Charles Dickens as a Legal Historian

by William Searle Holdsworth

Holdsworth proves that historians should study the novels of Charles Dickens as source material about the workings of English law and legal institutions. He shows how Bleak House highlights the procedures of the Court of Chancery, and Pickwick Papers illuminates the procedure of the common law. The addresses contained in this book were delivered in the William L. Storrs Lecture Series, 1927, before the Law School of Yale University. "The distinguished English historian, Professor Holdsworth, has contrived even during his moments of recreation to render us his debtors. No two books outside the bounds of technical law are more worth reading for law students than Pickwick Papers and Bleak House. Even a trained trial lawyer however, is puzzled by some of the legal points brought up by Dickens, because they have fortunately passed forever out of the realm of living law. Professor Holdsworth has performed a valuable service to lawyers and laymen alike in explaining these obscurities. And he has done much more than this. He has increased our admiration for the genius of Dickens by proving his great merit as a legal historian." Zechariah Chafee, Jr. Harvard Law Review 42:286-8. I. The Courts and the Dwellings of the Lawyers II. The Lawyers, Lawyers' Clerks, and Other Satellites of the Law III. Bleak House and the Procedure of the Court of Chancery IV. Pickwick and the Procedure of the Common Law Index AUTHOR Distinguished Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford University, Sir William Searle Holdsworth (1871-1944) is widely known for his seminal 17-volume History of English Law as well as others including The Historians of Anglo-American Law, An Historical Introduction to the Land Law, and The Law of Succession.

Genres: Nonfiction, Law

166 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1972

About the author

William Searle Holdsworth, Historian of English law.

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for anybody wondering whether Dickens propensity to caricature makes his sorties into legal territory more entertainment and emotion than authoritative document. Holdsworth certainly carries authority and isn't without entertainment value.

Enjoyed this enormously and hope to profit from it.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and readable account of the law and lawyers in Charles Dickens’ novels, recommended for anyone interested in legal history, early Victorian social history or the background of Dickens’ works.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly delightful book, highly recommended!

[Michael Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 1928 book. Holdsworth was an English legal historian. He was best known for his 17! volume "History of English Law".

Williams L. Storrs (1795-1861) was the Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court for five years. In 1889 his two grandnieces endowed a lecture series at Yale Law School in his memory. The lecture series has been the source of a surprising number of very influential books and law journal articles. Benjamin Cardoza's "The Nature of the Judicial Process", Roscoe Pound's "An Introduction to the Philosophy of law", Carl Becker's The Heavenly City of 18th Century Philosophers" and Grant Gilmore's "The Ages of American Law" are all classic pieces which have been cited hundreds of times by later scholars.

This short book began as the 1927 Starr lecture. It is not a grand philosophy of anything or a startling breakthrough in analysis. It is a guy who is a brilliant legal historian and a dedicated Dickens fan combining his passions.

The first half of the book is really an anthology of the legal scenes and characters in Dicken's novels. Holdsworth notes that as a young man Dickens worked in a law office as a clerk and later as a Court Reporter. He argues that Dickens saw the legal system from the bottom up. He took in all of the nonsense and silliness and all of the odd people and used them liberally in his books.

"Bleak House" and "The Pickwick Papers" revolve around legal proceedings. Lawyers, courts, magistrates and other legal types are involved in most of his other novels. Holdsworth praises Dicken's for getting the legal technicalities mostly correct and for capturing the atmosphere and feel of the Courts.

The last half of the book discusses "Bleak House" and "The Pickwick Papers" in some detail. Both books painted damning pictures of the English courts. Holdsworth says that the criticism was mostly fair, although some of the outrages had been limited or abolished by the times Dickens published his novels.

One small item interested me particularly. In Pickwick there is a trial where Pickwick's landlady accuses Pickwick of breach of promise to marry. She produced several innocent notes he left her. Her lawyer's closing argument is hilariously funny. He convinces the jury that every innocent note is full of lecherous innuendo. It is one of my favorite scenes in Dickens.

Holdsworth shows that the scene is based on a closing argument in a real case by a real lawyer, the wonderfully named Mr. Sargeant Bumpas who is described as having a "fat body and a red face".

This is a learned man having fun but still doing serious scholarship. I enjoyed it.

[Mark Blane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and a thoughtful niche read by renowned English legal historian William S. Holdsworth. He examines how we can get a glimpse of how the courts of common law and Chancery (Equity) of England worked in the early to mid-19th Century. Using Dickens' The Pickwick Papers (Common Law) and Bleakhouse (Equity) as a legal lens, the reader walks away with legal insights in the period, and a foundation as to why any law student, or person with legal interest, would gain a new outlook of England's legal history by reading The Pickwick Papers and Bleakhouse.

As a lawyer, I enjoyed this book, and as a reader of Dickens' fiction I have a new appreciation for those two pieces of literary work.