F. G. Kitton, in The Minor Writings of Charles Dickens, says 'By Rail to Parnassus' is solely by Dickens (an attribution made in consultation with Charles Dickens the younger); the Household Words Contributors' Book, however, lists the piece as solely by Morley. Dickens may well have suggested the subject and even the mode of handling it (both earlier and later, in Household Words and All the Year Round, he wrote impressionistic travel accounts which fused the exterior sights and sounds of a journey with the narrator's interior thoughts and imaginings), but there seems to be little of Dickens' work in this rather mechanical rendition of the idea. Perhaps in addition to suggesting the piece, he corrected, tightened, and otherwise modified Morley's galley proofs, and perhaps he introduced a few imaginative interjections which momentarily galvanize the narrative - such interjections as the two sentences beginning, 'Clapham! Clapham!' (p. 478), the passage within brackets (p. 479), and similar bits.
Harry Stone; © Bloomington and Indiana University Press, 1968. DJO gratefully acknowledges permission to reproduce this material.
Leigh Hunt, Stories in Verse, 1855.
