Customer Reviews

The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whether you read Dickens for your own enjoyment or for academic pursuits, you will find this book invaluable. What I like most about this "Companion" is that its fourteen chapters provide new, brilliant, and thought-provoking "lenses" through which to view his novels as I re-read them, as I have done countless times in the last half-century. My favorite Dickens' novels are "Our Mutual Friend" and "Great Expectations," so I eagerly chose Chapter 6, Brian Cheadle's "The late novels: "Great Expectations" and "Our Mutual Friend" to read first. What delight! Cheadle's essay alone is worth the price of this book. This "Companion" does not disappoint.

I've read all of Dickens' novels and take a back seat to no one in my appreciation of them, but I found this Cambridge Companion less than completely satisfying. Several of the authors did a very good job of covering their assigned topics, but several others narrowed their focus too much and seemed to be straining too hard to say something original (e.g., uncovering obscure parallels between this Dickens novel and that Shakespearean play). In academia, being original is highly prized, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that this collection of essays turned out the way it did.

With roughly ten thousand pages available to draw upon, it seems like there's plenty to be said about Dickens' novels--commentary that would enrich the Dickens reader's experience--without becoming overly cute.

I don't mean to be unreasonably harsh. This book deserves all four stars I gave it. Still, I was hoping for something a little bit different.

This provides some interesting critical essays of recent scholarship on Dickens work. A must have for any student of Dickens.