{"id":66355,"date":"2014-02-07T19:28:03","date_gmt":"2014-02-08T00:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=66355"},"modified":"2014-02-07T18:27:06","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T23:27:06","slug":"realer-than-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/07\/realer-than-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Realer Than Real"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Charles Dickens was born today in 1812<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Charles_Dickens_Woodburytype.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-66359\" alt=\"Charles_Dickens,_Woodburytype\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Charles_Dickens_Woodburytype-949x1024.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Charles_Dickens_Woodburytype-949x1024.jpg 949w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Charles_Dickens_Woodburytype-278x300.jpg 278w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Charles_Dickens_Woodburytype.jpg 1295w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">FOOTE<\/p>\n<p>The most illuminating thing that ever happened to me in those early days was winning as a Sunday-school prize a copy of <em>David Copperfield<\/em>. Now, I\u2019d read <em>Tom Swift<\/em> and earlier Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, then moved on to the Rover Boys and Tarzan. But here came <em>David Copperfield<\/em>. I was dismayed that it was about six hundred pages long. But when I began to read I got so caught up in it\u2014when I finished it, I realized that I\u2019d been in the presence of something realer than real. I knew David better than I knew myself or anyone else. The way Dickens told that story caught me right then and there. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n<p>Was reading <em>David Copperfield<\/em> an early catalyst for making you a writer and not just a reader? \u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">FOOTE<\/p>\n<p>I absolutely think so. I didn\u2019t react immediately, but eventually it made me want to do what Dickens had done\u2014make a world that\u2019s somehow better in focus than real life, which goes rushing past you. He showed me how to do it too.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Shelby Foote, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/interviews\/931\/the-art-of-fiction-no-158-shelby-foote\">the Art of Fiction No. 158<\/a>, Summer 1999<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charles Dickens was born today in 1812. FOOTE The most illuminating thing that ever happened to me in those early days was winning as a Sunday-school prize a copy of David Copperfield. Now, I\u2019d read Tom Swift and earlier Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, then moved on to the Rover Boys and Tarzan. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9064],"tags":[1203,6160,1132,5872,12818,7782],"class_list":["post-66355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quote-unquote","tag-charles-dickens","tag-david-copperfield","tag-interviews","tag-realism","tag-shelby-foote","tag-the-art-of-fiction"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shelby Foote on Charles Dickens, Born Today in 1812<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 7, 2014 \u2013 Charles Dickens was born today in 1812. 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