assignment topic is charles dickens as a novelist

Jankiba Rana's Assignments

Sunday, march 22, 2015, assignment topic: contribution of charles dickens as a novelist, jankiba rana’s  assignment, the victorian literature,  assignment topic:  contribution of charles dickens as a novelist, roll no  : 9, m.a.sem – ii, batch : 2014 – ‘15, submitted to – department of english,    maharaja krishnakumarsinhji  ,      bhavnagar university.,          bhavnagar.,          contribution of charles dickens as a novelist, charles dickens                  ,                                 as a novelist, dickens is a social chronicler. he is found to have introduced social novels in a much broader sense. in his such novels as david copperfield, oliver twist, hard times, he gave the contemporary social picture and attacked the various vices of the victorian age. dickens enjoyed life, but hated the social system into which he had been born. there are many indications that he was half-way towards being a revolutionary, and in many of the later novels he was to attack the corruptions of his time. in oliver twist, (which followed in 1837-8), pathos is beginning to intrude on humour, and dickens, appalled by the cruelty of his time,feels that he must convey a message through fiction to his hardhearted generation. yet some modern social historians assert that he disguised the depths to which the lower classes had been brutalized. his invention is still abundant, as he tells the story of the virtuous pauper boy who has to submit to perils and temptations. burnaby rudge, with its picture of the gordon riots, is dickens’s first attempt in the historical novel, and here plot, which had counted for nothing in pickwick papers, becomes increasingly important., in david copperfield he brought the first phase of his novel-writing to an end in a work with a strong autobiographical element, and with such firm characterization as micawber and uriah heep. bleak house is the most conscious and deeply planned novel in dickens’s whole work, and clearly his art has moved far from the spontaneous gaiety of pickwick papers. it was followed by herd times, a novel dedicated to carlyle. while in all his work dickens is attacking the social conditions of his time, here he gives this theme a special emphasis with a tale of two cities he returned to the historical novel and, inspired by carlyle, laid his theme in the french revolution. none his works shows more clearly how wide and unexpected were the resources of his genius. , impression  over  dickens, when he was born  ( nineteenth century ) during that era political, social and literary change was only beginning. the victorian age, when dickens was to reach his greatness as a novelist lay ahead; and in the year of his birth, napoleonic france received its first setback at the gates of moscow, which was followed in 1817, 1830 and 1848 with the liberal movements that overthrew some of the revolutionary message, of the french revolution., but france remained nonetheless continually in men’s minds throughout his life. in 1837, thomas carlyle’s history of the french revolution had a profound impact onenglish thought and made a specially deep impression upon dickens, as a representative novelist :,                    charles dickens was the representative novelist of the victorian age. he is the greatest novelist that england has yet produced.  he is writer of some great novels such as :  pickwick papers,                                         oliver twist,                                         great expectation,                                         david copperfield ,                                         bleak house,                                                         and in which his comic view of life , social criticism , power of story telling and use of human have been vividly exemplified.,                       ,                            now , lets see how he contributed in literature :, 1 .  pickwick papers  :,                                        one of  his first novel was pickwick papers, the supreme comic novel in english language. his comedy is never superimposed because it is an effortless expression of a comic view of life. dickens seems to see things differently in an amusing and exaggerated way, and in his early work with much exuberance he plunges from one adventure to another, without any thought of plot or design.          ,             dickens achieved in his lifetime wide popularity among all sections of readers. cambell, the famous lord chief justice, remarked that he would have been prouder of having written pickwick papers than of all the honours he had earned at the bar. dickens' popularity overstepped the frontiers of his country and spread in most countries of europe, as also across the atlantic. while he was in america, he received a hero's welcome everywhere, 2. oliver twist :,                                   this is the second novel by him . dickens mixed up with the old material, materials so subtly modern, so made of the french revolution, that the whole is transformed. if we want the best example of this, the best example is oliver twist,        this is the story of an orphan, oliver twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. he escapes and travels to london where he meets the artful dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. naïvely unaware of their unlawful activities, oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer fagin. it is notable for dickens' unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives. it exposes the cruel treatment of the many orphans in london during the dickensian era. the book's subtitle, the parish boy's progress, alludes to bunyan's the pilgrim's progress and also to a pair of popular 18th-century caricature series by william hogarth, a rake's progressand a harlot's progress.  ,               relatively to the other works of dickens oliver twist is not of great value, but it is of great importance. some parts of it are so crude and of so clumsy a melodrama, that one is almost tempted to say that dickens would have been greater without it. but even if be had been greater without it he would still have been incomplete without it., 3.  great expectation : ,                                             great expectations, by charles dickens is a fascinating tale of love and fortune. the main character, pip, is a dynamic character who undergoes many changes through the course of the book. throughout this analysis the character, pip will be identified and his gradual change through the story will be surveyed. ,                                                 in what may be dickens's best novel, humble, orphaned pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman — and one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations." in this gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward, the compelling characters include magwitch, the fearful and fearsome convict; estella, whose beauty is excelled only by her haughtiness; and the embittered miss havisham, an eccentric jilted bride.,      faminist approach :            , great expectations offers many opportunities for the first two of these approaches. as it is narrated by pip, the male point of view inevitably predominates, but it is important to bear in mind that the events of the novel might seem very different if narrated by one of the women characters:, mrs. joe, pip's sister, often complains about her situation, and in the narrative she is presented either as a comic figure or as a domestic tyrant, but like pip, she has lost her parents and brother, miss havisham has endured long, lonely years nursing her resentment and planning her revenge by her manipulation of estella's feelings, estella herself has experienced a strange upbringing: she has no knowledge of her true parentage and has lived in the extraordinary setting of satis house, cut off from other children and seeing the world only as miss havisham represents it to her, there is a novel called estella: her expectation, written by sue roe and published in 1982, which sets out to tell the story from estella's point of view., other female characters, including biddy, clara and molly (jaggers' housekeeper) also have stories of their own, which are represented entirely through the words of pip as narrator and other male characters, some of the female characters are victims of the behaviour of men and the expectations of society about women's role and behaviour – mrs pocket is a good example.,  4.   