Dickens, Death, and Christmas

Robert L Patten author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:27th Jun '23

Should be back in stock very soon

Dickens, Death, and Christmas cover

"Marley was dead, to begin with." Why does the most beloved of Christmas books open with a death? What has death to do with Christmas and New Years, and with Dickens's Christmas books and stories over his entire life? This book starts at the Paris Morgue and takes Dickens through his Christmas experiences from childhood and beyond, his celebrations of the season, and the sorrows that he often reviews in the New Year. Robert L. Patten weaves together Dickens's life, career, writings, journalism, travel, theatrical presentations, and religious convictions to offer a richly designed and entertaining narrative, fulsomely illustrated, of the manifold ways Dickens figures the spirit and traditions of the winter holidays in Victorian England. Both the gothic of ghosts and retribution and what he saw as the grotesque of lower-class enjoyment surface importantly in Dickens's fantasies. This volume discloses many hitherto overlooked connections between Dickens's writings and life and arrives at some surprising conclusions about Dickens's imagination, understanding of the conditions and meaning of Christian life, and the failures of British society to meet the pressing needs of its people. Not only does it address the public reception of these writings; it also tracks the responses and understandings of Dickens's illustrators, friends who found novel ways of telling, and mis-telling, the stories.

In this beautifully illustrated, richly contextualized study, Robert Patten traces the often surprising and deeply-rooted connections between death and Christmas festivities in Dickens's Christmas books and in his own experiences of the winter solstice holidays. * Dickens Quarterly *
This is a thoughtful, comprehensive representation of the book, by one of the most informed of all Dickensians. * Philip V. Allingham, The Victorian Web *
A great accomplishment of scholarship and literary commentary ... I felt privileged to be invited into a Victorian sitting room. Plush and comfortable, designed for comfort and pleasure, the reader feels the depth of knowledge and erudition that is integrated into deep understanding and love of Dickens. It is, in short, a great tribute to a lifetime of work on Dickens involving deep research, a keen literary sensibility, and a rapport with the community of Dickensians of all sorts. * Edward Tomarken, Emeritus Professor, Miami University. Honorary Research Associate, Kent University, Canterbury *
Dickens, Death, and Christmas is undoubtedly a valuable contribution to Dickens studies and a must-read for academics, students, and teachers who want to delve deeper into the manifold ways Dickens portrays the spirit of the winter holidays, and to be better informed about "The Man Who Invented Christmas"--the title bestowed on the novelist by The Sunday Telegraph in 1988. * Magdalena Pype?, English Studies *
In this beautifully illustrated, richly contextualized study, Robert Patten traces the often surprising and deeply-rooted connections between death and Christmas festivities in Dickens's Christmas books and in his own experiences of the winter solstice holidays. * Natalie J. McKnight, Dickens Quarterly *

ISBN: 9780192862662

Dimensions: 241mm x 162mm x 24mm

Weight: 656g

366 pages