The Two Brothers

Listen to Dominic Gerrard read 'The Two Brothers'.

Nineteen lines of Brachygraphy shorthand characters written in pencil fill the page of a notebook with 'The Two Brothers' written in longhand at the top. In the top right corner is the number six, indicating the page number.

'The Two Brothers' Part 1. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Fourteen lines of Brachygraphy shorthand characters written in pencil fill three quarters of a notebook page. At the end of the fourteenth line is a long oblique line. Under the fourteenth line of shorthand is a long horizontal line, indicating the end of the exercise. In the top right corner is the number four, indicating the page number.

'The Two Brothers' Part 2. Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Source

The shorthand notebooks of Charles Dickens and Arthur P. Stone [ref: cdc5890009_08 and cdc5890009_06], Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia.

Description

A ghost story written in shorthand about the apparition of a man's dying brother.

Transcription

I once heard a story when I was living in Scotland from the mouth of a deceased judge which struck my imagination very forcibly. He told it by the dying light of a wood fire with a high wind roaring outside. I ought to premise that he had been counsel in an action that afterwards shared of the gains attending a will made by one of the wards. This is the story:

There were two old bachelor brothers of whom one reposed at Slough and the other at London. They were in the habit of visiting each other for a week or so at a time. It happened that the Slough brother, being on one of these visits to the London brother, felt rather unwell said ‘I will go home. My old housekeeper [will help] me. I shall soon be all right and will then come back. Once again they parted. A few nights afterwards, the London brother being in bed and finding himself uncomfortable and unable to sleep, lighted a candle and composed himself to read. Suddenly the door of his room opened and an appearance of his brother, dressed in white, pale and looking very attentively at him. He spoke to the figure but it made no answer. So it passed on to the end of the room turned and went out at the door. The London brother’s immediate impression was that his mind was ill, had some fullness of blood in the region of the brain and had best be bled. So he put on his dressing gown to call up his servant. He heard the sound of a carriage in the street which came over and stopped at his door. On his opening the window and asking who was there, he was answered “A messenger to take you to your brother who is very ill [and] supposed to be dying.” Of course he accompanied the messenger instantly. When he arrived in his brother’s room, there were several people present. On sight of them all, the brother rose in his bed with difficulty and spoke these words: “John, you have seen me before tonight and you know it!” With that, he fell back on his pillow and never spoke another word.

Transcription credits

With thanks to: Amy D, Clarissa Parkinson, Daniele Metilli, D.V., Elizabeth Agnew, Frances T, James Mulliss, Jane McCrann, Jenn Fallon, Ken Cox, L. P. Wist, Ludovico Carta, Lynda Chater, Shane Baggs, and Tim Underhill.

Source text

Two of the Dickens Decoders, Amy D and Elizabeth Agnew, identified similarities between 'The Two Brothers' and one of the ghost stories that Dickens included in 'To Be Read at Dusk', published in The Keepsake in 1852.

'The Two Brothers' is not a word-for-word dictation from 'Dusk', although the contours of both stories are the same: a dying man appears to his brother as an apparition, with this supernatural sighting confirmed by the dying brother's last words: 'you have seen me before tonigt'.

The main differences are that the 1852 version is longer, has a different frame story, and includes more detail and dialogue. In the 1852 version, the storyteller – a German courier called Wilhelm – is directly involved in the action as the servant of Mr James (the London brother). In the 1859 version, the narrator is repeating a tale that he has heard from someone else. Intriguingly, in ‘The Two Brothers’, only the surviving brother is named as ‘John’ (the name of the brother who dies in ‘Dusk’).

Rights

Courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Please seek further permission from the Free Library to reuse the image.

The Two Brothers