david copperfield :, it is written in the first person, it follows its main character from childhood to middle age, in both books, the characters undertake a kind of pilgrimage during which they are tested and encounter difficulties and disappointment, it includes similar plot and thematic elements:, an orphaned boy who suffers from parental deprivation and childhood neglect, the narrator's gradual discovery of true values, david, like pip, is supported by a variety of eccentric but kindly characters, only one of whom is actually a relative., the novel also includes some autobiographical elements:, david is sent to work in a blacking factory by his harsh stepfather mr. murdstone, an episode that parallels dickens' own      experience as a young boy, this period in david's life is recounted in almost exactly the same      words in anautobiographical account printed in the biography (1872-4) published by his friend john forster, like dickens, david grows up to become a popular author, like dickens, david endures an unhappy marriage contracted when he is very young; unlike dickens, however, he enjoys a happy second marriage, 5. bleak house :,                                        bleak housewas the 9th novel of charles dickens.  the novel was published in installments from march 1852 through september 1853., bleak house had several working titles.  some of these included:, ·         east wind, ·         tom-all-alone’s, ·         bleak house and the east wind, ·         the solitary house that was always shut up, spontaneous combustion, in bleak house a character dies via an unusual method — spontaneous combustion.  the unfortunate character to meet this fate is krook, the brother of mrs. smallweed., george henry lewes, a writer for the leader, complained in his february 1853 column that people just didn’t suddenly burst into flame.  dickens responded by writing a coroner’s inquest into the next segment of bleak house.  in the book krook’s death was investigated and authorities on spontaneous combustion were cited to prove that the the phenomena really did exist., spontaneous combustion was a good literary device to demonstrate that passionate forces can lie within us.  however, despite the fact that ableak house inquest “proved” that people can spontaneously combust, this idea is not taken seriously today., dickens's   characters, (1) the normal                                                                      (2) the abnormal, (i) satirical portraits              (ii) the grotesques                (iii) the villains,                                           (drawn for a special purpose), the abnormal characters do not embody "normal" reality, but they are not essentially unrealistic. it is curious that dickens succeeds better with the abnormal than with the normal characters. normality does not attract him on account of being dull and "ordinary.", dickens is more successful with characters drawn from the middle and lower classes of his society. as a child and young man he had seen and even experienced the life of these classes. it was in his blood even after he had become a high-hat with his thumping success in the field of fiction. he is much less successful with the bigwigs and aristocracy. there ate some set types which make their appearance much too often in dickens' novels. some of them, according to a critic, are:, (i)         "the innocent little child, like oliver, joe, paul, tiny tim, and little nell, appealing powerfully to the child love in every human heart";, (ii)        "the horrible or grotesque foil, like squeer, fagin, quilp, uriah heep, and bill sykes";, (iii)       "the grandiloquent or broadly humorous fellow, the fun master, like micawber and sam walter";          , (iv)       "and fourth, a tenderly or powerfully drawn figure like lady dedlock of bleak house, and sydney carton of a tale of two cities, which rise to the dignity of true characters.",                dickens architectonic deficiency the moment we take congnizance of his humour. humour is the very soul of his work.dickens' humour arises from a deep human sympathy and is ever fresh and refreshing. it is customary to compare him with such great humorists before him as chaucer, shakespeare, and fielding. sometimes his humour is corrective and satiric-but it always has the quality of geniality, charity, and tolerance. humour with him is not only an occasional mood but a consistent point of view, and even a "philosophy of life." his comic fertility is indeed amazing. we have above referred to dickens "world.",               dickens was as considerably influenced by goldsmith and steme as by fielding and smollet. sterne's sentimentalism and rather hypersensitive human sympathy as also goldsmith's fundamental sweetness and fellow-feeling often make themselves felt in dickens' work. the earliest attempt made by dickens at the delineation of the pathetic is to be found in his very first novel pickwick papers-the death of the chancery prisoners. he is wonderfully successful in delineating the pathos of child life. as a child, he himself had suffered much, and his accounts of such life are always redolent of his personal experiences. little dorrit, great expectations, david copperfield, and many more novels are rich in pathetic accounts of the lives of their heroes in childhood. what is more, pathos in them mingles and merges with humour, creating very peculiar effects., autobiographic touches:, a peculiar feature of dickens' art as novelist is his tendency to be autobiographic. he constantly draws upon his own experience, and the sympathies and antipathies which we find so persistenly manifested by him in his work very often have their origin in the years of his adolescence. many of his novels are the records of his own life-though modified by subjection to the canons of art. thus david copperfield is, in essentials, dickens' autobiography. oliver twist uses a lot of material supplied by his own experience of the low life of london in his tender years. in bleak house he draws substantially upon his early knowledge of law courts and legal affairs. he recollects his school days in nicholas nickleby. and so forth., dickens and social concern : ,     there is, however, little of this optimism in dickens' novels. he focuses instead on the daily needs and  problems of ordinary people: poverty, poor housing, ill health, a horrifying level of child mortality, hunger, long hours of grinding labour., the rapid changes of the time benefited some people long before others. dickens is concerned with those still waiting for improvements and raises key moral and social questions in his writing:, the need for schooling and the care of orphans and other deprived children, cruelty to children and the corruption of children by criminals, the problems created by emphasis onsocial class and newly acquired wealth, the problems created by rapid industrialization and urbanization and the conflict between employers and workers.,         , conclusion:, in spite of the formidable number of flaws and limitations from which dickens' art as a novelist suffers, he is a great novelist. his humour, basic human sympathy, and his rich, vitalising imagination are his basic assets, even though he is deficient in the architectural skill as well as other formal and "technical" qualifications as a novelist. , 8 comments:.

