Dicken’s England: Life in Victorian Times

Perhaps one might be forgiven for supposing that not very much more could usefully be written about the life and society of Charles Dickens (1812‐1870). He was certainly a literary epitome of the entirety of the Victorian Age in England. He expressed, very vividly and diversely, its extraordinary vitality, vigour and variety, creating in that process many assorted caricatures of his times, particularly in and around London. Historians may still, perhaps, protest that Dickens was an overflowing sentimentalist, who for all his literary creations overemphasized the place of the poor, without also formulating any plans for their amelioration. He exhibited...