Following recent interest in Dickens's writings as a journalist, this is the first critical study of this essential aspect of Dickens's creative and professional career. Drew explores Dickens's journalism as a three-dimensional field of study in its own right and attempts to tell the story of Dickens's forty-year career in the media, explaining and recording much that has been previously unknown or obscure.
It restores Dickens's journalism in depth to its historical, political and media context, offering critical commentary, an extensive bibliography and some rare, unpublished material and new discoveries - including what is probably the first piece of writing published by Dickens in any genre.
'An important contribution to Dickens scholarship. This is the first critical study of this important aspect of Dickens's 40-year career... it provides the reader with an immensely useful biographical, historical and social context in which to read the journalism.' - Tribune
'This is the first book to look at Dickens's journalism in the round and it is hard to imagine that it could have been done better...his light touch and gift for a telling phrase make for an engaging and lively book.' - John Bowen, Times Literary Supplement
'Drew does an excellent job of drawing our attention to the strengths, successes and weaknesses of Dickens's journalistic output.' - David Finkelstein, Year's Work in English Studies (2005)
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Copying and Reporting Life (1830-33)
Chronicling and Sketching Life (1834-36)
'Boz' as 'Editor' (1837-41)
Travelling, Skirmishing, and Sharp-shooting (1841-44) Launching The Daily News (1845-46)
Reviewing The Examiner (1848-49)
Editing Life: Household Words (1850-59)
Publishing and Recalling Life: All the Year Round (1859-70)
Dickens the Journalist: Models, Modes and Media
Special Correspondence: Reading Dickens's Journalism
Endnotes
Bibliography and Abbreviations
Index
JOHN DREW is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Buckingham. He edited, with Michael Slater, the final volume of the Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens's Journalism (2000), and has recently edited Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray (2001). His doctoral thesis was on The Uncommercial Traveller, and he has also published a number of articles and reviews on aspects of Victorian journalism in The Dickensian and Dickens Quarterly.
Description
Following recent interest in Dickens's writings as a journalist, this is the first critical study of this essential aspect of Dickens's creative and professional career. Drew explores Dickens's journalism as a three-dimensional field of study in its own right and attempts to tell the story of Dickens's forty-year career in the media, explaining and recording much that has been previously unknown or obscure.
It restores Dickens's journalism in depth to its historical, political and media context, offering critical commentary, an extensive bibliography and some rare, unpublished material and new discoveries - including what is probably the first piece of writing published by Dickens in any genre.
Reviews
'An important contribution to Dickens scholarship. This is the first critical study of this important aspect of Dickens's 40-year career... it provides the reader with an immensely useful biographical, historical and social context in which to read the journalism.' - Tribune
'This is the first book to look at Dickens's journalism in the round and it is hard to imagine that it could have been done better...his light touch and gift for a telling phrase make for an engaging and lively book.' - John Bowen, Times Literary Supplement
'Drew does an excellent job of drawing our attention to the strengths, successes and weaknesses of Dickens's journalistic output.' - David Finkelstein, Year's Work in English Studies (2005)
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Copying and Reporting Life (1830-33)
Chronicling and Sketching Life (1834-36)
'Boz' as 'Editor' (1837-41)
Travelling, Skirmishing, and Sharp-shooting (1841-44) Launching The Daily News (1845-46)
Reviewing The Examiner (1848-49)
Editing Life: Household Words (1850-59)
Publishing and Recalling Life: All the Year Round (1859-70)
Dickens the Journalist: Models, Modes and Media
Special Correspondence: Reading Dickens's Journalism
Endnotes
Bibliography and Abbreviations
Index
Authors
JOHN DREW is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Buckingham. He edited, with Michael Slater, the final volume of the Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens's Journalism (2000), and has recently edited Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray (2001). His doctoral thesis was on The Uncommercial Traveller, and he has also published a number of articles and reviews on aspects of Victorian journalism in The Dickensian and Dickens Quarterly.
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