Great Expectations a reference to a "knowing man", a possible sketch of Bentley Drummle. Another evokes a house full of "Toadies and Humbugs", foreshadowing the visitors to Satis House in chapter 11. Margaret Cardwell discovered the "premonition" of "Great Expectations" from a 25 September 1855 letter from Dickens to W. H. Wills, in which Dickens speaks of recycling an "odd idea" from the Christmas special "A House to Let" and "the pivot round which my next book shall revolve." The "odd idea" concerns an individual who "retires to an old lonely house…resolved to shut out the world and hold no communion with
Charles Eugene Bentley Charles Eugene Bentley Reverend Charles Eugene Bentley (April 1841 – February 6, 1905) was a third party candidate for president of the United States in 1896. Bentley was born in Warners, New York, in April 1841. In 1863, Bentley married Persis Orilla Freeman. In 1866, they moved to Clinton, Iowa, where Bentley held several local offices. Later, they moved to Nebraska and settled near Surprise, where he started a Baptist church in 1880. Although a longtime Republican, Bentley split from the GOP in 1884 and joined the Prohibition Party, becoming chairman of the first Prohibition Party Convention held in Nebraska.