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Charles Dickens as a Novelist Literature Assignment Paper

Instructions: Develop an essay of 1,000-1,500 words. Be sure to argue a particular point of view in your essay (your thesis) and cite varied examples from the readings in MLA format in order to support your perspective. Include a works cited page. Additional MLA information can be found here. Please submit your essay to the assignment section of the course. This assignment is worth 20% of your final grade. Up to this point we have discussed two literary movements, the Romantic period and the Victorian era. You will select one era and in partial fulfillment of Course Objective 4, you will discuss a literary movement in connection with one of our assigned readings. Select one of the following topics as the focus for your essay: 1. Discuss one work or one author from this course that you believe had the most significant influence on British literary history. Please be sure to maintain third person perspective. 2. In this course we have discussed British literary history and the progression of trends in British literature. Give a brief description of one of the trends we have discussed in the class, with a brief explanation of the characteristics of the trend. You may want to touch on the social, political, historical or cultural issues that influenced this trend. Then provide at least one example of a piece of British literature we have read in this course from this period with a well developed analysis identifying why the selected piece is a good representation of the trend. Note: "Modernism" is an example of what is meant by a "literary trend" in this question. 3. Choose a work of British literature we read in the course. Write a response in which you present arguments for and against the work's relevance for a person or society in 2015.

