“Dear Mr. Dickens”
by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe.
Albert Whitman & Company, Chicago, 2021, 32 pages, Grades 2-4.
In recent weeks in the United States and elsewhere, there have been outbreaks of antisemitism and Islamophobia. The recent war in Gaza seems to have caused these two evils to rise to the surface. Both are based on hatred and prejudice.
Where do such feelings come from? The answers are usually complex. Sometimes people are prejudiced against anyone who is different from them.
How is it possible to overcome this bigotry? One of the ways is to get to know someone from the group targeted with hate. It is through human-to-human interaction that these evils can be transformed. Nancy Churnin has written an excellent biography of a famous author overcoming his antisemitic views. His name was Charles Dickens and he was—and remains—well known for his works such as “A Christmas Carol,” “A Tale of Two Cities,” “Great Expectations” and more. Churnin’s biography is entitled, “Dear Mr. Dickens.”
Mrs. Eliza Davis is an enthusiastic reader of Dickens’ novels. But one aspect of his writing is deeply disconcerting to her. His obvious antisemitism disturbs Mrs. Davis.
Being Jewish, Eliza finds the degrading descriptions of Fagin in Dickens’ famous novel “Oliver Twist” as “a Jew” to be mean and spiteful. Instead of referring to Fagin by his name, Dickens continually calls him the dishonest, cruel, selfish, ugly Jew. Fagin is, in fact, a horribly-behaved character, but Dickens frequently doesn’t even use his name in the early edition of “Oliver Twist.”
Words have meaning and they can hurt people. Each time Eliza reads these description of Fagin, she feels her Jewish identity is being attacked. What to do? Charles Dickens is the most famous Victorian writer of the age and she is an unknown married woman with several children. Nevertheless, she decides to write him a letter and tell him her feelings about his vile prejudice against Jewish people. She mails the letter and wonders if Dickens will write back.
Several weeks later, his return letter demonstrated no desire to change his opinion about Jews. Well, that letter didn’t work. Mrs. Davis decides to write another letter to get Dickens to change his beliefs. Is it possible to change a deeply ingrained prejudice in another person? What does Eliza do?
How does Mrs. Davis remind Dickens of some of the Jewish literary characters he so admired? How does this lead to a series of letters between the two? Why is Dickens able to see his own prejudices? What does this lead him to do with the later editions of “Oliver Twist”? How does this modest woman help a literary giant try to overcome his antisemitism? To find the answers to these and other questions, go to the library and check out “Dear Mr. Dickens” by Nancy Churnin.
Churnin portrays Dickens’ antisemitism without condemning the great writer. Mrs. Davis confronts the famous Victorian but also shows him a way to become a better person. Readers see Dickens growing in awareness of his latent Jewish hostility and striving to overcome the problem. To Dickens’s credit, he accepts Mrs. Davis admonitions and becomes a better person.
This book shows the value of personal interaction in helping overcome deep-seated biases. The illustrations are charming and the writing is most informative. I hope you get a chance to check out this fine title. Highly recommended.
