Liz Ison’s talk at the Dickens Museum explores what led Charles Dickens to revise his portrayal of his Jewish characters

Charles Dickens was accustomed to receiving hundreds of letters of admiration from his devoted readers. His best friend and biographer John Forster noted that, following the initial publication of his enduring classic, A Christmas Carol (1843), “There poured upon its author daily, letters from complete strangers…to tell him…how the Carol had come to be read aloud [in their homes], and was to be kept upon a little shelf by itself, and was to do them all no end of good”.

Dickens was clearly gratified that his writing was having this sort of impact and indeed thrived on the relationship between himself and his readers. In the first issue of his magazine Household Words Dickens expressed the “hope to be the comrade and friend of many thousands of people, of both sexes, and of all ages and conditions, on whose faces we may never look”.

Letters Dickens received from 46-year-old correspondent Mrs Eliza Davis, a London housewife and mother of 10, appeared to lavish praise on the author and the “nobility” of his character. In her letters Mrs Davis expressed “grateful and admiring recognition” and thanked Dickens for “a compliment paid to myself and my people” (1864; 1867). She even sent him a gift. But this praise had been hard-won.

The contrast in tone to Mrs Davis’s first letters of 1863 to Dickens is stark. In those earlier letters the Jewish Mrs Davis tells Dickens that he has “encouraged a vile prejudice” and that his “great mind appears to be against us”. She even sets him a challenge: “to justify himself or atone for a great wrong”.

*Eliza Davis and Charles Dickens correspondence book cover, with permission of Mocatta Manuscripts, UCL Library Services, Special Collections*

What was Eliza Davis’ initial complaint? What led to her dramatic shift from criticism to adulation? What exactly did Dickens do to change her mind about him?

The story that emerges from the seven letters exchanged between Davis and Dickens over the course of four years is a fascinating one. Davis had written to admonish Dickens for his portrayal of the villainous Fagin in his novel Oliver Twist, writing that “the pen of the novelist…is still whetted against the ‘Sons of Israel’”.

Neither Davis nor Dickens could have predicted from their initial testy exchange that their dialogue would lead to a change in the literary representation of Jews in Dickens’ future writing. Dickens’ initial response was a letter that sought, “to justify himself” (as Davis had put it). He defended his characterisation of Fagin and claimed that he always spoke well of the Jewish people “whether in public or in private”. Davis challenged his response. And what was to follow, while not an admission that Fagin’s portrayal was problematic, was a real change of heart or, in Davis’ form of words, an atonement.

*Charles Dickens Museum, photo courtesy Charles Dickens Museum*

Dickens’ act of “atoning” came in literary form. His last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend (his 14th), contained the character of a “benevolent Jew”: Mr Riah. Though Dickens didn’t explicitly acknowledge the link between the creation of this character and their correspondence, Mrs Davis would lay claim to Mr Riah; and John Forster, in his biography of Dickens, and with access to Davis’ letters, concurred, writing that Riah “was meant to wipe out a reproach [from a Jewish lady whom he esteemed] against his Jew in Oliver Twist”.

My talk at the Dickens Museum on 11 February 2025 for the London School of Jewish Studies will explore Dickens’ literary acts of “atonement”, present further insights into the relationship between Davis and Dickens and the character of Riah. I will also discuss the revisions Dickens subsequently made to the portrayal of Fagin in Oliver Twist and present a new analysis of the reception of those revisions by literary critics and editors up until today.

Before the talk, participants will be taken on a tour of Dickens’ historic home with the opportunity to explore the life, writings and legacy of Charles Dickens in the place where he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.

By Dr Liz Ison

The Lady who Changed Dickens’ Mind on the Jews takes place on Tue 11 February, 10.30am, £40. London School of Jewish Studies, NW4 2SJ. www.lsjs.ac.uk

Top image: Mr Riah and Jenny Wren in Our Mutual Friend. Illustration by Marcus Stone (1864). Courtesy of charlesdickensillustration.org