Michael Hollington – författare

First published in 1984, this title examines the development of a special rhetoric in Dickens’ work, which, by using grotesque effects, challenged the complacency of his middle-class Victorian readers. The study begins by exploring definitions of the grotesque and moves on to look at three key aspects that particularly impacted on Dickens’ imagination: popular theatre (especially pantomime), caricature, and the tradition of the Gothic novel. Michael Hollington traces the development of Dickens’ application of the grotesque from his early work to his late novels, showing how its use becomes more subtle. Hollington’s title greatly enhances our appreciation of Dickens’ technique, showing the skill with which he used the grotesque to undermine stereotyped responses and encourage his readership to challenge their context.

First published in 1984, this title examines the development of a special rhetoric in Dickens’ work, which, by using grotesque effects, challenged the complacency of his middle-class Victorian readers. The study begins by exploring definitions of the grotesque and moves on to look at three key aspects that particularly impacted on Dickens’ imagination: popular theatre (especially pantomime), caricature, and the tradition of the Gothic novel. Michael Hollington traces the development of Dickens’ application of the grotesque from his early work to his late novels, showing how its use becomes more subtle. Hollington’s title greatly enhances our appreciation of Dickens’ technique, showing the skill with which he used the grotesque to undermine stereotyped responses and encourage his readership to challenge their context.

The Reception of Charles Dickens in Europe offers a full historical survey of Dickens's reception in all the major European countries and many of the smaller ones, filling a major gap in Dickens scholarship, which has by and large neglected Dickens's fortunes in Europe, and his impact on major European authors and movements. Essays by leading international critics and translators give full attention to cultural changes and fashions, such as the decline of Dickens's fortunes at the end of the nineteenth century in the period of Naturalism and Aestheticism, and the subsequent upswing in the period of Modernism, in part as a consequence of the rise of film in the era of Chaplin and Eisenstein. It will also offer accounts of Dickens's reception in periods of political upheaval and revolution such as during the communist era in Eastern Europe or under fascism in Germany and Italy in particular.