DICKENS (CHARLES) Autograph letter signed ('Charles Dickens') to Sir Joseph Olliffe ('My Dear Olliffe'), advising him that Mr Wills ('...my sub-editor and confidential right hand in Household Words...') will visit him ('...I want to show our ridiculous Corporation how improvements are made in Paris...'), and asking him to affect an introduction to '...anyone to whom you can introduce him with this view...', commenting on the Queen's visit that '...the Parisians won't find Her Majesty particularly handsome...', ending by expressing his incredulity at Daniel Maclise and his brother ascending to '...the top of Vesuvius in the blazing sunlight of August...', 2 pages on a bifolium, dust-staining, creased at folds, 8vo (178 x 111mm.), Folkstone, 26 August 1855 Footnotes: 'I WANT TO SHOW OUR RIDICULOUS CORPORATION HOW IMPROVEMENTS ARE MADE': Dickens sends Wills to Paris to obtain information about the Parisian public health system. Our letter introduces Dickens' '...confidential right-hand man...' William Henry Wills to Sir Joseph Olliffe (1807-1869), Irish-born physician to the British Embassy in Paris. Here Dickens expresses his wish to glean information on the Parisian public health system so he can advise '...our ridiculous Corporation...', that is the City of London, following an article in Household Words by Wills unfavourably comparing the two. Whilst he preferred to highlight political and social injustices through his novels and writings, in 1855, in a rare foray into organised politics, Dickens joined the newly founded Administrative Reform Association. At its third meeting on 27 June he '...made a scorchingly scornful anti-government speech... But it is above all in the three great novels of this decade... that his outrage and deep concern about the condition of England most powerfully manifest themselves...' (Michael Slater, ODNB). Queen Victoria and Prince Albert made a 10-day state visit to Paris in August 1855, the first time a British monarch had visited the city in over 400 years, following a highly successful visit to Windsor by Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie earlier in the year. They received a rapturous welcome from the French and departed on 27 August to the cries of 'Vive la Reine' from the crowd. The visit began a new 'entente' between the two countries and resulted in their joint involvement in the Crimean War. Our letter is published in the Pilgrim edition of Charles Dickens' letters, Vol.7, p.695. Provenance: Sotheby's, 15 June 2006, lot 144 (part). This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing