Scheme of extracts

The selection of extracts which follows tries to bring together the features of Dickens’ work discussed in the Introduction; and to demonstrate the reasons for the adverse criticism which has grown up around his work; to answer such criticism, where it can be answered, with conflicting evidence; to demonstrate the use he makes of particular skills gained as a theatre-goer and an observant journalist; and, very roughly, to show by ordering, how Dickens’ early vitality developed into his mature talent. Although I have not hesitated to move an example of a particular technique or attitude to accompany related techniques or attitudes from a similar period of work so that there may be a loose continuity between sections, I have followed a rough chronology of periods (Pickwick to Chuzzlewit, Dombey to Hard Times , and Tale of Two Cities to Our Mutual Friend) to compensate for the chronological displacement of individual novels.