did dostoevsky meet dickens?

[Hugh McLean]

Dear Eric,

I haven't any bibliography to cite, but I strongly doubt the 
authenticity of the account. I've recently read a Dickens biography, and 
I don't think he was ever that self-critical. And in fact he wasn't that 
bad in real life. True, late in life he fell in love with a much younger 
woman and ditched his long-term wife, who had borne him something like 
nine children (he blamed her for getting pregnant so often!), even 
walling off her portion of the house. But he was on generally good terms 
with his children, and he was on occasion very generous to people in 
need of some kind.  In what language would he have conversed with FMD? I 
doubt that Dickens knew much French, he was almost entirely 
self-educated.  It seems most unlikely that he would have made such 
damaging, soul-searching revelations to a, to him, completely unknown 
foreigner. It's a fake!

Hugh

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