No Thoroughfare by Charles Dickens (Illustrated)

By Charles Dickens

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘No Thoroughfare’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Charles Dickens’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Dickens includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘No Thoroughfare’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Dickens’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786567239

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer and social critic. Regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era, Dickens had a prolific collection of works including fifteen novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories and articles. The term “cliffhanger endings” was created because of his practice of ending his serial short stories with drama and suspense. Dickens’ political and social beliefs heavily shaped his literary work. He argued against capitalist beliefs, and advocated for children’s rights, education, and other social reforms. Dickens advocacy for such causes is apparent in his empathetic portrayal of lower classes in his famous works, such as The Christmas Carol and Hard Times.

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The Complete Works of

CHARLES DICKENS

VOLUME 38 OF 64

No Thoroughfare

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2015

Version 13

COPYRIGHT

‘No Thoroughfare’

Charles Dickens: Parts Edition (in 64 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 723 9

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

Charles Dickens: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 38 of the Delphi Classics edition of Charles Dickens in 64 Parts. It features the unabridged text of No Thoroughfare from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Charles Dickens, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Charles Dickens or the Complete Works of Charles Dickens in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

CHARLES DICKENS

IN 64 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

1, A Dinner at Poplar Walk

The Novels

2, The Pickwick Papers

3, Oliver Twist

4, Nicholas Nickleby

5, The Old Curiosity Shop

6, Barnaby Rudge

7, Martin Chuzzlewit

8, Dombey and Son

9, David Copperfield

10, Bleak House

11, Hard Times

12, Little Dorrit

13, A Tale of Two Cities

14, Great Expectations

15, Our Mutual Friend

16, The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Droodiana

17, The Cloven Foot by Robert Henry Newell

18, John Jasper’s Secret by Henry Morford

19, Part Second of the Mystery of Edwin Drood by Thomas James

20, A Great Mystery Solved by Gillan Vase

The Christmas Novellas

21, A Christmas Carol

22, The Chimes

23, The Cricket on the Hearth

24, The Battle of Life

25, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain

The Short Story Collections

26, Sketches by Boz

27, Master Humphrey’s Clock

28, Christmas Numbers of ‘Household Words’

29, Christmas Numbers of ‘All the Year Round’

30, Miscellaneous Short Stories

31, Reprinted Pieces

The Plays

32, The Strange Gentleman

33, The VIllage Coquettes

34, Is She His Wife?

35, The Lamplighter

36, Mr. Nightingale’s Diary

37, The Frozen Deep

38, No Thoroughfare

The Poetry

39, The Collected Poetry of Charles Dickens

The Non-Fiction

40, Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi by Thomas Egerton Wilks

41, American Notes

42, Pictures from Italy

43, The Life of Our Lord

44, A Child’s History of England

45, The Uncommercial Traveller

46, The Speeches

47, The Letters

48, Miscellaneous Papers

The Adaptations

49, Tales from Dickens by Hallie Erminie Rives

50, Dickens’ Children by Jessie Willcox Smith

51, Dickens’ Stories About Children Every Child Can Read by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

52, Sam Weller by W. T. Moncrieff

53, Oliver Twist by Charles Zachary Barnett

54, Nicholas Nickleby by Edward Stirling

55, The Old Curiosity Shop by Edward Stirling

The Criticism

56, The Criticism

The Biographies

57, The Life of Charles Dickens by John Forster

58, Forster’s Life of Dickens by George Gissing

59, Dickens by Sir Adolphus William Ward

60, Life of Charles Dickens by Sir Frank T. Marzials

61, Victorian Worthies: Charles Dickens by G. H. Blore

62, Dickens’ London by M. F. Mansfield

63, My Father as I Recall Him by Mamie Dickens

64, Brief Biography by Leslie Stephen

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No Thoroughfare

A DRAMA IN FIVE ACTS.

In 1867 Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated on a stage play titled No Thoroughfare: A Drama: In Five Acts. This was the last stage production to be associated with Dickens, who died in June 1870. The play opened at the Adelphi Theatre on 26 December 1867.

The novella No Thoroughfare was also first published in 1867, in the Christmas number of Dickens’ periodical All The Year Round. In the plot, there are thematic parallels with other books from Dickens’ mature writings, including Little Dorrit and especially Our Mutual Friend.

The publication of the story in All The Year Round represents an early example of commercial merchandising, promoting the story to those that were aware of the stage play, and the drama to those who had already read the book. The ‘chapters’ of the book are referred to as ‘acts’ and relate heavily to the acts of the play.

The plot concerns two boys from the Foundling Hospital, who are given the same name, Walter Wilding, with disastrous consequences in adulthood. After the death of one – now a proprietor of a wine merchant’s company – the executors, to right the wrong, are commissioned to find a missing heir. Their quest takes them from wine cellars in the City of London to the sunshine of the Mediterranean – across the Alps in winter. Danger and treachery would prevail were it not for the courage of the heroine, Marguerite, and a faithful company servant.

No Thoroughfare successfully ran for two-hundred performances and starred Charles Fechter as Obenreizer, Benjamin Webster as head cellarman Joey Ladle, John Billington as Wilding and Carlotta Leclercq as Marguerite.  Henry Neville played Vendale, repeating the part in a later production at the Olympic in November 1876.  Fechter and Dickens wrote a different version in French called L’abime, first produced at the Vaudeville in Paris on 2 June 1868.  There were various pirated versions in America, including one at the Park Theatre, Brooklyn, 6 January 1868.

An original play bill for the drama

CONTENTS

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

ACT I.

ACT II.

ACT III.

ACT IV.

ACT V.

NO THOROUGHFARE.

(Altered from the Christmas Story, for Performance on the Stage.)

BY

CHARLES DICKENS AND WILKIE COLLINS.

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

WALTER WILDING.

GEORGE VENDALE.

BINTREY.

OBENREIZER.

JOEY LADLE.

MAÎTRE VOIGHT.

MONK.

Visitors (Ladies and Gentlemen), Servants, Monks,

Guides, &c. &c. &c.

MARGUERITE.

THE LADY.

SALLY GOLDSTRAW.

MADAME DOR.

Scene of the first Three Acts — London.

Scene of the last Two Acts — Switzerland.

Period — The Present Century.

ACT I.

(In Three Scenes.)

FIRST SCENE. — The exterior of the Foundling Hospital. A dark night. The wind heard moaning. THE LADY, plainly dressed, is discovered waiting at the door by which the nurses of the Foundling enter and leave the institution. THE LADY listens at the door, then takes a turn on the stage, and returns to the door. At the same moment two or three nurses pass out. THE LADY, after eyeing them carefully, one by one, under the lamp which is over the door, lets them go, without speaking to them. A pause after the last nurse has gone out. SALLY GOLDSTRAW appears at the door. THE LADY recognises and stops her. The dialogue begins.

The Lady. Stop!

Sally. What do you want, ma’am?

The Lady. A word with you in private.

Sally. Are you mistaking me for somebody else? I have never seen you before.

The Lady. I saw you this morning. You were pointed out to me by a friend who was willing to assist me so far. You are known here as Sally Goldstraw. And you first entered this institution, on this very day, twelve years since. It was impossible for me to speak to you this morning, for it was impossible for me to see you in private. I must speak to you now.

Sally. You seem to know all about me, ma’am. Might I make so bold as to ask, who you are?

The Lady. Come and look at me under the lamp.

Sally (looking at her under the lamp). I don’t know you. I never saw you before to-night.

The Lady. Do I