David Paroissien is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham. He edits Dickens Quarterly and co-edits, with Susan Shatto, the Dickens Companions series. He is the author of The Companion to Oliver Twist (1992), The Companion to Great Expectations (2000), and has edited The Mystery of Edwin Drood for Penguin (2002).

“Pykett’s chapter is preceded by a rewarding chapter on the literary culture of the day by Michael Hollington and followed by the final essay on ‘Postcolonial Dickens’. As if to insist that any competition in the Dickens Companion industry is essentially good-natured, John O. Jordan has contributed this, rather wonderful, last word to close the book.”  (Oxford Journal Clippings, 1 November 2012)"Several of these pieces should be indispensable reading for undergraduates... Each of the three Companions to Charles Dickens now available is a valuable resource for students, but Paroissien's is certainly the richest, and-- with simultaneous electronic publication- likely to be of most immediate and beneficial assistance to students." (Notes and Queries, March 2010)

• List of Illustrations viiiNotes on Contributors ixPreface xivAcknowledgments xviAbbreviations xviiPart I Perspectives on the Life 11 A Sketch of the Life 3Michael Allen2 Dickens’s Use of the Autobiographical Fragment 18Nicola Bradbury3 “Faithfully Yours, Charles Dickens”: The Epistolary Art of the Inimitable 33David Paroissien4 Three Major Biographies 47Catherine PetersPart II Literary/Cultural Contexts 635 The Eighteenth-century Legacy 65Monika Fludernik6 Dickens and the Gothic 81Robert Mighall7 Illustrations 97Malcolm AndrewsCOPYRIGHTED MATERIAL8 The Language of Dickens 126Patricia Ingham9 The Novels and Popular Culture 142Juliet JohnPart III English History Contexts 15710 Dickens as a Reformer 159Hugh Cunningham11 Dickens’s Evolution as a Journalist 174John M. L. Drew12 Dickens and Gender 186Natalie McKnight13 Dickens and Technology 199Trey Philpotts14 Dickens and America (1842) 216Nancy Aycock Metz15 Dickens and Government Ineptitude Abroad, 1854–1865 228Leslie Mitchell16 Dickens and the Uses of History 240John Gardiner17 Dickens and Christianity 255Valentine Cunningham18 Dickens and the Law 277Jan-Melissa SchrammPart IV The Fiction 29519 The Pickwick Papers 297David Parker20 Oliver Twist 308Brian Cheadle21 Nicholas Nickleby 318Stanley Friedman22 The Old Curiosity Shop 328Gill Ballinger23 Barnaby Rudge 338Jon Mee24 Martin Chuzzlewit 348Goldie Morgentaler25 Dombey and Son 358Brigid Lowe26 David Copperfi eld 369Gareth Cordery27 Bleak House 380Robert Tracy28 Hard Times 390Anne Humpherys29 Little Dorrit 401Philip Davis30 A Tale of Two Cities 412Paul Davis31 Great Expectations 422Andrew Sanders32 Our Mutual Friend 433Leon Litvack33 The Mystery of Edwin Drood 444Simon J. JamesPart V Reputation and Infl uence 45334 Dickens and the Literary Culture of the Period 455Michael Hollington35 Dickens and Criticism 470Lyn Pykett36 Postcolonial Dickens 486John O. Jordan Index 501