Letters from Charles Dickens to Gaskell

I went to look at the letters that Dickens wrote to Gaskell in the 19th century. The first letter he wrote to her was inquiring whether she wanted to be a part of his, 'journal of general literature' I could make out from that particular letter that he continued to write, ' whether you can give me any hope that you will write a short tale, or any number of tales, for the project paper.' Dickens though highly of Gaskells writing and often praised her work he particularly liked her ghost tales.

After studying these very old letters, it made me really think about letters nowadays and how little people write to one another. We are in an era of technology where nothing can be slow moving everything has to be instant with messaging like texting and e-mailing. People are in continual communication with one another and do not have the patience to wait for a letter. Meaning very few people write, they usually will type them. It is shocking looking at people’s handwriting today because often adults have a similar style to writing as a child, that is just learning because they never write they always type.

Writing letters used to be such an art, using ink on a page and gliding the nip on a crisp piece of paper forming beautiful letters making it look more like a piece of art then a letter. It also makes the writing look more fluid then regimented which you find when tying a letter. It used to give people a different sense of identity though how they created their letters. Now you cannot tell anyone apart from one another because everyone writes in Times New Roman. It was not just the letters but envelops and how they would bind them with a wax seal, usually of their family crest.

(I could not turn the images around the right way)

It has really awoke the anti technological side of me not wanting people to always move forward but to still used crafts that our grandparents continually relied on like letters. I really want to start writing more letters myself to other people it makes it that more special and thoughtful when you write and receive a letters because the whole process takes a lot longer.