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Rinkal's Assinment 2016-2018

Saturday, 25 march 2017, paper-6 charles dickens as a novelist,                               charles dickens as a novelist ,   charles dickens as a novelist.

• Pickwick paper
• A tale of two cities
• David copper filed
• Black house
• The Great Expectation's
• Oliver Twist

What is the central characteristic of Dickens's as novelist?

Literary English

• Charles Dickens as an English Novelist

Charles Dickens, born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England, was one of the most celebrated and influential writers of the Victorian era. He gained widespread acclaim for his vivid storytelling, memorable characters, and social commentary, becoming a literary giant whose works continue to resonate with readers worldwide. From his early novels, such as “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield,” to later masterpieces like “Great Expectations” and “A Tale of Two Cities,” Dickens crafted intricate narratives that explored the complexities of human nature and the social injustices of his time. Beyond his literary achievements, Dickens was also a passionate advocate for social reform, using his platform to raise awareness about issues such as poverty, child labor, and class inequality. Throughout his prolific career, Dickens left an indelible mark on the world of literature, earning a place among the greatest novelists in history.

Dickens as a Realist

Charles Dickens is often regarded as one of the pioneers of realism in the Victorian novel. His keen eye for detail and his ability to capture the essence of everyday life make his works a rich tapestry of the social, economic, and cultural landscape of 19th-century England. Through meticulous observation and vivid description, Dickens brought to life the bustling streets of London, the struggles of the working class, and the disparities between the rich and the poor. His novels serve as a mirror reflecting the harsh realities of Victorian society, from the squalid conditions of urban slums to the oppressive structures of the legal and social systems.

Dickens’ realism is not merely about depicting the external world; it is also about delving into the inner lives of his characters and exploring the complexities of human experience. He portrays characters with depth and nuance, showing the full range of their emotions, motivations, and conflicts. Whether it’s the moral dilemmas faced by protagonists like Pip in “Great Expectations” or the psychological trauma endured by victims like Little Dorrit in “Little Dorrit,” Dickens’ realism extends beyond the surface to reveal the inner workings of the human soul.

Art of Characterization

One of Dickens’ greatest strengths as a novelist lies in his art of characterization. His novels are populated with a vast array of memorable characters, each with their own distinct personalities, quirks, and idiosyncrasies. From the benevolent Mr. Pickwick to the villainous Uriah Heep, Dickens’ characters are richly drawn and often serve as archetypes of human behavior. Dickens had a remarkable ability to create characters that feel alive and authentic, with their own unique voices and perspectives. His characters are not mere caricatures but complex individuals who evolve over the course of the narrative, shaped by their experiences and interactions with others.

Moreover, Dickens’ characters often embody larger social and moral themes, serving as vehicles for commentary on issues such as class, gender, and justice. Characters like Oliver Twist, for example, represent the plight of the orphaned and the oppressed, while figures like Miss Havisham symbolize the destructive power of obsession and revenge. Through his masterful characterization, Dickens invites readers to engage with the human condition in all its complexity, inviting empathy, reflection, and introspection.

Humour and Pathos

Humour and pathos are two defining elements of Dickens’ novels, contributing to their enduring popularity and emotional impact. Dickens had a remarkable talent for blending comedy and tragedy, often within the same narrative, creating a rich tapestry of emotions that resonates with readers. His humour ranges from light-hearted wit and satire to broad farce and slapstick comedy, providing moments of levity amidst the darker themes of his works. Characters like Mr. Micawber with his grandiose schemes and Mr. Pickwick with his bumbling innocence embody Dickens’ comedic genius, eliciting laughter and amusement from readers.

At the same time, Dickens’ novels are suffused with deep pathos, touching upon themes of loss, loneliness, and human suffering. His portrayal of characters like Little Nell in “The Old Curiosity Shop” or Sydney Carton in “A Tale of Two Cities” evokes profound sympathy and compassion, drawing readers into their struggles and triumphs. Dickens’ pathos is often heightened by his vivid descriptions and evocative language, immersing readers in the emotional landscapes of his characters’ lives. Whether through moments of heartbreak or acts of redemption, Dickens’ novels leave a lasting impression on readers, stirring their hearts and challenging their perceptions of the world.

Dickens’ Plot and Style

Dickens’ novels are renowned for their intricate plots and engaging storytelling, characterized by a mix of episodic structure and overarching narratives. While some of his early works, such as “The Pickwick Papers,” follow a more episodic format with loosely connected adventures, later novels like “Great Expectations” and “Bleak House” feature more tightly woven plots with intricate subplots and complex character arcs. Dickens’ plots are often driven by themes of social justice, moral redemption, and the search for identity, weaving together multiple storylines and perspectives to create a rich tapestry of human experience.

