In truth, the great feature of the "Curiosity Shop" is its chaste,
vigorous, and glorious imagination. This is the one charm, all potent,
which alone would suffice to compensate for a world more of error than
Mr. Dickens ever committed. It is not only seen in the conception, and
general handling of the story, or in the invention of character; but
it pervades every sentence of the book. We recognise its prodigious
influence in every inspired word. It is this which induces the
reader who is at all ideal, to pause frequently, to reread the
occasionally quaint phrases, to muse in uncontrollable delight over
thoughts which, while he wonders he has never hit upon them before, he
yet admits that he never has encountered. In fact it is the wand of
the enchanter.
Had we room to particularize, we would mention as points evincing
most distinctly the ideality of the "Curiosity Shop"- the picture of
the shop itself- the newly-born desire of the worldly old man for
the peace of green fields- his whole character and conduct, in
short- the schoolmaster, with his desolate fortunes, seeking affection
in little children- the haunts of Quilp among the wharf-rats- the
tinkering of the Punchmen among the tombs- the glorious scene where
the man of the forge sits poring, at deep midnight, into that dread
fire- again the whole conception of this character, and, last and
greatest, the stealthy approach of Nell to her death- her gradual
sinking away on the journey to the village, so skilfully indicated
rather than described- her pensive and prescient meditation- the fit
of strange musing which came over her when the house in which she
was to die first broke upon her sight- the description of this
house, of the old church, and of the churchyard- everything in rigid
consonance with the one impression to be conveyed- that deep
meaningless well- the comments of the Sexton upon death, and upon
his own secure life- this whole world of mournful yet peaceful idea
merging, at length, into the decease of the child Nelly, and the
uncomprehending despair of the grandfather.
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