{"product_id":"charles-dickens-a-very-short-introduction-9780198714996","title":"Charles Dickens: A Very Short Introduction","description":"Charles Dickens is credited with creating some of the world's best-known fictional characters, and is widely regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian age. Even before reading the works of Dickens many people have met him already in some form or another. His characters have such\u003cbr\u003evitality that they have leapt from his pages to enjoy flourishing lives of their own: The Artful Dodger, Miss Havisham, Scrooge, Fagin, Mr Micawber, and many many more. In Britain, he is a national icon, and indeed he helped generate what Englishness signifies. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this \u003cem\u003eVery Short Introduction\u003c\/em\u003e Jenny Hartley explores the key themes running through Dickens's corpus of works, and considers how they reflect his attitudes towards the harsh realities of nineteenth century society and its institutions, such as the workhouses and prisons. Running alongside this is\u003cbr\u003eDickens's relish of the carnivalesque; if there is a prison in almost every novel, there is also a theatre. She considers Dickens's multiple lives and careers: as magazine editor for two thirds of his working life, as travel writer and journalist, and his work on behalf of social causes including\u003cbr\u003eragged schools and fallen women. She also shows how his public readings enthralled the readers he wanted to reach but also helped to kill him. Finally, Hartley considers what we mean when we use the term Dickensian today, and how Dickens's enduring legacy marks him out as as a novelist different\u003cbr\u003ein kind from others. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eABOUT THE SERIES\u003c\/strong\u003e: The \u003cem\u003eVery Short Introductions\u003c\/em\u003e series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and\u003cbr\u003eenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/28\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780198714996\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 152\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 6.70h x 4.40w x 0.50d","brand":"Jenny Hartley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41371122499765,"sku":"9780198714996","price":11.04,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_19f585c1-f368-4d7f-b8be-f8073c68b44f.jpg?v=1637638612","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/charles-dickens-a-very-short-introduction-9780198714996","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}