DOCSLIB.ORG

Anti-Bleak House”: Advertising and the Victorian Novel Steinlight, Emily

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Anti-Bleak House”: Advertising and the Victorian Novel Steinlight, Emily “Anti-Bleak House”: Advertising and the Victorian Novel Steinlight, Emily. Narrative, Volume 14, Number 2, May 2006, pp. 132-162 (Article) Published by The Ohio State University Press DOI: 10.1353/nar.2006.0007 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nar/summary/v014/14.2steinlight.html Access Provided by City University of New York at 01/31/12 12:45AM GMT Emily Steinlight “ANTI-BLEAK HOUSE”: Advertising and the Victorian Novel INTRODUCTION Allow me to begin by deferring all questions concerning the value of the archive, the uses and abuses of historical materialism, and problems of method in general; these questions will return, no doubt, but for now I would like to posit, pro- visionally, a contemporary reader—a naïve reader: myself, for example. This naïve reader, let us say, wanders into a special collections library and sees for the first time something that many other (less naïve) readers have undoubtedly seen over the past century and a half: a copy of the first edition of a well-known Victorian serial novel. She had probably read somewhere or other that this novel, like so many of the most famous Victorian novels, was originally published in parts—but perhaps this fact never struck her as particularly significant. Upon opening to the first printed page, however, our reader is startled to note something she had not read: the text of the novel is preceded by pages upon pages of advertisements. Not being a Victorian her- self, she is unlikely to turn past these ads as she might turn past a page of ads in a contemporary magazine; like messages addressed to someone other than the reader, the ads present at once an obstacle to reading and an inducement to read on, or to read differently. Poring over the advertising section, she is overtaken with the odd sense she had somehow misunderstood what this novel was—maybe even to the point of beginning to suspect that the entire category of the novel might require some reevaluation. But now I am getting ahead of myself. For the time being, let us leave this reader at the library and proceed without her. I have framed a certain kind of conventional narrative that is limited in its uses for a reading, much less a theory, of the novel. Such narratives of discovery are often freighted with strange and conflicting notions about the value of objects and our own Emily Steinlight is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Brown University. Her current research focuses on periodicals, print media, and the 19th-century novel. NARRATIVE, Vol. 14, No. 2 (May 2006) Copyright 2006 by The Ohio State University Advertising and the Victorian Novel 133 interpretive authority as subjects. (I would not want, for instance, to insist upon the “radical alterity” of a musty page of print—much less to unearth something called “the real.”) Yet, if this particular archival reverie extends beyond the problem of his- toricizing the reader, or of positing a reading subject at all, it might offer a prelimi- nary means of framing another task: that of rethinking not only the Victorian novel’s relationship to the mass culture of industrial production from which it emerges, but also its discursive, formal and material interdependence with the modern system of print advertising. This system may prove critically important to the novel as an insti- tution. In order to offer any speculation at all on the institutions of the Victorian novel, however, I think we are bound to begin with one particular institution by the name of Charles Dickens. In what follows, I will draw upon the example Dickens’s serial writing—focusing particularly on Bleak House and its “Advertiser” as a sort of case study—so as to examine the relation between advertising discourse and the Vic- torian serial novel. I will offer readings of this material that point beyond the specific literary and commercial texts in question, ultimately with a view to the broader the- oretical implications of advertising on reading, authorship, and the study of the novel. THE SERIAL NOVEL AND THE DICKENS ADVERTISER First, a brief history: In April of 1836, Chapman and Hall began releasing seri- alized monthly installments of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. Though the author—whose previous work was signed only “Boz”—was known mainly for his newspaper journalism1 and short “sketches” for the Morning Chroni- cle and other papers, the demand for his first novel (if we can call it that) quickly grew to tremendous proportions. By the time of Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1837, the Pickwick Papers were selling up to 40,000 copies a month—quite possibly, at that time, the best-selling new work of fiction in literary history (Law 14, Feltes 2). Only two years after the first issue of Pickwick went to press, Dickens was at work on his third novel, Nicholas Nickleby, which entered publication in April of 1838— even before his second, Oliver Twist, was complete. By this point in his career, he was already far and away the most popular and best-known writer in England.2 While Dickens was not the first novelist to publish in parts, he was very likely the most commercially successful in this print medium—indeed, so much so that throughout the years of its publication, the most recently published part of his latest novel would often be available at newsstands, for the price of one shilling, alongside the daily newspapers and magazines. The 1840s saw a proliferation of hopeful imi- tators eager to profit from the serial form, but the ones who enjoyed the largest suc- cess were generally those of established reputation, and Dickens outdistanced them all