Note 10 to Chapter 9 of the author's Dickens and the Rhetoric of Laughter which Clarendon Press published in 1972. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author and of the Clarendon Press, which retains copyright.
In The Dickens Wor1d, Humphry House argues that Twemlow's speech demonstrates both sincerity and sophistry and that his "ingenious phrasing very imperfectly conceals a sort of satisfaction in the fact that Eugene is really doing a very generous thing in marrying Lizzie, and that she is doing very well for herself by marrying him" (p. 163).
Last modified: 3 May 2001