The Sparkler is a fictionalised account of part of the life of
author Charles Dickens. I opened it in happy anticipation. Alan Humm is
well known for his poetry, and as editor of One Hand Clapping magazine, but
this is his first novel, so I didn’t know quite what to expect from him, or from
the novel’s subject. I’ve read several novels by Charles Dickens, but
have never given much thought to the man himself. And of course, The
Sparkler is a work of fiction, rather than a factual biography. So, what
did I think of it?
I have to say, it is a
sparkling read. It’s glittering and luminous in terms of story,
characterisation and writing style. It’s a vibrant read, whisking us back
almost two centuries in time to a world which turns out to be just as lively,
glorious and even abrasive as our own. Twenty-something Charles Dickens
crackles off the page. Through Alan Humm’s prose we are caught in the sense of
animation as we follow the restless, newly married, optimistic, ambitious young
man who is fully committed to becoming a famous writer. Dickens is mercurial
and impulsive, trawling the grimiest streets of Victorian London by gaslight,
infatuated with Sarah, who’s sometime bar-maid, sometime prostitute, fiercely
independent woman. Dickens is obsessed with her, and with his wife’s
17-year-old sister. He’s also obsessed with the theatre, and writing, and above
all, in making his name. Obsession doesn’t quite reach his relationship with
his wife, and this is an interesting aspect of the story. It’s as if having a
good wife, in Dickens’s eyes, was all about helping him achieve and maintain
his desired social status. And though this might make us critical of him, it
can also make us see him as vulnerable.
Having read and enjoyed the
novel, I sought out information about the real Dickens, and it’s clear Alan
Humm crafted his novel meticulously as a work of fiction drawing on conflicts
and notoriety attached to the man himself. It seems Dickens could perfect a
world in fiction, while recklessness and spontaneity jeopardised his own life’s
story. The Dickens in The Sparkler seems to be all ‘me, me, me’.
Tempering this is Humm’s almost tender portrayal of him tormented by memories
of being a young lad feeling brutalised and adrift in the harsh streets of the
city, and suffering anxieties over loss of home, security – and status. There’s
a lot to think about in this novel. Through his vivid storytelling, Alan Humm
has created for us Dickens the character who is spirited, energetic, and
something of a firecracker. In short, The Sparkler is exactly that.
Extract of The Sparkler
He decided to sit it out. He found a space just to the rear. It
was a side street, suburban enough, with pots of flowers and
a pump that seemed somehow apologetic. The sky was lower
here, more threatening, but also more contained. It seemed to
hide between the chimney pots. There was a bench from which
he would see her when she came out. It wouldn’t matter how
long he had to wait, he told himself, and, indeed, it didn’t. It
took on the nature of a vigil. The longer he waited the more
approving of himself he was. In his imagination, there was
something medieval, something almost exemplary, about his
profile. This was what fidelity would look like if you should
want to draw it.
He became colder and colder but he would not stop. He
would not give in. Sometimes he paced up and down but that
was all that he allowed himself to do. He was there for hours.
His thoughts seemed to clang around, uselessly, inside him. All
they were, really, were the tail end of his observation of the
stones beneath his feet, the small street and the gap at the end,
a natural proscenium: the pub on one side and a house at the
other and the clouds looming above them both. It was nine
o’clock in the evening now. There were, he calculated, hours
to go. But he would not move. He was not only proving something but exhibiting it to himself. As a child, in the factory, he
had locked hands with the other boys and arm-wrestled over
the packing cases. Not often. They had easily defeated him. But
this felt like that: the way that all of you was rolled up into one
fierce gesture of concentration; the way that the strength of
your opponent was something that you were staring down. He
would not allow himself to feel the cold. He would not think
about how hungry he was feeling. And now he would not even
stand. He took on the bench in the same way that he had taken
on all of the things he had had to wrestle with since he was a
boy.
Then, there she was. (p.226-7)
Q&A with Alan Humm
CMcK: Hello Alan. Welcome to my blog! The Sparkler is such an intriguing novel. What drew you to write about
Dickens?
AH: I've been reading Dickens ever
since I was a child. There are aspects of his writing that I still enjoy very
much - I particularly like his gift for metaphor, for example - but, as I've
got older, I've become more and more interested in his life, and by its
relation to his writing. Why did he write so little about sex? Why are so many
of his female characters so very sweet and wan and unassuming? These were
questions that I found, more and more, that I wanted the answers to.
CMcK: Why did you choose to write
fiction rather than biography?
AH: If you want facts, then a
biography is the place to go. And, yes, there are many biographies that also
convey some sense of emotional truth but I do think that fiction also has its
place here. We can only ever know so much about a person's life, especially
about one that was lived so long ago, and there are gaps that I'm sure we'd all
like to see filled in. The biggest gap in Dickens's life, it seems to me, is
what he actually felt about his sister-in-law. When she died he was distraught;
way more than you might have expected him to be. Fiction allowed me to suggest
an answer to my own question. Having said that, I only ever worked within the
parameters of his real life. I didn't change a single known fact. In the end, I
started to believe in the plot of the book myself.
CMcK: Why did you choose that
particular time of his life?
AH: It was more that it was chosen
for me. I read Becoming Dickens by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
and it was all there: the characters; the milieu; the conflicts. I couldn't
resist.
CMcK: Was Charles Dickens a nice
person?
AH: It depends what you mean by
"nice". He was funny, charming, intelligent and a warm-hearted and
passionately indignant social reformer. He was also a loyal and generous
friend. But he could be extraordinarily unkind and self-absorbed. He was as much
of a human being, in other words, as the rest of us: as good and as bad as we
all are in our daily lives. The one thing he undoubtedly was (and is) is
fascinating. I hope I've been able to communicate that, at least.
CMcK: These are such interesting answers to my questions! Thanks so much for guesting on my blog, Alan. I really enjoyed reading The Sparkler, and wish it every success.
For more information about Alan Humm and his writing, visit his website
The Sparkler is widely available to buy. See publisher Vine Leaves Press's website for full information.
