Item Info

Accession Number: 86-2778
Physical Description: [3] pages
Material: paper
Transcription:

 29 Janvier 1849
Mon cher comte.

  Tracey, et mon Chesterton (aussi governeur d’une prison immense et tres brave homme) vont diner chez moi Lundi prochain a 6 1/2  precisement, pour causer des prisons, des criminels, et des choses, en generale,  les plus agreeable du monde! —Le bon Forster (ah mon Dieu qu’il est excessivement gras!) Se rendra ici, le meme jour, et la meme heure.  Pouvez-vous, et voulez-vous, venir? Nous ne serons que six. Je serai heureux et charmè de vous voir, en  garçon et sans ceremonie.
  Madame et son fils vous envoient mille amities. Votre filleul et serieusement affigè de la maladie de Forster.
   Je vais, demain, à Bath, pour-y-rester le jour seulement. J’y vais diner avec Landor. C’est son jour de fete. Il aura demain, je crois, 75 ans.
  Votre tout devoué
   Charles Dickens
Dites a Milady que je l’aime toujours, et que je l’aimerai toujours.

[Translation]

Devonshire Terrace
  29 January 1849.
My Dear Count.
  Tracey, and my friend Chesterton (also governor of a large prison, and very brave man) are going to dine at my house next Monday at 6:30 precisely, for the cause of prisons, criminals, and things, in general, most agreeable to the world! – The good Forster (ah my God he is excessively fat!) will travel here, the same day, and the same hour. Can you, and do you want to, come? We will be only six. I will be happy and charmed to see you, boyish and without ceremony.
  Madame and her son send you a thousand friendships. Your godson is seriously afflicted with Forster’s sickness.
  I am going, tomorrow, to Bath, to stay there just the day. I am going there to dine with Landor. It’s his birthday. Tomorrow he will be, I think, 75 years old.
  Yours always faithfully
  Charles Dickens
Tell Milady that I love her always, and that I will love her always.

MssDate: 29 Janvier 1849
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes:

It was Landor's 74th birthday; they were also celebrating the bicentenary of Charles I's execution (Forster to Leigh Hunt, 3 Feb: MS BM). 

Recipient: Orsay, Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, comte d’, 1801-1852
Provenance: Sotheby 11-12 10/1976, Gratz fund.

Bibliography:

Volume 5, p. 481, The Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by Madeline House & Graham Storey; associate editors, W.J. Carlton…[et al.].

Call Number: DL Or8 1849-01-29
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author