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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Dalya Alberge

‘The handwriting is wrong’: Dickens letters dismissed as forgeries

Charles Dickens
The letters described as being by Dickens were from 1855 and 1858 to his young love, Maria Beadnell, and her husband, Henry Louis Winter. Photograph: PA

Two letters described as written by Charles Dickens in the 1850s have been withdrawn from a forthcoming auction after a leading academic dismissed them as forgeries.

Dr Leon Litvack, an expert analyst of Dickens’ letters and manuscripts, told the Guardian: “The handwriting is wrong. It’s the signature that is always the giveaway. I have letters from the same period that will confirm that these are forgeries.”

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