A comprehensive survey of Dickens's work by a leading Cambridge scholar who accessibly analyses the systematic complexity of his writing. Organized thematically, the study reflects the progress of Dickens's development throughout all his major fiction.

This study of Dickens touches on all the major fiction. It is organised thematically with the order in which the several themes are examined reflecting the progress of Dickens' career. Every phase of Dickens' development is discussed, while particular attention is paid to those writings which fall into the category of first person narrative. It is through the use of the first person in novels, letters and travel writings that Dickens reveals a good deal, not only about his own identity, but also about the construction of Victorian subjectivity in general. The overriding focus of the analysis in this book is a literary one, although it includes a series of reflections on aspects of Victorian society and culture: prisons, schools, money, poverty, fallen women, orphans, detectives and The great Exhibition.

Rod Mengham is Director of English Studies, Jesus College, Cambridge. He has taught in schools and lectured widely abroad. His many publications include: The Idiom of the Time: The Writings of Henry Green (1983); Wuthering Heights: A Critical Study (1988); The Descent of Language (1995) and, as editor, Introduction to Contemporary Fiction (1999)