The Dickens Industry: Critical Perspectives 1836-2005: 63 (Literary Criticism in Perspective) - Hardcover

Mazzeno, Laurence W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1571133178 ISBN 13: 9781571133175

Verlag: Camden House, 2008

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Críticas:

[A] thorough overview of Dickens critics and criticism since the advent of Mr Pickwick . . . . What fascinates about this book is, first, the persistence of certain unresolved issues and problems in Dickens criticism and, second, the continuing challenge of verbalising what it is exactly that bothers critics about one of our best-loved Victorian novelists, whose very greatness flies in the face of what we regard as good taste. . . . Mazzeno helpfully divides his summaries of the "Dickens industry" into meaningful chronological phases, each with its own bibliography. . . . [He] must have been reading Dickens for a lifetime, [and] handles the sheer bulk of his task with equanimity and fairness. TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT

Foregrounds very clearly the particular assumptions, preoccupations, and methodologies adopted by these several generations of critics and commentators in a way that casts light in two directions: both on Dickens as a writer and back on the critics themselves, and their times ... Mazzeno's book proves ... the very real existence of a thriving and dynamic Dickens critical industry, and I am not aware of a single other work that profiles the material with such breadth and historical reach. --John M. L. Drew, University of Buckingham

Mazzeno traces critics' attitudes toward Charles Dickens, beginning with his phenomenal popularity during his lifetime and continuing after his death through a half century of debunking ... Mazzeno does a remarkable job of providing succinct summaries and evaluations of 18 decades of critical commentary on Dickens's life and work ... An invaluable tool. CHOICE

Even veteran Dickensians will benefit from Mazzeno's clear insight into the origins and consequences of critical shifts in Dickens studies. STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

The most impressive - and by far the most detailed - of attempts to analyze, categorize, and evaluate Dickens criticism in English. DICKENS QUARTERLY

Reseña del editor:

While he was undoubtedly the best-selling author of his day and well loved by readers in succeeding generations, Charles Dickens has not always been a favorite with critics. For half a century after his death, the writer celebrated for his novels advocating social reform was often ridiculed by those academics who condescended to write about him. Only the faithful band of devotees who called themselves Dickensians kept alive an interest in his work. Then, during the Second World War, Dickens underwent a kind of resurrection by critics, and within two decades he was once again being hailed as the foremost writer of his age, a literary genius whose work can stand beside that of Shakespeare and Milton. In the last thirty years Dickens has once again been taken to task, this time by a new breed of literary theorists who find fault with his chauvinism and imperialist attitudes. Whether he has been adored or despised, however, one thing is certain: no other Victorian novelist has generated more critical commentary. Laurence Mazzeno's book traces the history of Dickens's reputation from the earliest reviews by his contemporaries through the work of early twenty-first-century commentators. Chapters concentrate on the way judgments of Dickens changed as new standards for evaluating fiction came to dominate academic discussion. Special attention is paid to important late nineteenth- and twentieth-century studies by George Gissing, G. K. Chesterton, F. R. Leavis, George Orwell, Edmund Wilson, Humphry House, Edgar Johnson, J. Hillis Miller, Philip Collins, Michael Slater, and Harry Stone. Mazzeno also places emphasis on the past three decades, showing how literary theory has opened up new ways of reading Dickens. What becomes clear is that, in attempting to provide fresh insight into Dickens's writings, critics often reveal as much about the predilections of their own age as they do about the novelist. Laurence W. Mazzeno is president emeritus of Alvernia College, Reading, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Tennyson: The Critical Legacy (Camden House, 2004), Matthew Arnold: The Critical Legacy (Camden House, 1999), Herman Wouk (1994), and annotated bibliographies of eighteenth-century fiction, nineteenth-century poetry, and nineteenth-century fiction. He is a former editor of Nineteenth-Century Prose.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Camden House
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1571133178
• ISBN 13: 9781571133175
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 326