Chapter 6

Pages 117-140.

WRITING THE PICKWICK PAPERS. ÆT. 25.

First letter from him 117 As he was thirty-five years ago 118 Mrs. Carlyle and Leigh Hunt 119 Birth of eldest son 119 From Furnival's Inn to Doughty Street 119 A long-remembered sorrow 120 I visit him 120 Hasty compacts with publishers 121 Self-sold into quasi-bondage 121 Agreements for editorship and writing 121 Mr. Macrone's scheme to reissue _Sketches_ 122 Attempts to prevent it 123 Exorbitant demand 123 Impatience of suspense 123 Purchase advised 124 _Oliver Twist_ 125 Characters real to himself 125 Sense of responsibility for his writings 126 Criticism that satisfied him 126 Help given with his proofs 126 Writing _Pickwick_, Nos. 14 and 15 127 Scenes in a debtors' prison 128 A recollection of Smollett 128 Reception of _Pickwick_ 129 A popular rage 129 Mr. Carlyle's "dreadful" story 130 Secrets of success 130 _Pickwick_ inferior to later books 131 Exception for Sam Weller and Mr. Pickwick 131 Personal habits of C. D. 132 Reliefs after writing 133 Natural discontents 134 The early agreements 134 Tale to follow _Oliver Twist_ 135 Compromise with Mr. Bentley 135 Trip to Flanders 135 First visit to Broadstairs 136 Piracies of _Pickwick_ 137 A sufferer from agreements 138 First visit to Brighton 138 What he is doing with _Oliver Twist_ 139 Reading De Foe 139 "No Thoroughfare" 139 Proposed help to Macready 140