Unseen letters from Charles Dickens - the Portsmouth-born author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol - to be published for the first time

A batch of Charles Dickens’ correspondences will go on display tomorrow at the Charles Dickens Museum, in Doughty Street, London.

The 11 documents include assorted invitation notes, insights into the author’s reading habits, writing projects and details about a trip to Switzerland written to a friend.

In a letter dated February 10, 1866, Dickens also complains about the loss of a Sunday postal service and threatens to move away from his neighbourhood.

The Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield author writes: ‘I beg to say that I most decidedly and strongly object to the infliction of any such inconvenience upon myself.

‘There are many people in this village of Higham, probably, who do not receive or dispatch in a year, as many letters as I usually receive and dispatch in a day … I am on the best terms with my neighbours, poor and rich, and I believe they would be sorry to lose me.

‘But I should be so hampered by the proposed restriction that I think it would force me to sell my property here, and leave this part of the country.’

The letters are among more than 300 items acquired by the Charles Dickens Museum from a US collector in 2020, including personal objects, portraits, sketches, playbills and books.

In total, the entire collection is worth £1.8 million, and was acquired by the museum with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Friends of the National Libraries and the Dickens Fellowship.

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Emily Dunbar, curator at the Charles Dickens Museum, said: ‘One of the best things about this collection of letters is that it shows Dickens writing in his thirties, forties and fifties and the variety of topics that were occupying his mind.

‘The letter complaining about the loss of Sunday postal delivery is a great example of Dickens showing self-importance, his awareness his great fame and position in society coming to the fore.

‘He also mentions the huge volume of letters leaving and arriving at his address, of which this new set is a tiny but entertaining fraction.’

The exhibit will also be displayed online.