in sales and celebrity.3 He released all fifteen of his novels in serialized form—six in weekly or monthly magazine serials and nine in monthly numbers. By the early 1850s, after the staggering success of his eighth novel, David Copperfield, Dickens had become a national literary icon; the author’s name was, as his aptly named jour- nal would have it, a “household word.” 134 Emily Steinlight In March of 1852, Bradbury & Evans began publishing Bleak House in nine- teen monthly installments, or “numbers,” concluding in September of 1853. Each of these numbers was printed separately in a short, unbound volume in paper covers, with illustrations by Hablôt Knight Browne preceding the text. Each four-chapter in- stallment of the novel, consisting of thirty-two pages of uninterrupted text, is also preceded by an advertising section that constitutes just less than half of the entire volume. A large percentage of the ads are publishers’ notices for a simply enormous quantity of recent or forthcoming books (including a clothbound Dickens anthology known as the “Cheap Edition,” as well as Dickens’s Child’s History of England). Not surprisingly, many of these are novels—some long forgotten and virtually impossi- ble to find today, alongside other major novels by the author and his best-known con- temporaries, including Thackeray, Trollope, Gaskell, and Bulwer-Lytton. Also advertised are several major American novels, including Hawthorne’s Blithedale Ro- mance and an upcoming serial edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The publishers’ pages also offer an astonishingly diverse assortment of new and forthcoming non-fiction books, ranging in subject from Thomas Carlyle’s Life of John Sterling, to Edward P. Thompson (the naturalist)’s Passion of Animals and a Sketch of the History of Monkeys, as well as botanists’ studies of plant life in India and China, and various ethnographic studies of Mexico, Peru, Canada, Russia, Egypt and elsewhere. There are accounts of Arctic explorations, a Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa, a memoir entitled Settlers and Convicts; or, Recollections of Sixteen Years Labour in the Backwoods of Australia (whose author is listed only as “an emi- grant mechanic”), and a rather different fictional memoir entitled Confessions of an Etonian. Also featured are various philosophical studies and a wide array of religious pamphlets and publications, including Fourteen Sermons on the Resurrection, Atheism Considered Theologically and Politically, and Jeremy Taylor’s Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying. There is a large selection of historical and contemporary biography, a considerable number of writings on the emergence of the steam engine, various treatises and personal reflections on labor, and numerous volumes of ancient and modern history. There are also numerous fiction and poetry anthologies, including a collection of Ballads for the Times and a volume of Specimens of Old In- dian Poetry. Several ads announce a series of “Indestructible Books for Children” and list multiple other children’s titles, including The Doll and Her Friends; The Mine; or, Subterranean Wonders: an Account of the Operations of the Miner, and the Products of his Labour; and The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse. There are also illustrated books intended for adults; the first serial number of Master Humphrey’s Clock (in which The Old Curiosity Shop began publication as one of the “Personal Adventures of Master Humphrey”)4 includes a large ad for a series called Heads of the People: being Picture of the English. These books consist of a number of etchings, accompanied by “Literary Descriptions” (from writers including Thack- eray, Leigh Hunt, Captain Glascock, an unnamed MP, and others), representing “British Faces and British Manners—British Virtues and British Vices—British Lib- erality and British Prejudice . delineated with the pencil and the pen of truth” and, the publishers claim, “destined to become a part of the country’s literature” because they offer “Pictures of HUMAN LIFE; not dreamt of by the fashionable novelmonger Advertising and the Victorian Novel 135 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Master Humphrey's Clock Charles Dickens CHAPTER I
    Master Humphrey's Clock Charles Dickens CHAPTER I - MASTER HUMPHREY, FROM HIS CLOCK-SIDE IN THE CHIMNEY CORNER THE reader must not expect to know where I live. At present, it is true, my abode may be a question of little or no import to anybody; but if I should carry my readers with me, as I hope to do, and there should spring up between them and me feelings of homely affection and regard attaching something of interest to matters ever so slightly connected with my fortunes or my speculations, even my place of residence might one day have a kind of charm for them. Bearing this possible contingency in mind, I wish them to understand, in the outset, that they must never expect to know it. I am not a churlish old man. Friendless I can never be, for all mankind are my kindred, and I am on ill terms with no one member of my great family. But for many years I have led a lonely, solitary life; - what wound I sought to heal, what sorrow to forget, originally, matters not now; it is sufficient that retirement has become a habit with me, and that I am unwilling to break the spell which for so long a time has shed its quiet influence upon my home and heart. I live in a venerable suburb of London, in an old house which in bygone days was a famous resort for merry roysterers and peerless ladies, long since departed. It is a silent, shady place, with a paved courtyard so full of echoes, that sometimes I am tempted to believe that faint responses to the noises of old times linger there yet, and that these ghosts of sound haunt my footsteps as I pace it up and down.
