"I will be as disagreeable at Gravesend as I possibly can": an unpleasant dinner invitation
Autograph letter signed.
8vo. 1 p. on bifolium.
€ 3.500,00
To the Irish journalist and writer Robert Bell (1800-67), declining an inviation due to an unpleasant "engagement to dine at Gravesend" that same evening: "I have such an agreeable remembrance of my last very pleasant visit to you, and of my great enjoyment of your hospitality, that I am vexed to be under an engagement to dine at Gravesend next Tuesday. It is, however an engagement - and a grim business one to boot - and you know the reliability of your old manager. (I will be as disagreeable at Gravesend as I possibly can)".
Charles Dickens stayed at Gravesend from 7 to 15 April to oversee construction works at Gads Hill Place, which he had purchased in 1856. The "grim business" mentioned in the letter was probably in connection with these works. The self-designation as Bell's "old manager" is probably in reference to Dickens' role as director of the famous 1851 charity production of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's comedy "Not So Bad as We Seem, or, Many Sides to a Character". The cast included Robert Bell, Wilkie Collins, Augustus Egg, Mark Lemon, and Dickens himself.
With minor stains.
L. Litvack et al. (eds.), Charles Dickens Letters Project, Letter to Robert Bell, 30 March 1857, Dickens Fellowship, London 2016.