In terms of style, Dickens’ prose is marked by its vivid imagery, colourful language, and rhythmic cadence. His descriptive passages bring to life the sights, sounds, and smells of Victorian England, immersing readers in the sensory experience of the world he creates. Dickens’ style is also characterized by its versatility, ranging from the lyrical and poetic to the satirical and humorous, depending on the tone and mood of the narrative. While some critics have noted Dickens’ tendency towards verbosity and melodrama, his style remains distinctive and influential, shaping the course of English literature for generations to come.

A Tale of Two Cities

• Introduction to A Tale of Two Cities
• Summary of A Tale of Two Cities
• Major Themes in A Tale of Two Cities
• Symbolic Significances Of Characters
• Use of Symbolism in the Novel
• Resurrection in A Tale of Two Cities
• Dickens’ Art of Characterization

104 Charles Dickens Essay Topics & Examples

🏆 best charles dickens topic ideas & essay examples, 🔎 good research topics about charles dickens, 👌 interesting topics to write about charles dickens, ❓ questions about charles dickens.

• Who Is Charles Dickens? In 1837, he made his debut as a novelist and released “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”. Constant quarrels with his wife and illnesses of his eight children led to the fact that he […]
• A Christmas Carol of Dickens: Never Too Late for a Change of Heart Then, the second Ghost of the Christmas Present guides Scrooge to the houses of both Fred and Bob. Finally, the Ghost of the Christmas future shows Scrooge the flashforward of the next Christmas.
• “Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens Literary Analysis The lead character in the story is Ebenezer Scrooge; the ghosts that led Scrooge to repentance and redemption include the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come.
• “A Visit to Newgate” by Charles Dickens The mood of amusement in A Visit to Newgate is controlled by the principle that the fascination of everyday scenes has only to be recognized to be enjoyed.
• Pip and Joe in “Great Expectations” by Dickens Charles Dickens uses Pip’s and Joe’s differences in character to communicate his message to the reader through their experiences and virtues.
• A Christmas Carol by Dickens It starts with a summary of the plot, then examines the main characters and the themes and concludes with the personal opinion on the novella.
• Use of Irony in “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens Stryver who is referred to as a fellow of delicacy is proved to a fellow of no delicacy at the end of the story while Sydney Carton who was referred to as a fellow of […]
• Charles Dickens’s Childhood Experiences The secret of his popularity is that Dickens keenly felt the changes in the life of England, and was an expression of the hopes and aspirations of thousands of people.
• “Hard Times” Novel by Charles Dickens The novel touches on the theme of opposition between fact and fancy and lastly, it dwells on the importance of femininity.
• “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens Pip is the narrator in this context; he is telling the story of his encounter with Joe, an old friend, at a particular point in time.
• “The Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens The story ‘The Tale of two Cities’ written by Charles Dickens is considered to be dedicated to the disclosure of French Revolution period; it is the classic work representing the archetypal characters through the concepts […]
• Money as a Gift in “Great Expectations” by Dickens The way that this gift contributes to the meaning of the novel as a whole is that it shows how money can trap people and promise them easy social mobility. This is why Dickens needs […]
• The Injustice of Child Labor in Charles Dickens’s Novels Rapid industrialization and urbanization, which occurred due to the population explosion, led to the creation of a dirty and noisy city, which was a hard place to live in for the poor.
• Illustrations to Charles Dickens’s ”Oliver Twist” Therefore, the somewhat pensive figures of Rose and Oliver on the new plate provided the novel with a wistful yet hopeful ending.
• Charles Dickens: “Great Expectations” ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens deals with “the aspirations and ambitions of the protagonist and narrator, Pip, to improve his status in life and create conditions for better living”..
• Victorian Society in Wild’s Play vs. Dickens’ Novel Wilde’s community, though apparently very customary and firm, is essentially quite worried about being destabilized by strangers: Lady Bracknell even evaluates Jack’s being found in a purse with “the worst immoderation of the French Revolution” […]
• Voice in Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” His shift in language, from the discussion of Oliver and what he was doing and thinking to a consideration of what we must do, signifies the switch from the simple narration of the story to […]
• Chapter 33 of “The Old Curiosity Shop” by Dickens With the end of the Victorian period, the sexuality of the English society that did not find its reflection in the cultural phenomenon was striving to express itself in graphic art and at the beginning […]
• “Sketched by Boz” the Book by Charles Dickens The story is mostly descriptive and the speaker starts by narrating the “appearance presented by the streets of London an hour before sunrise on a summer’s morning”. The drunken, the dissipated, and the wretched have […]
• London’s Consumer Culture in Dickens’ “Our Mutual Friend” In the light of Assadourian’s argument concerning the innateness of consumerism in human beings, culture defines norms and values in a society, which are hard to smash when they become normalized.
• “Oliver Twist” a Book by Charles Dickens In the background, we see the astonishment on the rest of the boys’ faces and the turmoil caused by Oliver’s plea.
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Charles Dickens: A Novelist for Our Times

