Autograph letter signed ('Charles Dickens') to [Alfred d'Orsay, comte d'Orsay], Devonshire Terrace, 30 March 1848

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Autograph letter signed ('Charles Dickens') to [Alfred d'Orsay, comte d'Orsay], Devonshire Terrace, 30 March 1848
In French. Two pages, 181 x 115mm, bifolium. Provenance: Sotheby's, 23 July 1987, lot 56.

A high-spirited letter on the completion of his latest novel: 'I am free! Dombey is finished, my work is done, and I can breathe!' (translation). Dickens announces the completion of his novel, Dombey & Son, and proposes a celebration on 11 April with 'a little dinner à la Dombey, to celebrate the conclusion of this (no doubt) immortal work', to which he invites d'Orsay: 'All the guests are already known to you; and you are (unfortunately) an out-of-the-ordinary apparition at my table and my home. – So do come!'. In reference to the 'year of revolutions' (with governments having already been overthrown in the Italian states in January, in France in February and in the German states and Denmark in March), Dickens writes 'It is possible that the English revolution may happen the same day. In that case, we will dine on the next day, or, if the Duke of Wellington should be killed by a great rifle shot given to him in Trafalgar Square by one of our fellow citizens, then we shall not dine until the 15th – as a proof of our respect for his memory'. The letter concludes with enquiries after the recipient's household, including 'les deux Miss Pouers' (i.e. the two Misses Power, nieces of Lady Blessington, d'Orsay's companion), and after a 'petit docteur', whom Dickens has not seen for five or six years: 'Is he still alive, or has he boldly swallowed his own medicine, and died of it?'.

Alfred d'Orsay, comte d'Orsay (1801-1852), artist and dandy, was a close friend of Dickens, and godfather to his fourth son, Alfred. D'Orsay's portrait of the Duke of Wellington, 1845, was reputedly a favourite of the Duke's.