Miles his," &c. &c.- but we are quite sure that
all this is as pure a fiction as "The Curiosity Shop?" itself. Our
author is deceived. Occupied with little Nell and her grandfather,
he had forgotten the very existence of his interlocutors until he
found himself, at the end of his book, under the disagreeable
necessity of saying a word or two concerning them, by way of winding
them up. The simple truth is that, either for one of the two reasons
at which we have already hinted, or else because the work was begun in
a hurry, Mr. Dickens did not precisely know his own plans when he
penned the five or six first chapters of the "Clock."
The wish to preserve a certain degree of unity between various
narratives naturally unconnected, is a more obvious and a better
reason for employing interlocutors. But such unity as may be thus
had is scarcely worth having. It may, in some feeble measure,
satisfy the judgment by a sense of completeness; but it seldom
produces a pleasant effect; and if the speakers are made to take
part in their own stories (as has been the Case here) they become
injurious by creating confusion. Thus, in "The Curiosity Shop," we
feel displeased to find Master Humphrey commencing the tale in the
first person, dropping this for the third, and concluding by
introducing himself as the "single gentleman" who figures in the
story.
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