Charles Dickens, photographed in 1867, three years before his death on June 9, 1870. Photo by Jeremiah Gurney

150 years after his death, author’s themes of poverty and social inequity resonate

John o’rourke.

When English novelist Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870—150 years ago today—he was mourned as a national hero and buried in the Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. During a career that spanned nearly 40 years, Dickens created some of the most indelible characters in fiction—Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and Jacob Marley (A Christmas Carol) , Pip and Miss Havisham (Great Expectations) , David Copperfield, Uriah Heep, and Mr. Micawber (David Copperfield) , and Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger (Oliver Twist) .  

Renowned for his ability to mix comedy and pathos and to move readers, Dickens was also a pioneering social reformer who fought throughout his life to improve the living and working conditions for the poor. 

At the time of his death, he was a literary superstar, celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. His two speaking tours of America, in 1842 and in 1867 and 1868, drew standing-room-only crowds from Boston to New York, Richmond to St. Louis. 

His books have never gone out of print and have been translated into 150 languages. Today, there are more than 400 film and television adaptations of his novels, with more on the way, including a new take on David Copperfield, with Dev Patel as the eponymous lead character. 

What accounts for the Victorian novelist’s enduring popularity? We reached out to Dickens scholar Natalie McKnight , dean of the College of General Studies and a professor of humanities. The author of Idiots, Madmen and Other Prisoners in Dickens, she is coeditor of Dickens Studies Annual and president of the Dickens Society , which conducts and supports research into the author’s life and work.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

BU Today: When did you first discover Charles Dickens?

Natalie McKnight: My first taste of Dickens came with the Mister Magoo animated A Christmas Carol when I was four years old. I am happy to say that I had the pleasure of giving a talk on that version at a symposium in Iceland several years ago (not something I ever envisioned when I was working on my PhD).

BU Today: What led you to become a Dickens scholar?

Natalie McKnight: When I was a graduate student at the University of Delaware, I was lucky enough to have Elliot Gilbert as a professor in a Dickens seminar. He occasionally read to us in class, and we’d laugh out loud, cry, shake our heads in amazement. I figured that any writer who could evoke such powerful responses was worth spending a lifetime studying. And I was right.

BU Today: What accounts for Dickens’ ongoing popularity?

Natalie McKnight: Dickens continues to move people—and people want to be moved and need to be moved by characters and situations that are beyond themselves. We need emotional exercise as much as we need physical exercise; the trouble is, we’re proud of the latter, but embarrassed by being moved by others (real or fictional others). But Dickens also makes us think: he has many really illuminating passages when he captures the distorted perceptions of people in altered states of mind, or ones where he dissects how goodness in one person unintentionally brings out cruelty in another. People who really don’t know Dickens well think that his characters are caricatures—and some are, but most are not—and there is as much psychological realism in his works as in those of Victorian novelists who get more credit for that kind of thing because they are more obvious about it. People continue to be moved by his characters, as their tragedies, losses, and heartbreaks are human and universal. He repeatedly warned of the dangers of sharp divides between the rich and the poor. It’s there in A Tale of Two Cities most obviously, and it’s there in A Christmas Carol, but it’s subtly there in almost all his writings. Nothing good comes from the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, and sometimes a crisis—like the spread of a disease—collapses this dichotomy in ways that highlight the cluelessness of those who think their money can protect them from sickness or death or that they can hoard all the wealth with no negative repercussions. 

BU Today: Dickens wrote a lot about disease. What do you think he would have made of our current pandemic?

