George Silverman's Explanation


Creator

Date

1984

Identifier

Special Collections PR4572 G4 1984

Publisher

California: California State University Northridge Libraries; Santa Susana Press

Abstract

Dickens’s George Silverman’s Explanation, a story in nine chapters, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly between January and March 1868, when Dickens was in America on a reading tour. This dark tale was one of the last pieces of fiction written by him. It carries a very bleak message: ‘the lesson that good produces evil, that virtue goes unrewarded, that hypocrisy goes undetected, and that we are all helpless prisoners of our environment and our personality’ (Harry Stone). Even Dickens was struck by it: ‘Upon myself, it has made the strongest impression of reality and originality!! And I feel as if I had read something (by somebody else) which I should never get out of my head!!’

[Title page of Charles Dickens's George Silverman's Explanation; edited by Harry Stone; illustrated by Irving Block]

Files

Cabinet 14 George Silverman's Explanation.jpg

Citation

Charles Dickens, “George Silverman's Explanation,” ourheritage.ac.nz | OUR Heritage, accessed March 29, 2024, https://otago.ourheritage.ac.nz/items/show/7165.