Dickens's Style

Written by leading scholars, this collection of essays offers the first comprehensive and accessible book on Dickens's style.

Daniel Tyler (Edited by)

9781107028432, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 July 2013

304 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.58 kg

'… offers Dickens readers unprecedented insights … Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.' N. Lukacher, Choice

Charles Dickens, generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian age, was known as 'The Inimitable', not least for his distinctive style of writing. This collection of twelve essays addresses the essential but often overlooked subject of Dickens's style, with each essay discussing a particular feature of his writing. All the essays consider Dickens's style conceptually, and they read it closely, demonstrating the ways it works on particular occasions. They show that style is not simply an aesthetic quality isolated from the deepest meanings of Dickens's fiction, but that it is inextricably involved with all kinds of historical, political and ideological concerns. Written in a lively and accessible manner by leading Dickens scholars, the collection ranges across all Dickens's writing, including the novels, journalism and letters.

Introduction Daniel Tyler
1. Dickens's umbrellas John Bowen
2. Dickens by the clock Matthew Bevis
3. Dickens's rhythms Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
4. Spectres of style Daniel Tyler
5. Dickens and the form of the historical present Clare Pettitt
6. 'Gigantic domesticity': the exaggeration of Charles Dickens Freya Johnston
7. Style and the making of character in Dickens Philip Horne
8. Snarling Charles: a Saxon style of restraint Rebekah Scott
9. Compound interest: Dickens's figurative style Jennifer Gribble
10. Reading the book of himself: the uncommercial traveller and 'Dickensian' style Bharat Tandon
11. Lived death: Dickens's rogue glyphs Garrett Stewart
12. Dispensing with style Helen Small
Notes
Select bibliography.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]