The Aftermath of the Hot Summer

This chapter details events that occurred after the summer of 1858. Among these is the fallout from the petty quarrel between Thackeray and Yates at the Garrick Club. In the fall of 1858, it was announced in the press that Yates would bring a court case against the Garrick. On 17 November, the Morning Post obliged its readers by going over the whole affair, quoting from Yates' offending Town Talk article, from Thackeray's letter to Yates and the latter's reply, from both men's appeals to the committee of the Garrick, and from the committee's demand that Yates apologise to Thackeray. The remainder of the chapter covers Dickens's success and embarrassment, the end of the Robinson divorce case, and the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species.