The Phantom Narrator: The Gentleman of "The Old Curiosity Shop"

I am a fan of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. Both are authors whose works I have collected in hardcover at used book-sales at libraries and flea markets or asked for as Christmas or birthday gifts. Not that I see much similarity with their writing styles, I just find it an odd coincidence that both of my favorite authors are victims of the Phantom Narrator Syndrome.

Like Twain’s Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Charles Dickens disappointed me with The Old Curiosity Shop. Granted, there is a vast difference between these books, but both deal with saintly* young women who are destroyed due to the evil around them, and both are narrated by Phantoms. 

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Twain’s novel is narrated by the loyal but uncomplicated character of Louis, and Dickens starts off his novel with an unnamed Gentleman walking the streets of London and meeting the main heroine, Little Nell. He follows her home to her poor grandfather’s curiosity shop (an action I found a bit creepy, frankly) to make sure she gets home safely.  After this first encounter he can’t stop worrying about the impoverished, perfect child, and so goes to visit her again. 

Unfortunately the Gentleman’s fears are well-founded: Little Nell’s grandfather is a weak, foolish, greedy man addicted to gambling. Little Nell’s brother is pretty much the same (though a bit younger, I’d assume). The Grandfather owes money to the wicked money-lender Daniel Quilp** who sets his sights on being Evil For Pretty Much No Reason and taking over the curiosity shop and turning Nell and her grandfather into prisoners/servants.  Little Nell gets her grandfather to run away, and they become hobos…except without the nifty symbol-language or bindles hung over their shoulders.

At this point Dickens forgets that he was narrating in the first person (and pretty much forgets the Gentleman altogether) and switches to third person to finish this tale of inevitable woe and regret. This is one of the cases where the story should have been in third person for its entirety, though knowing how Dickens’ novels were published in installments and he probably didn’t anticipate the perspective shift until it was necessary. In writer’s lingo, Dickens was a pantser.*** 

*Though in Joan of Arc’s case, she is a saint.

**Seriously?  Where DOES Dickens get all these awesome and weird names?

***Though whether he actually went around pulling people’s pants down around their ankles is subject to speculation among literary critics.