[DICKENS CHARLES]: (1812-1870)

[DICKENS CHARLES]: (1812-1870) English novelist. BOULAY DE LA MEUTHE HENRI: (1797-1858) French politician who served as Vice President of France 1849-52 (the only person ever to have held that title). A.L.S., H. Boulay de la Meuthe, three pages, 8vo, Paris, 22nd January 1847, to François-Joseph Regnier of the Comédie française, on the printed stationery of the Garde Nationale de Paris - Onzième Légion, in French. Boulay de la Meuthe forwards a reply (no longer present) that he had received from Olivier Dufresne, one of the two Inspectors-General of the Seine Department, and remarks ´Je vous engage à profiter de l´offre qu´il fait de vous conduire avec Mr. Dickens et Forster´ (Translation: ´I urge you to take advantage of his offer to show you round, together with Mr Dickens and Mr Forster´), further writing ´À cet effet, écrivez-lui, en vous fondant sur la lettre qu´il m´a écrite.......pour lui demander le jour et l´heure où il pourrait vous conduire dans les prisons dont il est chargé et qui sont celles que vous désiriez surtout voir. Il demeure Rue Chanoinesse, No. 12. Il est fort obligeant; je suis certain que vous lui ferez plaisir d´avoir recours à son obligeance´ (Translation: ´To this end, write to him, referring to the letter he sent me....... to ask him for the date and time when he could take you to the prisons under his charge, which are the ones you were particularly keen to see. He lives at 12 Rue Chanoinesse. He is very obliging; I am sure you will please him by accepting his kindness´). In concluding Boulay de la Meuthe adds that he would be happy to write to the Prefect of Police to obtain a permit if his correspondent prefers. A couple of very light, minor traces of former mounting to the verso of the final page, VG

François-Joseph Regnier (1807-1885) French actor and playwright.

John Forster (1812-1876) English writer and biographer, a personal friend of Dickens and part of Dickens's social circle, and the author of The Life of Charles Dickens (1872), which was the first biography published of Dickens after his death.

Written during Dickens's stay in Paris with Forster in January 1847, the present letter records arrangements for the novelist to visit the French prisons under the supervision of the Seine authorities. Dickens's fascination with prisons and the machinery of justice was a recurring feature of both his travels and his fiction, finding expression in works such as Barnaby Rudge, Little Dorrit, and later A Tale of Two Cities, where the prisons of revolutionary Paris provide some of the novel's most memorable settings.