Dickens’s gothic double: A tale of two cities and Watts Phillips’s The dead heart

Crofts, Matthew

Abstract

Dickens’s extraordinary literary reputation and close associations with the Victorian period can be seen in action through the lasting comparisons between his most read novel, A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and a now obscure play by the writer Watts Phillips: The Dead Heart (1859). While the facts surrounding any deliberate act of plagiarism between these two works have been critically discussed, the treatment of the subject by the popular presses that continued decades after the issue arose has been neglected. Using the motif of doubling that features prominently in A Tale of Two Cities, this article will explore how The Dead Heart became inextricably linked to Dickens’s more famous novel, despite its own contemporary acclaim. Such resemblances were unlikely to be resolved as professional writers had more pressing concerns than partial resemblances to other works, with unlicensed international publications leading to a severe loss of revenue. Coincidental timing and a hierarchical, reputation-obsessed society trapped one text in the other’s shadow, demonstrating a harmful tendency for works to be continually compared at the expense of exploring what led to such common ground.

Citation

Crofts, M. (2018). Dickens’s gothic double: A tale of two cities and Watts Phillips’s The dead heart. Victoriographies, 8(3), 290-306. https://doi.org/10.3366/vic.2018.0319

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 11, 2023
• Journal: Victoriographies
• Print ISSN: 2044-2416
• Electronic ISSN: 2044-2424
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 290-306
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/vic.2018.0319
• Keywords: Dickens; Watts Phillips; Melodrama; The French Revolution; Plagiarism
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4354830