Charles Dickens's Bleak House: A Routledge Study Guide and Sourcebook

by Janice M. Allan (Editor)

Overview

With its sustained social criticism and complex construction, Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1853) is considered by many critics to be Dickens's most remarkable novel. Janice Allan:

• introduces the contextual issues that most directly influenced Dickens's writing and reprints relevant source documents
• provides a comprehensive survey of the criticism of Bleak House from publication to the present, then introduces, reprints and annotates extracts from significant critical texts
• discusses key passages of the text, which are reprinted and fully annotated for ease of use
• includes cross-references throughout, making illuminating connections between the text, contexts and interpretations of the novel
• concludes the volume with suggestions to further reading, enabling additional focused study

Both accessible and informative, Janice Allan provides an invaluable guide to one of the nineteenth century's most important and frequently studied novels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415247733
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/20/2004
Series:	Routledge Guides to Literature
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Janice M. Allan is Lecturer in English at the University of Salford.

Table of Contents

Introduction, I Contexts, Contextual Overview,A Neglected Child , The Rise of the Middle Classes, Constructions of Gender and the Separate Spheres Slums, Sanitation and Policing, Chancery Court, The Literary Context, A Reminder, Chronology, Contemporary Documents, From Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (1843) , From Hector Gavin, Sanitary Ramblings (1848) , From Alfred Whaley Cole, 'The Martyrs of Chancery' (1850) , From Charles Dickens, speech delivered to the Metropolitan Sanitary Association (1851) , From Charles Dickens, 'On Duty with Inspector Field' (1851) , From Charles Dickens, 'Suckling Pigs' (1851), 2: Interpretations, Critical History, The Contemporary Reaction Reaction, Decline and Reassessment Dickens in the Twentieth Century Recent Developments, Early Critical Reception, From [Henry Fothergill Chorley], unsigned review, the Athenaeum (1853) From [George Brimley], unsigned review, the Spectator (1853), From anonymous review, the Illustrated London News (1853) , From anonymous review, Bentley's Miscellany (1853) , From anonymous review, Bentley's Monthly Review (1853), Modern Criticism, From John Butt and Kathleen Tillotson, Dickens at Work (1957), From J. Hillis Miller, 'Interpretation in Bleak House' (1971) , From Harvey P. Sucksmith, 'Sir Leicester Dedlock, Wat Tyler, and the Chartists: The Role of the Ironmaster in Bleak House' (1975) , From F.S. Schwarzbach, Dickens and the City (1979) , From Jane R. Cohen, Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators (1980) From D.A. Miller, The Novel and the Police (1988) , From Elizabeth Langland, Nobody's Angels: Middle-Class Women and Domestic Ideology in Victorian Culture (1995) , From Carolyn Dever, Death and the Mother from Dickens to Freud: Victorian Fiction and the Anxiety of Origins (1998) , From Hilary M. Schor, Dickens and the Daughter of the House (1999), 3: Key Passages, Chapter 1: In Chancery , Chapter 2: In Fashion , Chapter 3: A Progress , Chapter 4: Telescopic Philanthropy Chapter 5: A Morning Adventure , Chapter 7: The Ghost's Walk , Chapter 8: Covering a Multitude of Sins Chapter 10: The Law-Writer , Chapter 12: On the Watch , Chapter 16: Tom-all-Alone's , Chapter 22: Mr Bucket , Chapter 32: The Appointed Time , Chapter 35: Esther's Narrative , Chapter 36: Chesney Wold , Chapter 39: Attorney and Client Chapter47:Jo'sWill , Chapter 59: Esther's Narrative , Chapter 64: Esther's Narrative , Chapter 65: Beginning the World , Chapter 67: The Close of Esther's Narrative, 4: Further Reading

Editorial Reviews

'This rich and well-organized collections will be a great help to any reader confronting the complexities of Dickens's novel for the first time.' - Dickens Quarterly

From the Publisher