Dickens’s shorthand manuscripts may be the only texts written by Dickens that have never been properly read. They have certainly been looked at, but have rarely been understood because the system of shorthand that Dickens used, Thomas Gurney’s Brachygraphy, is now almost unreadable. This is not just because the shorthand was as difficult to understand as David Copperfield claimed it to be. It was also because Dickens altered the system for his pupils and personalized it for himself. In a clear attempt to turn it into a system that was more user-friendly, he made his shorthand unreadable to anyone but himself. This article will describe Dickens’s shorthand manuscripts in detail and explore the changes that he himself made to the original Gurney script. It aims to shed light on how Dickens, like David Copperfield, faced up to the challenge of the “savage stenographic mystery” (535; ch. 43) both as a shorthand writer and a teacher of shorthand. It will also highlight the conceptual challenge that scholars face when trying to unravel the undeciphered items of his shorthand.

中文翻译：

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狄更斯速记手稿

狄更斯的速记手稿可能是狄更斯所写的唯一一部从未被正确阅读过的文本。他们当然已经看过了，但很少被理解，因为狄更斯使用的速记系统，托马斯·格尼的 Brachygraphy，现在几乎无法阅读。这不仅仅是因为速记像大卫科波菲尔声称的那样难以理解。也是因为狄更斯为他的学生改变了这个系统，并为他自己个性化了它。为了将其转变为一个对用户更友好的系统，他明确表示，除了他自己之外，任何人都无法阅读他的速记。本文将详细描述狄更斯的速记手稿，并探讨他本人对原始格尼手稿所做的更改。它旨在阐明狄更斯如何像大卫科波菲尔一样，作为速记作家和速记老师，他直面“野蛮速记之谜”（535；第 43 章）的挑战。它还将突出学者在试图解开他速记中未破译的项目时面临的概念挑战。