A collection of original essays and innovative reading strategies―provides examples of reading Dickens in creative and challenging ways
Reading Dickens Differently features contributions from many of the field’s leading scholars, offering creative ways of reading Dickens and enriching understanding of the most celebrated author of his time. A diverse range of innovative reading strategies―archival, historical, textual, and digital―representing new and exciting approaches to contemporary literary and cultural studies. This groundbreaking volume brings together literature, history, politics, painting, illustration, social media, video games, and other topics to reveal new opportunities to engage with the author's life and work.
This unique book includes a re-evaluation of Dickens’ death and burial, new research data drawn from legal records and newspapers, assessments of well-known paintings and lesser-known illustrations, experimental readings of Dickens’ texts in digital form, and more. Much of the evidence presented has never been seen before, such as Dickens' funeral fee account from Westminster Abbey, Dickens' death certificate, and a telegram from Dickens' son asking for urgent assistance for his dying father. Revising and refreshing the critical strategies of traditional Dickens studies, this important volume:
- Features new research data on aspects of Dickens's life
- Discusses a range of innovative reading strategies (including physiological novel theory) for clarifying aspects of Dickens' work
- Examines the presence of Dickens in popular media and technology, such as Assassin’s Creed video game and A Christmas Carol iPad app
- Features rare illustrations, including documents and images relating to Dickens's death and funeral
- Edited by world authorities on Dickens and his manuscripts
Authoritative, yet accessible, Reading Dickens Differently is a must-have book for Dickens specialists, instructors and students in Victorian fiction and Dickens courses, as well as general readers lookingfor innovative reading strategies of the author's work.
LEON LITVACK is Professor of Victorian Studies at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is Principal Editor of the Charles Dickens Letters Project and has authored numerous publications on the historical and visual approaches to Dickens.
NATHALIE VANFASSE is Professor of English at Aix-Marseille Université, France. Her monograph, La plume et la route: Charles Dickens, écrivain-voyageur was winner of the 2018 SELVA book prize.
