Great expectations as Dickens’ ‘beloved’ pen has first public view

THE QUILL that Charles Dickens used to write most of his classic novels, including A Christmas Carol, will be displayed to the public for the first time.

The ivory pen was given to Dickens by his wife Catherine for Christmas, in the London home that is now a museum dedicated to the Victorian author.

The gift was inscribed with the words “To dear Charlie from Kate, Xmas 1838”, written in needle, which experts believe Catherine wrote herself.

The quill pen doubled up as a pencil and sharpener and Dickens took it everywhere with him, including on his travels abroad, confirmed in a letter by his sister-in-law.

The pen was previously owned by a private American collector and the Charles Dickens Museum acquired it at the beginning of the pandemic after a lengthy process.

Cindy Sughrue, director of the Charles Dickens Museum, said: “[The] fact that Charles hung on for decades to an item bearing such a personal message suggests some lingering warmth towards Catherine, despite their eventual separation.

“It reflects his love of a gadget and also radiates the warmth of Christmas at an exciting time for a couple building a family in their new home.

“We are delighted to be displaying it in that very home as we look forward to another Doughty Street Christmas.”

Ms Sughrue went on to say that as he acquired the pen in 1838, it would have been just after he had finished writing Oliver Twist and during his serialisation of Nicholas Nickleby.

He then went on to use it to write the majority of his famed works, including Great Expectations (1861), Bleak House (1853) and A Christmas Carol (1843).

Ms Sughrue continued: “The letter by his sister-in-law serves as a testimonial, saying that, ‘this pen was indeed used by him throughout his life and toured with him when he went abroad’.

“It is something that had a personal meaning and affection for him, despite his later separation from Catherine in fairly if not acrimonious but certainly cold circumstances.

“He loved the pen so much that he still had it with him to the very end, while he was writing the unfinished work of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

In addition to the pen, three sketches by John Leech, Dickens’s original illustrator, will also go on display. They depict scenes in another Christmas novella.