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s it stands to Dickens in something of the same relation in which the contemporary _Pendennis_ stands to Thackeray. As in that book, too, the earlier portions are the best. They gained in intensity by the autobiographical form into which they are thrown; as Thackeray observed, there was no writing against such power. The tragedy of Emily and the character of Rosa Dartle are stagey and unreal; Uriah Heep is bad art; Agnes, again, is far less convincing as a consolation than Dickens would have us believe; but these are more than compensated by the wonderful realization of early boyhood in the book, by the picture of Mr Creakle's school, the Peggottys, the inimitable Mr Micawber, Betsy Trotwood and that monument of selfish misery, Mrs Gummidge. At the end of March 1850 commenced the new twopenny weekly called _Household Words_, which Dickens planned to form a direct means of communication between himself and his readers, and as a means of collecting around him and encouraging the talents of the younger generation. No one was better qualified than he for this work, whether we consider his complete freedom from literary jealousy or his magical gift of inspiring young authors. Following the somewhat dreary and incoherent _Bleak House_ of 1852, _Hard Times_ (1854)--an anti-Manchester School tract, which Ruskin regarded as Dickens's best work--was the first long story written for _Household Words_. About this time Dickens made his final home at Gad's Hill, near Rochester, and put the finishing touch to another long novel published upon the old plan, _Little Dorrit_ (1855-1857). In spite of the exquisite comedy of the master of the Marshalsea and the final tragedy of the central figure, _Little Dorrit_ is sadly deficient in the old vitality, the humour is often a mock reality, and the repetition of comic catch-words and overstrung similes and metaphors is such as to affect the reader with nervous irritation. The plot and characters ruin each other in this amorphous production. The _Tale of Two Cities_, commenced in _All the Year Round_ (the successor of _Household Words_) in 1859, is much better: the main characters are powerful, the story genuinely tragic, and the atmosphere lurid; but enormous labour was everywhere expended upon the construction of stylistic ornament. The _Tale of Two Cities_ was followed by two finer efforts at atmospheric delineation, the best things he ever did of this kind: _Great Expectations_ (1861),
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