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Speeches: Literary and Social

Charles Dickens

The opening of this collection sets the stage for an exploration of Dickens’s life and career, detailing his early influences and rise as a prominent writer and public figure.

"Speeches: Literary and Social" by Charles Dickens is a collection of public addresses and writings. The opening of this collection sets the stage for an exploration of Dickens’s life and career, detailing his early influences and rise as a prominent writer and public figure.

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[At a public dinner, given in honour of Mr. Dickens, and presided over by the late Professor Wilson, the Chairman having proposed his health in a long and eloquent speech, Mr. Dickens returned thanks as follows:—]

If I felt your warm and generous welcome less, I should be better able to thank you. If I could have listened as you have listened to the glowing language of your distinguished Chairman, and if I could have heard as you heard the “thoughts that breathe and words that burn,” which he has uttered, it would have gone hard but I should have caught some portion of his enthusiasm, and kindled at his example. But every word which fell from his lips, and every demonstration of sympathy and approbation with which you received his eloquent expressions, renders me unable to respond to his kindness, and leaves me at last all heart and no lips, yearning to respond as I would do to your cordial greeting—possessing, heaven knows, the will, and desiring only to find the way.

Contents

  1. 01Introduction.
  2. 02I. Edinburgh, June 25, 1841.
  3. 03II. January, 1842.
  4. 04III. February 1842.
  5. 05IV. February 7, 1842.
  6. 06V. New York, February 18, 1842.
  7. 07VI. Manchester, October 5, 1843.
  8. 08VII. Liverpool, February 26, 1844.
  9. 09VIII. Birmingham, February 28, 1844.
  10. 10IX. Gardeners and Gardening. London, June 14, 1852.
  11. 11X. Birmingham, January 6, 1853.
  12. 12XI. London, April 30, 1853.
  13. 13XII. London, May 1, 1853.
  14. 14XIII. Birmingham, December 30, 1853.
  15. 15XIV. Commercial Travellers. London, December 30, 1854.
  16. 16XV. Administrative Reform.
  17. 17XVI. Sheffield, December 22, 1855.
  18. 18XVII. London, February 9, 1858.
  19. 19XVIII. Edinburgh, March, 26, 1858.
  20. 20XIX. London, March 29, 1858.
  21. 21XX. London, April 29, 1858.
  22. 22XXI. London, May 1, 1858.
  23. 23XXII. London, July 21, 1858.
  24. 24XXIII. Manchester, December 3, 1858.
  25. 25XXIV. Coventry, December 4, 1858.
  26. 26XXV. London, March 29, 1862.
  27. 27XXVI. London, May 20, 1862.
  28. 28XXVII. London, May 11, 1864.
  29. 29XXVIII. London, May 9, 1865.
  30. 30XXIX. Newspaper Press Fund. London, May 20, 1865.
  31. 31XXX. Knebworth, July 29, 1865.
  32. 32XXXI. London, February 14, 1866.
  33. 33XXXII. London, March 28, 1866.
  34. 34XXXIII. London, May 7, 1866.
  35. 35XXXIV. London, June 5, 1867.
  36. 36XXXV. London, September 17, 1867.
  37. 37XXXVI. London, November 2, 1867.
  38. 38XXXVII. Boston, April 8, 1868.
  39. 39XXXVIII. New York, April 18, 1863.
  40. 40XXXIX. New York, April 20, 1868.
  41. 41XL. Liverpool, April 10, 1869.
  42. 42The Oxford and Harvard Boat Race. Sydenham, August 30, 1869.
  43. 43XLII. Birmingham, September 27, 1869.
  44. 44XLIII. Birmingham, January 6, 1870.
  45. 45XLIV. London, April 6, 1846.
  46. 46XLV. Leeds, December 1, 1847.
  47. 47XLVI. Glasgow, December 28, 1847.
  48. 48XLVII. London, April 14, 1851.
  49. 49XLVIII. The Royal Literary Fund. London, March 12, 1856.
  50. 50XLIX. London, November 5, 1857.
  51. 51L. London, May 8, 1858.
  52. 52LI. The Farewell Reading. St. James’s Hall, March 15, 1870.
  53. 53LII. The Newsvendors’ Institution. London, April 5, 1870.
  54. 54LIII. Macready. London, March 1, 1851.
  55. 55LIV. Sanitary Reform. London, May 10, 1851.
  56. 56LV. Gardening. London, June 9, 1851.
  57. 57LVI. The Royal Academy Dinner. London, May 2, 1870.
  58. 58Charles Dickens as a Letter-Writer, and as a Poet.
  59. 59Charles Dickens’s Readings. The First Public Reading. By One Who Heard It.

About this edition

Author
Charles Dickens
Era
Modern (c. 1800–1945)
Reading level
Advanced: for close, demanding reading
Formats
EPUB, PDF
Length
298 pages
This edition
Modern Philosophers