Charles Dickens in Context

Charles Dickens, a man so representative of his age as to have become considered synonymous with it, demands to be read in context. This book illuminates the worlds - social, political, economic and artistic - in which Dickens worked. Dickens's professional life encompassed work as a novelist, journalist, editor, public reader and passionate advocate of social reform. This volume offers a detailed treatment of Dickens in each of these roles, exploring the central features of Dickens's age, work and legacy, and uncovering sometimes surprising faces of the man and of the range of Dickens industries. Through 45 digestible short chapters written by a leading expert on each topic, a rounded picture emerges of Dickens's engagement with his time, the influence of his works and the ways he has been read, adapted and re-imagined from the nineteenth century to the present.

Preface; Part I. Life and Afterlife: 1. The life of Dickens 1: before Ellen Ternan John Bowen; 2. The life of Dickens 2: after Ellen Ternan John Bowen; 3. Dickens's lives Michael Slater; 4. Victorian stage adaptations and novel appropriations Anne Humpherys; 5. Reviewing Dickens in the Victorian periodical press John Drew; 6. The European context Michael Hollington; 7. Major twentieth-century critical responses Toru Sasaki; 8. Modern stage adaptations Tony Williams; 9. Modern screen adaptations Toru Sasaki; 10. The heritage industry Juliet John; 11. Neo-Victorian Dickens Cora Kaplan; Part II. Social and Cultural Contexts: 12. Popular culture Paul Schlicke; 13. The rise of celebrity culture Joss Marsh; 14. The newspaper and periodical market John Drew; 15. Authorship and the professional writer Florian Schweizer; 16. The theatre Marty Gould; 17. Melodrama Juliet John; 18. The bildungsroman Florian Schweizer; 19. Visual culture Kate Flint; 20. The historical novel Ian Duncan; 21. The illustrated novel Mary Elizabeth Leighton and Lisa Surridge; 22. Christmas Sally Ledger; 23. Childhood Holly Furneaux; 24. Work Martin Danahay; 25. Europe Ruth Livesey; 26. The Victorians and America Ella Dzelzainis; 27. Educating the Victorians Patrick Brantlinger; 28. London Anne Humphereys; 29. Politics Michael Sanders; 30. Political economy Paul Young; 31. The aristocracy Andrew Sanders; 32. The middle classes Priti Joshi; 33. Urban migration and mobility Josephine McDonagh; 34. Financial markets and the banking system Francis O'Gorman; 35. Empires and colonies Grace Moore; 36. Race Priti Joshi; 37. Crime Anne Schwan; 38. The law Jan-Melissa Schramm; 39. Religion Emma Mason; 40. Science James Mussell; 41. Transport Jonathan Grossman; 42. Social hygiene, illness and disease Janis McLarren Caldwell; 43. Domesticity Catherine Waters; 44. Sexuality Holly Furneaux; 45. Gender identities Catherine Waters; Further reading; Index.

Sally Ledger was the Hildred Carlile Chair in English at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Holly Furneaux is Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Leicester.