A PAGE OF THACKERAY’S MANUSCRIPT
Showing an original sketch in the margin
(Reproduced from “Denis Duval,” by kind permission of Mrs. Richmond Ritchie)
Thackeray was not topographical in the sense that Dickens was. Often the briefest mention of a street satisfied him. Yet somehow the places of the principal scenes of his novels linger in the memory. As a young man he studied at Weimar, and later, while serving his apprenticeship both to art and letters, he resided from time to time at Paris. Had he never visited Germany, perhaps Amelia and Jos and Dobbin would not have gone Am Rhein, and the chapter about Becky and the Pumpernickel students would never have been written. Many of his characters went to Paris, which had for him a strong personal interest. It was there he wooed and won his wife. It was at Paris that he wrote the autobiographical verse in the ballad which tells of the Bouillabaisse served at Terré’s Tavern in the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs:
Ah me! how quick the days are flitting!
I mind me of a time that’s gone,
When here I’d sit, as now I’m sitting,
In this same place—but not alone.
A fair young form was nestled near me,
A dear dear face looked fondly up,
And sweetly spoke and smiled to cheer me,
—There’s no one now to share my cup.
From a photo by H. N. King, Avenue Road, W.