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religion we all have a vague idea (or we have the idea that Dickens' own
ideas were rather vague as well). Denis Walder provides a lot of material,
not only from the novels but also from the lesser fiction and the non-fic
tion, and also from other contemporary sources. I am not sure this is the
final study of the subject; after all it is only the first one, filling
a gap that needed filling. Dickens and Women, is the magnum opus of
Dr. Michael Slater. Parts of the book have already been revealed to us at
Fellowship meetings. A hearty recommendation would seem hardly necessary.
In the Unwin Critical Library the eminent French Dickensian Professor
Sylvère Monod published an authoratative study of Martin Chuzzlewit. (Cr8)
Chuzzlewit has not been the most popular of the novels, which does not fail
to surprise one whenever one rereads the book. It richly deserves the space
devoted to it by Monod. In Macmillan's Casebook Series, which "brings to
gether the best of modern criticism, along with a selection of earlier
reviews and comments", a volume appeared this summer on Dombey and Son and
Little Dorrit, edited by Alan Shelston (Cr9)Of course both books would
have warranted a volume on their own, but as it is, the book is a must
for anyone who wants to study these novels closely.
One of all time classics of literary critisicm was recently reprinted:
Kathleen Tillotson's Novels of the Eighteen-Forties (CrlO)Apart from a
famous essay on Dombey and Son it contains interesting appendixes with,
among other matters, Dicken's letter outlining Dombey and Son.
More general studies
Three books dealing with wider themes dicuss works by Dickens extensively.
George Watt's The Fallen Woman in the 19th Century English Novel devotes
a chapter to Nancy. (Cr 11) Dr. Chris Brooks, in Signs for the Times, Sym
bolic Realism in the Mid-Victorian World "explores imaginative and creative
relationships between three major areas of Mid-Victorian arts: literature,
painting and architecture" (Cr 12). The art of Dickens is central to his
thesis. Finally, Chirstopher Mulvey presents a study of nineteenth-century
Anglo-Americal travel literature in a book called Anglo-American Landscapes
in which Dickens of course features extensively (Crl3).
III. MISCELLANEOUS
Letters
Karel van het Reve wrote, in an essay on David Copperfield: "Wat mij nu
treft is de geweldige rijkdom van Dickens. Hij heeft iets tot zijn beschik
king een situatie, een beeld, een stukje conversatie waarvan hij moet heb
ben geweten dat het een aanzienlijk effect op de lezer zou hebben. Een ander
schrijver zou zuinig op dat effect, dat gegeven, dat materiaal geweest zijn,
maar Dickens gebruikt het maar even, achteloos, hij heeft nog veel meer."
Ditzelfde verschijnsel doet zich voor in Dickens's letters. Of course,
especially in his travel letters, he used the material found there again in
his travel books. But on the whole we get the unmistakable impression of
someone who overflows with energy, and who, while writing sometimes several
novels at the same time, was able to add a huge number of letters to his to
tal output.
