Charles Dickens: A Critical Study

by George Gissing

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1898

About the author

People best know British writer George Robert Gissing for his novels, such as New Grub Street (1891), about poverty and hardship.

This English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.

Born to lower-middle-class parents, Gissing went to win a scholarship to Owens College, the present-day University of Manchester. A brilliant student, he excelled at university, winning many coveted prizes, including the Shakespeare prize in 1875. Between 1891 and 1897 (his so-called middle period) he produced his best works, which include New Grub Street, Born in Exile , The Odd Women , In the Year of Jubilee , and The Whirlpool . The middle years of the decade saw his reputation reach new heights: some critics count him alongside George Meredith and Thomas Hardy, the best novelists of his day. He also enjoyed new friendships with fellow writers such as Henry James, and H.G. Wells, and came into contact with many other up-and-coming writers such as Joseph Conrad and Stephen Crane.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good study of Dickens written 30 years after his death. The perspective is still Victorian era, but the book reads like a modernist study of Dickens. Out of the several Dickens' studies I have read, one of the better for gaining an understanding of his art.

It is readily available for free download for ebooks or for a dollar or two as a purchase.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that I really enjoyed reading George Gissing's writing on Dickens works. (The book title is: Critical Studies of The Works of CHARLES DICKENS by George Gissing, 1965, Haskell House, NYC) There is so much information, that I will only share a few things.

According to Gissing, "Dickens love for the ancient emphasizes his love for the country, which is different from that of Wordsworth but akin to that of Chaucer." His art is primarily concerned with the uncouth and the underbred. "Dickens was a radical, but no radicalism would change the world morally." Dickens was criticized that he was too emotional. Gissing stated that "it is only by emotion that life can be translated into art." Each section goes chronologically by book titles.

Sketches by Boz -- " . . . no longer appealed to the ordinary reader, it's interest was mainly historical. Those sketches revealed a new writer who broke entirely new ground, which were written in a new style, and seemed to bring a refreshing break of reality into the literary atmosphere. There was much more satire in these pages than of humor, in the true sense, and occasionally the satire is a vigorous forecast of what to is to come." Gissing states, "In Dickens we always feel a sympathetic understanding, a recognition of the human through whatever grotesque disguise. Pickwick papers is a mental tonic. In it's forthright flow the vivactiy of the book has no parallel.

Olive Twist -- There are two-fold moral purposes: (1) to exhibit the evil workings of the poor in the Poor Law Act and (2) to give a faithful picture of the life of the thieves in London. Dickens felt that the "pauper system" was directly responsible for a great deal of crime. Also workhouses separated families -- husbands & wives, parents & children, which promoted individual suffering. Dickens stated, "I wished to show in little Oliver, the principal of good surviving through everyday adverse circumstances and triumphing at last."

There are many more check out.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit shorter and less developed than I had hoped it would be. It was just OK.