Natalie McKnight: He would have been all over this—he would probably have written a series of essays with some coauthors for All the Year Round or Household Worlds, two of the journals he edited. He probably would have given speeches about inadequate access to public health services, and the pandemic would have definitely made it into his fiction. And actually, anachronistically, it is in his fiction: there’s a smallpox epidemic in Bleak House , and Little Dorrit starts out with characters in quarantine in Marseilles due to the threat of a plague. He also wrote powerfully about the spread of hysteria being like a disease (something I’m writing about now), and that’s certainly something we’ve seen with reactions to COVID-19, with shoppers madly dashing for toilet paper in supermarkets and mobs of livid protesters pushing for an end to stay-at-home orders.

BU Today: It’s hard to underestimate the kind of celebrity Dickens achieved in his lifetime.

Natalie McKnight: He was the first huge pop-culture celebrity, and he maintained that celebrity for decades. He earned it because he created characters and stories that people cared deeply about, and he wrote serially, so people would be caring about the characters and plot lines over the course of many months. The characters would become part of their lives, and readers couldn’t wait to get the next installment. There’s the famous (and true) story of people standing on the docks in New York City waiting for ships coming in with the next installment of The Old Curiosity Shop, desperate to find out whether Little Nell would live.

BU Today: The Dickens Society had planned to host an international conference in London in July to mark the 150th anniversary of Dickens’ death, but, as president, you had to cancel it because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s going to be a virtual conference instead. Can you talk about that?

Natalie McKnight: I’m not organizing this one, but I am participating. It’s called #Dickens150 and it is being held via Zoom on the anniversary of Dickens’ death, June 9, and the proceeds will go to help the Dickens Museum , where we were to have had a reception. Like all museums in this pandemic, the Dickens Museum is really hurting because it’s lost all its revenue for months. So the virtual meeting will help.

BU Today: Finally, perhaps an unfair question to ask of someone who has devoted her research to studying Dickens’ work, but do you have a favorite novel?

Natalie McKnight: It’s not an unfair question at all. I get asked it all the time. My favorite novel is probably the one that’s read the least: Barnaby Rudge. It’s a historical fiction whose main character is a “holy idiot” type (the eponymous Barnaby). He’s fascinating, as is his talking crow, Grip (who inspired Edgar Allen Poe’s raven). It was very daring to place a “holy idiot” and a talking bird at the center of a novel, and I don’t think it works for a lot of readers, but I love it, and I love the crazed mob descriptions in the Gordon Riots scenes. They were an excellent warm-up for the French Revolution mob scenes he wrote in Tale of Two Cities, and they include some of the most bloodcurdling images of mob-mania I’ve read anywhere.

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Editor, BU Today

John O’Rourke began his career as a reporter at  The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour . He has worked as a producer at  World Monitor , a coproduction of the  Christian Science Monitor  and the Discovery Channel, and NBC News, where he was a producer for several shows, including  Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric ,  NBC Nightly News , and  The Today Show . John has won many awards, including four Emmys, a George Foster Peabody Award, and five Edward R. Murrow Awards. Profile

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There are 5 comments on Charles Dickens: A Novelist for Our Times

“Natalie McKnight: My first taste of Dickens came with the Mister Magoo animated A Christmas Carol when I was four years old.”

OMG! That was my first exposure to Dickens when I was about that age, maybe a couple years older.

Natalie, thank you for sharing your enthusiasm about Charles Dickens. I read ‘A Tales of Two Cities’ in a German translation 40 years ago, and just recently read it for the first time in its original English. This is indeed a novel for our times, I have been struck by so many parallels to our COVID crisis. Poverty and hunger. Injustice in the court system. The dying becoming numbers. The book moved me deeply — humor, fabulous storytelling, and so much humanity!

I read Dickens in my younger years and he had an impact on my ideas of justice, prejudice and equality. You have inspired me to read him again. Thanks. And I did love Barnaby Rudge!

I do wish the wealthy and government would read passages and points made about the wealthy and poor as I know greed money and status corrupts . A special person we will never forget and I was inspired even at 12 years old after reading his novels .

My favorite Dickens novel would be either *Nicholas Nickleby* or * Tale of Two Cities* ; though my favorite novel is not a Dickens novel. I have long loved *The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris). But I really love *Nicholas Nickleby* The friendship between Nicholas and Smike is so touching. Okay, Dickens was sentimental. But he was also sometimes very humorous, and could write really entertaining comedy, and it appears certainly in *Nicholas Nickelby*

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