Charles Dickens (Writers Lives)

✍ Scribed by Donald Hawes

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 174
• Series: Writers Lives
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Charles Dickens is without doubt a literary giant. The most widely read author of his own generation, his works remain incredibly popular and important today. Often seen as the quintessential Victorian novelist, his texts convey perhaps better than any others the drive for wealth and progress and the social contrasts that characterised the Victorian era. His works are widely studied throughout the world both as literary masterpieces and as classic examples of the nineteenth century novel. Combining a biographical approach with close reading of the novels, Donald Hawes offers an illuminating portrait of Dickens as a writer and insight into his life and times. This book will provide a short, lively but sophisticated introduction to Dickens's work and the personal and social context in which it was written.

✦ Table of Contents

Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Abbreviations and References......Page 7
Introduction......Page 8
1. Why We Read Dickens......Page 10
2. Life of Dickens......Page 17
3. Sketches by Boz, Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist......Page 26
4. Dickens s London......Page 32
5. Social Class in Victorian England......Page 41
6. Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge......Page 46
7. Prison and Crime......Page 51
8. Dickens and Education......Page 57
9. Medicine, Doctors, Nurses and Hospitals......Page 64
10. Martin Chuzzlewit, A Christmas Carol, Dombey and Son......Page 70
11. Women and Children......Page 74
12. Dickens and Animals......Page 83
13. David Copperfield, Bleak House......Page 87
14. Dickens's Comic Characters and Villains......Page 91
15. Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities......Page 103
16. Theatre and Entertainment......Page 108
17. Dickens and Christmas......Page 118
18. Dickens’s Public Readings......Page 130
19. Dickens’s Friends and Contemporaries......Page 135
20. Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, The Mystery of Edwin Drood......Page 151
21. Adaptations and Versions of Dickens's Writings......Page 156
Further Reading......Page 164
Bibliography......Page 166
Index......Page 172