dickens’ writing starting with Bleak House, how his style and tone darkened. Surely there were a number of different motivations that caused this shift in style and tone; however, there is one event that seems to have some amount of influence in the writing of Bleak House: The Great Exhibition of 1851. The Exhibition is one of those events that modern life has a hard time understanding. How could something that could be described as a museum or a trade show alter society, much less a book? To understand the answer we must first understand the Great Exhibition itself. The Great Exhibition was the first international exhibition ever held. “The history of the world, I venture to say” wrote Henry Cole, one of the most important men involved in the planning and execution of the Exhibition, “records no event comparable in its promotion of human industry, with that of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations in 1851. A great people invited all civilized nations to a festival, to bring into comparison