A Companion to Charles Dickens

A Companion to Charles Dickens concentrates on the historical, ideological, and social forces that defined Dickens's world.

• Puts Dickens's work into its literary, historical, and social contexts
• Traces the development of Dickens's career as a journalist and novelist
• Includes original essays by leading Dickensian scholars on each of Dickens's fifteen novels
• Explores a broad range of topics, including criticisms of his novels, the use of history and law in his fiction, language, and the effect of political and social reform
• Examines Dickens's legacy and surveys the mass of secondary materials that has been generated in response and reverence to his writing

David Paroissien is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham. He edits Dickens Quarterly and co-edits, with Susan Shatto, the Dickens Companions series. He is the author of The Companion to Oliver Twist (1992), The Companion to Great Expectations (2000), and has edited The Mystery of Edwin Drood for Penguin (2002).