Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens
Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens
G.K. Chesterton loved a good fight, and in these essays he takes on everyone who ever dismissed Dickens as a mere caricaturist of Victorian excesses. Written with the fierce wit and paradox-loving intelligence that made Chesterton one of the twentieth century's most exhilarating essayists, this collection mounts a passionate defense of Dickens as a serious artist: a man who saw the fractures in industrial society long before they became visible, who understood that humor and humanity are not opposites but companions. The opening piece addresses the anxious question of Dickens's relevance directly, and Chesterton's answer is characteristically brilliant: it is not Dickens who has faded, he argues, but the Victorian world itself. What remains is something prophetic, funny, and deeply true. For readers who want to understand not just Dickens, but why some writers outlive their eras while others become period pieces, Chesterton offers an answer that is as entertaining as it is insightful.