    [Show full text]
  • London, Radical Culture, and the Making of the Dickensian Aesthetic
    London, Radical Culture, and the Making of the Dickensian Aesthetic London, Radical Culture, and the Making of the Dickensian Aesthetic Sambudha Sen The Ohio State University Press / Columbus Copyright © 2012 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sen, Sambudha. London, radical culture, and the making of the Dickensian aesthetic / Sambudha Sen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8142-1192-2 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8142-9293-8 (cd) 1. English fiction—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Dickens, Charles, 1812– 1870—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811–1863— Criticism and interpretation. 4. Literature and society—Great Britain—History—19th century. 5. Radicalism—Great Britain—History—19th century. I. Title. PR861.S46 2012 823'.809—dc23 2012007257 Cover design by Greg Betza Text design by Juliet Williams Type set in Adobe Sabon Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48–1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 Dickens, Thackeray, and “The Language of Radicalism” 13 CHAPTER 2 The Aesthetics and Politics of Caricature: Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Vanity Fair in Relation to “Radical Expression” 36 CHAPTER 3 Re-Visioning the City: The Making of an Urban Aesthetic from Hogarth to the Stereoscope 65 CHAPTER 4 Novelizing the City: Bleak House, Vanity Fair, and the Hybridizing Challenge 94 CHAPTER 5 Radical Culture, the City, and the Problem of Selfhood: Great Expectations and Pendennis 116 CHAPTER 6 Working with Fragments: Our Mutual Friend as a Reflection on the Popular Aesthetic 141 Notes 163 Bibliography 177 Index 184 IllUSTRATIONS 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Seman 1 Dickens Against the Grain Gendered Spheres and Their Transgressors in Bleak House, Hard Times, and Great Expectations A
    Seman 1 Dickens against the Grain Gendered Spheres and Their Transgressors in Bleak House, Hard Times, and Great Expectations A Thesis Presented to the Honors Tutorial College Ohio University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English by Taylor J. Seman June 2011 Seman 2 This thesis has been approved by The Honors Tutorial College and the Department of English __________________________ Dr. Carey Snyder Associate Professor, English Thesis Advisor and Director of Studies ___________________________ Dr. Jeremy Webster Dean, Honors Tutorial College Seman 3 Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….4 Chapter One: Transgressive Characters………………………………………………..9 Chapter Two: Idealized Characters…………………………………………………...28 Chapter Three: Female Power in Unusual Places…………………………………….45 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………....56 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..58 Seman 4 Introduction Charles Dickens certainly cannot be considered a participant in a precursory movement towards feminism; in fact, many of Dickens‘s novels uphold traditional ideas about femininity and punish the usurpation of male privilege. In Bleak House, Hard Times, and Great Expectations—the three novels that form the basis of this study—Dickens punishes characters who transgress gender norms (such as Mrs. Jellyby, Louisa, and Mrs. Joe) both through explicit condemnation by the narrator and the adversity that befalls them in the plot. These characters have been created to appear ridiculous, no matter their accomplishments in the community or in the world at large. Yet in these same novels, Dickens presents a socially relevant depiction of female power and agency that subverts the sexism he exhibits in the creation and punishment of other characters.
