The Final Recollections of Charles Dickens

B
OOKS BY
T
HOMAS
H
AUSER

G
ENERAL
N
ONFICTION

Missing

The Trial of Patrolman Thomas Shea

For Our Children

(with Frank Macchiarola)

The Family Legal Companion

Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl

(with Dr. Robert Gale)

Arnold Palmer: A Personal Journey

Confronting America's Moral Crisis

(with Frank Macchiarola)

Healing: A Journal of Tolerance and Understanding

With This Ring

(with Frank Macchiarola)

A God to Hope For

Thomas Hauser on Sports

Reflections

F
ICTION

Ashworth & Palmer

Agatha's Friends

The Beethoven Conspiracy

Hanneman's War

The Fantasy

Dear Hannah

The Hawthorne Group

Mark Twain Remembers

Finding the Princess

Waiting for Carver Boyd

The Final Recollections of Charles Dickens

B
OXING
N
ONFICTION

The Black Lights

Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times

Muhammad Ali: Memories

Muhammad Ali: In Perspective

Muhammad Ali & Company

A Beautiful Sickness

A Year at the Fights

Brutal Artistry

The View from Ringside

Chaos, Corruption, Courage, and Glory

The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali

I Don't Believe It, But It's True

Knockout

(with Vikki LaMotta)

The Greatest Sport of All

The Boxing Scene

An Unforgiving Sport

Boxing Is . . .

Box: The Face of Boxing

The Legend of Muhammad Ali

(with Bart Barry)

Winks and Daggers

And the New . . .

Straight Writes and Jabs

Thomas Hauser on Boxing

F
OR
C
HILDREN

Martin Bear & Friends

Copyright © 2014 by Thomas Hauser

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental—with the exception of certain references to Charles Dickens and his real-life historical contemporaries.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication is available.

eBook ISBN 9781619024076

Cover design by Ann Weinstock

Interior design by Neuwirth & Associates

COUNTERPOINT

2560 Ninth Street, Suite 318

Berkeley, CA 94710

www.counterpointpress.com

Distributed by Publishers Group West

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1

To my muse

Contents

Book 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Book 2

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Book 3

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Note to the Reader

About the Author

A
UTHOR'S
N
OTE

This is a work of fiction. Throughout the manuscript, I have comingled Charles Dickens's words with my own. Prior to writing, I had the pleasure of reading all of Dickens's books and collected articles in addition to studying his times. I invite the reader to suspend disbelief and enjoy.

Thomas Hauser

New York, NY