We could argue about whether it’s
fair to put Dickens’ novels into the category of children’s literature.
Certainly his contemporary audience included all ages and pretty much all
classes. Leaving that to one side, though, I’ve been a lover of Dickens ever
since I first read “David Copperfield” as a kid. It took me longer than any
other novel I’d read up to that point, but it was well worth it.
As for George Cruickshank, in the
early part of his career he was pretty much a successor to political cartoonist
James Gillray. When he illustrated Dickens “Sketches by Boz” he was far more
well known and popular than the author, although Dickens’ success would come to
far outstrip Cruikshank. In later years Cruickshank claimed credit for much of
the plot of Olver Twist, which frankly seems unlikely. It’s worth noting that
he waited until Dickens had died before writing a letter to the Times to claim
as much in 1871. Cruikshank is interesting to me because he provides a link
between the cartoonist illustrators of Gillray’s generation, and those of
Tenniel’s generation.
