Appreciation and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens

Criticisms and Appreciations
INTRODUCTION
THESE papers were originally published as prefaces
to the separate books of Dickens in one of the most
extensive of those cheap libraries of the classics which
are one of the real improvements of recent times.
Thus they were harmless, being diluted by, or rather
drov,'11ed jn Dickens. 1-1y scrap of theory ,~:as a mere
dry biscuit to be takcn with the grand tawny port of
great English comedy; and by most people it was not
taken at all-like the biscuit. Nevertheless the essays
were not in intention so aimless as they appear in fact.
I had a general notion of what needed saying about
Dickens to the new generation, though probably I did
not say it. I 1;vill make another attempt to do so in this
prologue. and. possibly fail again.
There was a painful Inoment (somewhere about the
eighties) when we watched anxiously to see vhcther
Dickens was fading from the modern world. 'vVe have
'latched a little longer, and with great rel

Table of Contents

CONTENTS; CHAPTER PAGE; I INTRODUCTION; • Vll; II SKETCHES BY Boz • • 1; III PICKWICK PAPERS 13; IV NICHOLAS NICKLEBY 26; V OLIVER TwIST 38; VI OLD CURIOSITY SHOP 50; VII BARNABY RUDGE 6S; VIII AMERICAN NOTES 76; IX PICTURES FROM ITALY 87; X MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT 90; XI CHRISTMAS BOOKS 103; XII DOMBEY AND SON 114; XIII DA VID COPPERFIELD 129; XIV CHRISTMAS STORIES 140; XV BLEAK HOUSE 148; XVI CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND 160; iii; I•V Contents; CHAPTER PAGE; XVII HARD TIMES 169; XVIII LITTLE DORRIT 178; XIX A TALE OF Two CITIES 188; XX GREAT EXPECTATIONS 197; XXI OUR MUTUAL FRIEND 207; XXII EDWIN DROOD 218; XXIII MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK 229; XXIV REPRINTED