    [Show full text]
  • Oliver Twist; Or, the Parish Boy's Progress (1838) Is Charles Dickens's Second Novel
    Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress (1838) is Charles Dickens's second novel. It was first published as a book by Richard Bentley in 1838. It tells the story of an orphan boy and his adventures among London's slums. Oliver is captured by, and forced to work among, pickpockets and thieves until redeemed by a gentleman who has taken an interest in him. Characters include Fagin, Nancy, Bill Sykes, and the Artful Dodger. The book David Copperfield is a novel by Charles is one of the earliest examples of the social novel. It draws the Dickens. Like his other novels, it first came out as a series in a reader's attention to contemporary evils such as child labour, the magazine under the title The Personal History, Adventures, recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of children. Blunderstone Rookery (which he never meant to publish on any The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, account)[1] an orphan whose account of hardships as a child labourer in a The story is told in the first person. Some of the greatest Dickens cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s. It is likely that Dickens's characters appear in the novel, such as the evil clerk Uriah Heep. own early youth as a child labourer contributed to the story's Other villains in David's life are his brutal stepfather, Edward development. The book influenced American writer Horatio Alger, Murdstone, and Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • David Copperfield: Victorian Hero
    David Copperfield: Victorian Hero by James A. Hamby A Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the College of Graduate Studies of Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, Tennessee August 2012 UMI Number: 3528680 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. OiSi«Wior» Ftattlisttlfl UMI 3528680 Published by ProQuest LLC 2012. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Submitted by James A. Hamby in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, specializing in English. Accepted on behalf of the Faculty of the College of Graduate Studies by the dissertation committee: Date: Quaul 3-1.9J310. Rebecca King, Ph.D. ^ Chairperson Date:0ruu^ IX .2.612^ Elvira Casal^Ph.D. N * Second Reader f ./1 >dimmie E. Cain, Ph.D. Af / / / y # Third Reader / diPUt Date:J Tom Strawman, Ph.D. Chair, Department of English (lULa.lh Qtt^bate: 7 SI '! X Michael D.)'. Xllen, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Graduate Studies © 2012 James A. Hamby ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii For my family.
    [Show full text]
  • Selected Bibliography on Our Mutual Friend for the 2014 Dickens Universe August 3-9 UC Santa Cruz
    Selected Bibliography on Our Mutual Friend for the 2014 Dickens Universe August 3-9 UC Santa Cruz (*starred items are strongly recommended) Reference Works Cotsell, Michael. 1986. The Companion to Our Mutual Friend. Boston: Allen & Unwin; rpt. New York: Routledge, 2009. Brattin, Joel J., and Bert. G. Hornback, eds. 1984. Our Mutual Friend: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland. Heaman, Robert J. 2003. “Our Mutual Friend: An Annotated Bibliography: Supplement I, 1984-2000.” Dickens Studies Annual 33: 425-514. Selected articles and chapters Allen, Michelle Elizabeth. 2008. “A More Expansive Reach: The Geography of the Thames in Our Mutual Friend.” In Cleansing the City: Sanitary Geographies in Victorian London, ch. 2. Athens: Ohio University Press. Alter, Robert. 1996. “Reading Style in Dickens.” Philosophy and Literature 20, no. 1: 130-7. Arac, Jonathan. 1979. “The Novelty of Our Mutual Friend.” In Commissioned Spirits: The Shaping of Social Motion in Dickens, Carlyle, Melville, and Hawthorne, 164-185. New York: Columbia University Press. Baumgarten, Murray. 2000. “The Imperial Child: Bella, Our Mutual Friend, and the Victorian Picturesque.” In Dickens and the Children of Empire, edited by Wendy S. Jacobson, 54-66. New York: Palgrave. Baumgarten, Murray. 2002. “Boffin, Our Mutual Friend, and the Theatre of Fiction.” Dickens Quarterly 19: 17-22. Bodenheimer, Rosemarie. 2002. “Dickens and the Identical Man: Our Mutual Friend Doubled.” Dickens Studies Annual 31: 159-174. Boehm, Katharina. 2013. “Monstrous Births and Saltationism in Our Mutual Friend and Popular Anatomical Museums.” In Charles Dickens and the Sciences of Childhood: Popular Medicine, Child Health and Victorian Culture, ch. 5. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Show full text]
  • Five Novels Oliver Twist a Christmas Carol David Copperfield Tale of Two Cities Great Expectations Charles Dickens
    FIVE NOVELS OLIVER TWIST A CHRISTMAS CAROL DAVID COPPERFIELD TALE OF TWO CITIES GREAT EXPECTATIONS CHARLES DICKENS PDF-29FNOTACCDCTOTCGECD0 | Page: 117 File Size 5,182 KB | 24 Feb, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENT Introduction Brief Description Main Topic Technical Note Appendix Glossary PDF File: Five Novels Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol David Copperfield Tale Of Two Cities Great 1/2 Expectations Charles Dickens - PDF-29FNOTACCDCTOTCGECD0 Five Novels Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol David Copperfield Tale Of Two Cities Great Expectations Charles Dickens e-Book Name : Five Novels Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol David Copperfield Tale Of Two Cities Great Expectations Charles Dickens - Read Five Novels Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol David Copperfield Tale Of Two Cities Great Expectations Charles Dickens PDF on your Android, iPhone, iPad or PC directly, the following PDF file is submitted in 24 Feb, 2021, Ebook ID PDF-29FNOTACCDCTOTCGECD0. Download full version PDF for Five Novels Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol David Copperfield Tale Of Two Cities Great Expectations Charles Dickens using the link below: Download: FIVE NOVELS OLIVER TWIST A CHRISTMAS CAROL DAVID COPPERFIELD TALE OF TWO CITIES GREAT EXPECTATIONS CHARLES DICKENS PDF The writers of Five Novels Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol David Copperfield Tale Of Two Cities Great Expectations Charles Dickens have made all reasonable attempts to offer latest and precise information and facts for the readers of this publication. The creators will not be held accountable for any unintentional flaws or omissions that may be found. PDF File: Five Novels Oliver Twist A Christmas Carol David Copperfield Tale Of Two Cities Great 2/2 Expectations Charles Dickens - PDF-29FNOTACCDCTOTCGECD0.
