The Copy Book

Rest Cure

Whenever Charles Dickens felt his exhausting workload was starting to take its toll, he knew just what to do.

1864

Queen Victoria 1837-1901

Show Photo

‘Cabin Scene’, showing a passenger on a packet crossing the Channel.
By the Revd Thomas Streatfield (1777-1848), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Back to text

Rest Cure

By the Revd Thomas Streatfield (1777-1848), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Source

‘Cabin Scene’, showing a passenger on a packet crossing the Channel.

X

No further information.

Back to text

Introduction

Charles Dickens corresponded regularly with a Swiss friend whom he had met in Lausanne, a M. de Cerjat. In one of his letters, written from his home near Rochester in Kent, Dickens shared with his friend the secret of his remarkably industrious working life — frequent trips to France.

Gad’s Hill Place,
Higham by Rochester,
Tuesday, Oct. 25th, 1864.

I have altered this place very much since you were here, and have made a pretty (I think an unusually pretty) drawing-room. I wish you would come back and see it. My being on the Dover line, and my being very fond of France, occasion me to cross the Channel perpetually. Whenever I feel that I have worked too much, or am on the eve of overdoing it, and want a change, away I go by the mail-train, and turn up in Paris or anywhere else that suits my humour, next morning. So I come back as fresh as a daisy,* and preserve as ruddy a face as though I never leant over a sheet of paper. When I retire from a literary life I think of setting up as a Channel pilot.

* The following December, Dickens wrote in a letter to Mr B. W. Procter that “I got rid of a touch of neuralgia in France (as I always do there)”.

Précis

In a letter to his Swiss friend M de Cerjat, Charles Dickens expressed his satisfaction at the newly-remodelled drawing rom in his Gad’s Hill home. He also described how his work as a writer was helped by occasional hops across the Channel, especially to Paris, which could be relied on to cure him of any staleness. (56 / 60 words)

In a letter to his Swiss friend M de Cerjat, Charles Dickens expressed his satisfaction at the newly-remodelled drawing rom in his Gad’s Hill home. He also described how his work as a writer was helped by occasional hops across the Channel, especially to Paris, which could be relied on to cure him of any staleness.

Edit | Reset

Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, despite, just, must, not, or, whether.

Archive

Word Games

Sevens Based on this passage

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

Why did Dickens make his impulsive trips across the Channel?

Suggestion

Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.

Jigsaws Based on this passage

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Dickens often went to France. He wrote better afterwards.

Variation: Try rewriting your sentence so that it uses one or more of these words: 1. After 2. State 3. Trip

Spinners Find in Think and Speak

For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.

This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.

1 Place. See. Suit.

2 Anywhere. Daisy. Make.

3 Drawing. Much. Wish.

Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)

High Tiles Find in Think and Speak

Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?

x 0 Add

Your Words ()

Show All Words (35)

If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.

Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.

Related Posts

The Harrying of the North

Charles Dickens laments William the Conqueror’s brutal rampage through rebellious Durham and Yorkshire.

Hereward the Wake

Charles Dickens tells the story of Hereward the Wake, the last Englishman to stand up to William the Conqueror.

Richard Unchained

A conspiracy of European monarchs sought to delay Richard the Lionheart’s homecoming long enough for John to steal his crown.

Fair Rosamund

Charles Dickens tells the story of King Henry II and the enchantingly beautiful Rosamund Clifford.