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),