At the very end of 1844, immediately after the success of the momentous readings of The Chimes, Dickens sent to Forster what would seem to have been his first extended “bit of autobiography” (Life 380; bk. 5; ch. 1),1 a long account of how, well before his first piece of writing was published in the Monthly Magazine of December 1833, he very nearly went on the stage, missing out on a crucial audition only because of “a terrible bad cold and an inflammation of the face.” He concludes the account by saying with an air of wonder, “See how near I may have been to another sort of life” (Life 60; bk. 1; ch. 4). In July of that year Dickens had uprooted himself and his family from London and based himself in Italy for a calendar year, returning only to read The Chimes. Away from old haunts and friends, and on a break from writing, he had plenty of time to mull over things. By the time he returned to England in July 1845 he was full of new schemes, seemingly determined to act out his musing and make “another sort of life” for himself. He wrote excitedly to Forster in July about starting a new periodical, The Cricket, and he ended the letter saying “like the parrot in the negro-story, I ‘think a dam deal’” (Letters 4: 328). After his return, much of his energy went into compensating for missing the stage career by directing and acting in a production of Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour. He was soon also engaged in a far more ambitious and momentous undertaking than starting a periodical. He became convinced that he could achieve more public leverage as a social reformer by taking on the full-time task of starting up and editing a new newspaper. He threw himself into this venture with his usual overwhelming energy, and The Daily News duly began life in January 1846 under his aegis. He aborted his part in the enterprise, however, after less than a month, realizing that there was no way he could sustain the editorship if he was ever to continue writing fiction. None the less, in June he was still making an overture to see whether

中文翻译：

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大卫科波菲尔和自传片段重新考虑

1844 年底，在《钟声》的重要阅读获得成功后，狄更斯立即寄给福斯特，这似乎是他的第一本扩展“自传”（Life 380; bk. 5; ch. 1）， 1 详细描述了在 1833 年 12 月的《月刊》上发表他的第一篇文章之前，他差点走上舞台，仅仅因为“严重的重感冒和炎症而错过了关键的试镜”。脸。” 他以一种惊奇的神情结束了叙述，“看看我可能离另一种生活有多近”（Life 60; bk. 1; ch. 4）。同年 7 月，狄更斯将自己和家人从伦敦连根拔起，并在意大利度过了一个日历年，返回时只阅读了《编钟》。远离老地方和朋友，在写作中休息，他有足够的时间仔细考虑事情。当他于 1845 年 7 月返回英国时，他充满了新的计划，似乎决心将他的想法付诸实践，为自己创造“另一种生活”。七月，他兴奋地写信给福斯特，说要创办一本新期刊《板球》，他在信的结尾说“就像黑人故事中的鹦鹉一样，我'认为是一笔大买卖'”（信函 4：328）。回归后，他的大部分精力都用于通过导演和表演本·琼森 (Ben Jonson) 的《幽默中的每个人》(Every Man in His Humour) 来弥补错过的舞台生涯。很快，他也开始了一项远比创办期刊更雄心勃勃、更重要的事业。他开始相信，作为一名社会改革者，他可以通过承担创办和编辑一家新报纸的全职工作来获得更多的公众影响力。他以一贯的压倒性精力投身于这项事业，《每日新闻》在他的支持下于 1846 年 1 月正式开始了生活。然而，不到一个月后，他就放弃了自己在这家企业的工作，意识到如果他要继续写小说，他就无法维持编辑的地位。尽管如此，在六月他还在做一个提议，看看是否