    [Show full text]
  • Troubled Masculinity at Midlife: a Study of Dickens's Hard Times
    235 Troubled Masculinity at Midlife: A Study of Dickens’s Hard Times HATADA Mio Hard Timesで提示される “Fact”と“Fancy”の2つの対照的な世界、あるいは価値観は、一見 すると相反するもののように思われるが、この小説は両者の対立よりもむしろ、両者がいかに 密接な関係を持っているかを暗示しているように思われる。そして、主要な登場人物は複雑に 絡まり合ったこれら2つの世界に、それぞれのやり方で関わりを持ち、反応を示す。興味深い ことに、2つの絡み合う世界は、主要な人物（その多くは中年の男性である）の抱えている問 題とも密接な関係を持っている。本稿ではHard Timesにおける2つの世界を、作品中で直接姿 を現すことのないSissy の父親の存在を手がかりに、中年期の男性が経験するmasculinityの危 機、という観点から再考している。 キーワード：aging, masculinity, gender Introduction It is well known that F. R. Leavis included Hard Times in his work The Great Tradition, calling it “a completely serious work of art” (Leavis 258) with the “subtlety of achieved art” (Leavis 279). Much earlier, John Ruskin estimated the novel as “the greatest” of Dickens’s novels, and asserted that it “should be studied with close and earnest care by persons interested in social questions” (34). Many other critics make much of the aspect of Hard Times as a critique of the contemporary society, and it has often been treated with other industrial novels such as Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (1855). Humphry House, for instance, points out that Dickens was “thinking much more about social problems,” and that “Hard Times is one of Dickens’s most thought-about books.” He goes on to assert that “in the ’fi fties, his novels begin to show a greater complication of plot than before” because “ he was intending to use them as a vehicle of more concentrated sociological argument” (House 205). David Lodge, too, affi rms, “Hard Times manifests its identity as a polemical work, a critique of mid-Victorian industrial society dominated by materialism, acquisitiveness and ruthlessly competitive capitalist economics,” which are “represented... by the Utilitarians” (Lodge 69‒70).
