Alexander Bove is Professor of English at Pacific University

'Drawing on graphic traditions of the era, the author describes how Dickens developed objects like dolls and effigies to reinforce meanings beyond the literal. Bove is interested in visual and narrative techniques that move beyond the limits of mimesis.'CHOICE(Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association.)Spectral Dickens will be of immense interest to those seeking to understand Dickens's enduring appeal for readers and critics alike, especially those with an interest in psychoanalysis and the literary critical paradigms it can enable.' The Dickensian

• Introduction: An uncanny ontology of characterisationPart I Spectral mimesis: portraits, caricature, and character1 Mimesis’s ghosts: caricature and anamorphosis2 Spectral character: dreams, distortion, and the (cut of the) realPart II “Moor eeffocish things”: effigy and the bourgeoisie3 Where “the specular becomes the spectral” in The Old Curiosity Shop and Dombey and Son4 Imagos, dolls, and other gazing effigies in Bleak HousePart III Beyond the realism principle: spectral materiality5 Dream as spectral form in Bleak House and the comic surplus of Micawber in David Copperfield6 The “As if” hauntology of Little Dorrit and the uncanny dream of the three fathersBibliographyIndex