AND CRITICISMS OF THE WORKS OF CHARLES DICKENS
BY G. K. CHESTERTON



APPRECIATIONS AND CRITICISMS OF THE WORKS OF CHARLES DICKENS

BY

G. K. CHESTERTON

[Illustration]

1911

LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.

_All rights reserved_




CONTENTS


CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION vii
II. SKETCHES BY BOZ 1
III. PICKWICK PAPERS 13
IV. NICHOLAS NICKLEBY 26
V. OLIVER TWIST 38
VI. OLD CURIOSITY SHOP 50
VII. BARNABY RUDGE 65
VIII. AMERICAN NOTES 76
IX. PICTURES FROM ITALY 87
X. MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT 90
XI. CHRISTMAS BOOKS 103
XII. DOMBEY AND SON 114
XIII. DAVID COPPERFIELD 129
XIV. CHRISTMAS STORIES 140
XV. BLEAK HOUSE 148
XVI. CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND 160
XVII. HARD TIMES 169
XVIII. LITTLE DORRIT 178
XIX. A TALE OF TWO CITIES 188
XX. GREAT EXPECTATIONS 197
XXI. OUR MUTUAL FRIEND 207
XXII. EDWIN DROOD 218
XXIII. MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK 229
XXIV. REPRINTED PIECES 239




ILLUSTRATIONS


PAGE

CHARLES DICKENS, CIRCA 1840 _Frontispiece_
From an oil painting by R. J. Lane.

CHARLES DICKENS, 1842 76
From a bust by H. Dexter, executed during Dickens's
first visit to America.

CHARLES DICKENS, 1844 90
From a miniature by Margaret Gillies.

CHARLES DICKENS, 1849 130
From a daguerreotype by Mayall.

CHARLES DICKENS, 1858 184
From a black and white drawing by Baughiet.

CHARLES DICKENS, 1859 188
From an oil painting by W. P. Frith, R.A.

CHARLES DICKENS, CIRCA 1860 198
Photograph by J. & C. Watkins.

CHARLES DICKENS, 1868 218
From a photograph by Gurney.




INTRODUCTION


These papers were originally published as prefaces to the separate books
of Dickens in one of the most extensive of those cheap libraries of the
classics which are one of the real improvements of recent times. Thus
they were harmless, being diluted by, or rather drowned in Dickens. My
scrap of theory was a mere dry biscuit to be taken with the grand tawny
port of great English comedy; and by most people it was not taken at
all--like the biscuit. Nevertheless the essays