    [Show full text]
  • Katie Wetzel MA Thesis Final SP12
    DOMESTIC TRAUMA AND COLONIAL GUILT: A STUDY OF SLOW VIOLENCE IN DOMBEY AND SON AND BLEAK HOUSE BY KATHERINE E. WETZEL Submitted to the graduate degree program in English and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. _____________________________ Chairperson Dr. Dorice Elliott _____________________________ Dr. Anna Neill _____________________________ Dr. Paul Outka Date Defended: April 3, 2012 ii The Thesis Committee for Katherine E. Wetzel certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: DOMESTIC TRAUMA AND COLONIAL GUILT: A STUDY OF SLOW VIOLENCE IN DOMBEY AND SON AND BLEAK HOUSE _______________________________ Chairperson Dr. Dorice Elliott Date Approved: April 3, 2012 iii Abstract In this study of Charles Dickens’s Dombey and Son and Bleak House, I examine the two forms of violence that occur within the homes: slow violence through the naturalized practices of the everyday and immediate forms of violence. I argue that these novels prioritize the immediate forms of violence and trauma within the home and the intimate spaces of the family in order to avoid the colonial anxiety and guilt that is embedded in the naturalized practices of the everyday. For this I utilize Rob Nixon’s theory on slow violence, which posits that some practices and objects that occur as part of the everyday possess the potential to be just as violent as immediate forms of violence. Additionally, the British empire’s presence within the home makes the home a dark and violent place. Dombey and Son does this by displacing colonial anxiety, such as Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
    Ch apter 1 In reading my story, you’ll decide whether I’m the hero of my own life or someone else is. I was born at Blunderstone in Suffolk. My father, David, had died six months before, at the age of thirty-nine. His aunt, Betsey Trotwood, was the head of the family. Aunt Betsey had been married to a younger man who had been very handsome and was said to have abused her. They had separated. Aunt Betsey had taken back her birth name, bought a seaside house in Dover, established herself there as a single woman with one servant, and lived in near-seclusion. It was believed that her husband had gone to India and died there ten years later. My father had been a favorite of Aunt Betsey until his marriage, which had deeply offended her. She never had met my mother, Clara. However, because my mother had been only nineteen when she married my father, then thirty- eight, Aunt Betsey had taken offense and referred to my mother as a “wax doll.” My father and Aunt Betsey had never seen each other again. The day before I was born was a bright, windy March day. My mother was in poor health and in low spirits. Dressed in mourning because of my father’s 1 2 CHARLES DICKENS recent death, she sat in the parlor by the fi re shortly before sunset. When she lifted her sad eyes to the window opposite her, she saw an unfamiliar lady coming up the walk. The lady was Aunt Betsey.
    [Show full text]
  • Innocent Characters in the Novels of Dickens
    Innocent Characters in the Novels of Dickens Ryu Myung Sook Dickens' novels from Dombey and Son are best seen as an artistic .continuum. After this turning point, the unity of action, design, and feeling was more or less achieved. The uneasiness felt over the con- temporary society was carefully instilled into the atmosphere of each novel. His exuberant proliferation of characters and scenes was ad- justed so as to concentrate on a single unifying theme, namely, the innocence theme. The ideas were incarnated and dissolved into this complex theme. The relations between the theme and the characters were organized and conceived as a whole. In short, the increasng con- sciousness and control of his artistry, the astonishing range and depth of his creative originality converged into the interfusion of the inno- cence theme and the innocent characters. Dickens started with child heroes and heroines (Oliver Twist, Little .Nell) or child-like characters (Mr. Pickwick), but, as he gained his artistic maturity, he found them inadequate centers for the complex social and moral structures he was trying to compose. He achieved a higher level of realism by removing the children from the center of the stories. But to the end, Dickens remained open to the imagination .of childhood. Monroe Engel explains the reason as follows: "For Dic- kens never reconciled to his own abused childhood, ideas of nurture, -fostering and education were always important; and the different re- 1) Monroe Engel, The Maturity of Dickens (Cambridge:Havard Univ. Press, 1959). p.111. lations of parent and quasi-parent to child are played off against each other in great detail."' Engel's argument is partly true.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Dickens' Great Expectations
    Overbey 1 Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations: The Failed Redeemers and Fate of the Orphan A Thesis Submitted to The Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences In Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts in English By Rebekah Grace Overbey 15 April 2013 Overbey 2 Liberty University College of General Studies Master of Arts in English Dr. Emily Heady_______________________________________________________________ Thesis Chair Date Dr. William Gribbin_____________________________________________________________ First Reader Date Professor Christopher Nelson______________________________________________________ Second Reader Date Overbey 3 Table of Contents Introduction: Great Expectations: Pip and the End of the Romantic Child…………………….4 Chapter 1: Maternal Figures or Monsters: Mrs. Joe and Molly………………………………..18 Chapter 2: Fallen Godparents and the Inverted Fairy Tale…………………………………….34 Chapter 3: Jaggers and the State: The Inability to Redeem……………………………………50 Chapter 4: Joe, Pip, and the Pattern of Forgiveness……………………………………………65 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….82 Overbey 4 Introduction Great Expectations: Pip and the End of the Romantic Child 1860: Twenty-three years after the reign of Queen Victoria began, one year after Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, and the year that Charles Dickens first began publishing Great Expectations. With the country reeling from the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution and theological crisis stemming from the theory of evolution, Great Expectations was born into a world of rapid social, political, and economic change. Dickens’ own world was in flux as the serial publication began: in the two years preceding the novel, Dickens had divorced his wife, sold his home, and burned years’ worth of correspondence with friends and family. In an environment of dizzying change, it should come as no surprise that Great Expectations deviates from Dickens’ typical orphan tale.
    [Show full text]