Charles Dickens As an Agent of Change

Joachim Frenk is Professor of British Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University. Lena Steveker is Assistant Professor of British Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University.

This book will delight Dickens scholars and prove an asset to any university library.... It is one that will inspire readers to consider the changes the great writer has wrought in them, and that they, in their turn, may bring to Dickens scholarship.(Modern Language Review) This collection proves Dickens to have been a keen student of change throughout his life. Its contributors... consider how Dickens promotes social change, how he presents changes of power, how he changes his own techniques, and finally how his presentation of change has inspired others.... As this impressively kaleidoscopic collection attests, Dickens's discussions of change remain a stimulating topic well over a century later.(Dickens Quarterly) An enjoyable and wide-ranging collection of articles exploring Dickens and change.(English Studies) Excellent discussions of condition-of-England novels.(Choice)

• AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Changing DickensI. Dickens and Social ChangeRepetitions and Reversals: Patterns for Social Change in Pickwick PapersThree Revolutions: Alternate Routes to Social Change in Bleak HouseDickens, Society, and Art: Change in Dickens's View of Effecting Social ReformThe World Changing Dickens, Dickens Changing the WorldII. Dickens and Changes of PowerParrots, Birds of Prey, and Snorting Cattle: Dickens's Whig Agenda"The Tremendous Potency of the Small": Dickens, the Individual, and Social Change in a Post-America, Post-Catastrophist AgeMoney, Power, and Appearance in Dombey and SonIII. Dickens and Literary ChangeThe Passing of the Pickwick MomentThe Chimes and the Rhythm of LifeRadical Dickens: Dickens and the Tradition of Romantic RadicalismModern Characters in the Late Novels of Charles DickensIV. Dickens and Changes in Popular Culture and in the TheaterThe Cultural Politics of Dickens's Hard TimesConjuring Dickens: Magic, Intellectual Property, and The Old Curiosity ShopPopular Dickens: Changing Bleak House for the East End StageThe Frozen Deep: Gad's Hill, June-July 1857How to Read Dickens in English: A Last RetrospectIndex