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7/4/24
I have just, through one of my routine morning online searches, become aware of this letter written by Dickens to his youngest son, nicknamed "Plorn," upon his leaving home. Read it--it won't take you very long. Now, as you finish dabbing your eyes with Kleenex, let me tell you why this is significant.
A true sociopath achieves a degree of hypocrisy which is absolutely unfathomable by any person of normal character. Their imitation of moral normalcy is so complete, so convincing, and so radical, that anyone might feel deeply embarrassed by ever having doubted the person! This is why I'm having so much trouble exposing Charles Dickens as a fraud, and the plagiarist--rather than the original author--of "A Christmas Carol." Dickens played this role to the hilt. But let's look at the letter closely, and fact-check it to the extent that we can.
First of all, I recall reading evidence that Plorn was unwanted, which is to say, Dickens was decidedly unthrilled about having another child this late in his failing marriage. But that is neither here nor there.
Paragraph 2: Dickens did not merely persevere in determination, but resorted to force and trickery to get ahead, by stealing illustrator Robert Seymour's ideas for "The Pickwick Papers" and strong-arming Seymour out of the project by teaming up with the publishers--thus driving Seymour to suicide. Dickens never admitted to what he did, and expressed no remorse. He refused to financially assist Seymour's widow when she and her two sons were in difficulty, as a result of what he had done to her family.
Paragraph 3: Dickens started out taking advantage of Seymour, and he took advantage of illustrator George Cruikshank by claiming his ideas as his own. He then plagiarized Theodore Dwight Weld in writing the slavery chapter of "American Notes" in 1842. But it was in 1843 that he hurriedly re-wrote Mathew and Abby Whittier's manuscript of "A Christmas Carol," claiming sole authorship all his life. Obviously, Dickens had no respect whatsoever for either Jesus or His teachings.
Paragraph 4: I am also convinced that the story which Dickens claimed to have written paraphrasing the New Testment for children, and which he read aloud for his children each Christmas season, was also plagiarized from someone. Just as he did with "A Christmas Carol," I think he merely re-wrote (or copied over) someone else's completed manuscript. Meanwhile, there is evidence suggesting that Dickens frequently availed himself of prostitutes, and in my opinion, may even have either raped or seduced his 16-year-old sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth (putting on a theatrical, over-the-top demonstration of his grief and platonic love for her, as she died in his arms of poison, and then taking charge of her grave to avoid the risk of anyone ever exhuming the body). So to an extreme degree, Dickens was neither "truthful" nor "faithful."
Paragraph 5: Dickens reinvents his neglect of religious instruction at home, by couching it as having "never wearied" his children with it. In other words, he excuses this lack of instruction on the basis that he wanted them to form their own opinions. This is sheer rationalization. The reason is that while he could put on a good show occasionally, he had no interest in doing so consistently. Thus, he stole someone else's children's version of the New Testament, copied it over, and read from it once a year during the Christmas season. This was as much as he was willing to do, to convince his family he was religious.
Paragraph 6: Similarly, as an explanation of how it is that Dickens didn't talk about religion most of the time, while partying with worldly friends, he says that he was actually praying in private every morning and evening. He was doing no such thing. This is a bare-faced lie.
Now, do you get some sense of how extreme the discrepancy is between a full-blown sociopath's social persona, and his actual self? This is how Donald Trump is able to fool so many people. Charles Dickens' personal character was a very close match for Donald Trump.
And that is as close to politics as I intend to get, in this blog. It's a word-to-the-wise situation.
(Enjoy your Fourth of July. This may be the last one.)
As for Charles Dickens, the letter I've shared with you was reproduced online by a Christian writer who has also extolled the work of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein. I cannot find any way to contact her, which may be just as well. She has a wolf in with her sheep--a devil mixed in with her angels. Presumably, she has not read some of the more recent muckraking biographies of Dickens. Incidentally, I don't have to go on speculation. Charles Dickens was, at the time this letter was written, having an affair with a young actress named Ellen Ternan, having put away his wife Catherine, and having lied outrageously about the causes of their separation. He had even attempted to have Catherine dishonestly committed to an insane asylum--I think, in order to discredit her if she ever "spilled the beans." Meanwhile, he was giving a reading tour in which his favorite act was reading the scene from "Oliver Twist," in which Bill Sykes murders his girlfriend, Nancy--which Dickens threw himself into with such gusto, taking both roles, that he had a minor stroke and was ordered by his doctor to quit.
Search, online, for the "Violated Letter" by Charles Dickens. This is one outrageous, sanctimonious public lie from one end to the other, and that can be 100% proved from the historical record. Now take the "Violated Letter," and compare it with this letter to his son. The "Violated Letter" flat out disproves this one.
Enough said.
Sincerely,
Stephen Sakellarios, M.S.
