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Autograph letter signed from Charles Dickens to Thomas Mitton, written from Albaro and dated 12 August 1844

What could be more quintessentially Christmas-y than Charles Dickens? Though a letter from the Victorian author may seem like an odd pick for a catalogue of manuscripts relating to Voltaire, this letter reveals the problematic legacy of Voltaire’s writings into the nineteenth-century and beyond, serving as a reminder that the afterlives of an author and their works can be just as revealing as their lives.

On 12 August 1844, Dickens wrote to Thomas Mitton from Albaro to provide several pieces of news. He discusses his ‘Christmas book’, outlines his plans to move to the Palazzo Peschiere in October, and provides details of his upcoming travel plans. The conversation quickly turns, however, to his current great annoyance. A box of his books had recently arrived in Italy but had become stuck at the Customs House there as they contained several books by Voltaire that the Customs officials found unsavoury due to his criticism of priests. Dickens quips that he was ‘not likely to read them to the Genevese, and woo them to their damnation’, but despite his good-humoured take on the situation, this scenario serves as a pertinent reminder of Voltaire’s complicated legacy.

During his lifetime, Voltaire’s books were regularly burned, seized, or censored throughout Europe, and they would continue to be banned for many years to come. The 1770 edition of the Vatican’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of books that Catholics should not read, sees Voltaire mentioned a total of 31 times, for instance, more than any other single author in the Index. And, as Dickens’ letter attests, Voltaire’s works remained contentious nearly 70 years after his death. Indeed, works such as Candide would be banned in places such as the US until 1959. Though written long after his death, then, this manuscript is a reminder of the complex afterlives that prominent authors have, and the many reinterpretations of them that shape their cultural legacy.

Dickens returns to Voltaire in a postscript, noting that the situation had been resolved. ‘They never pass Voltaire’, he writes, alluding to the Customs Officials that had halted the box of books, ‘but with great politeness, passed it for me.’ It seems that the literary fame of the Victorian author was sufficient enough to persuade the Italian Customs Officials to let Voltaire’s works through… just this once!

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