The Dickens Encyclopedia Author:Arthur L. Hayward Now that so many of the works of Dickens have been exploited by radio, television and the cinema, it is probable that the dramatised versions have developed a public much wider than that which still reads the original books 'complete and unabridged'. — There is of course nothing inherently wrong in this shift from one medium to another, i... more »f it helps to convey Dickens' essential social messages to generations less and less conversant with the language, manners and allusions of mid-nineteenth century England.
So for the Dickens enthusiast to overcome that difficulty of 'getting back to the original' (without having to research a doctoral thesis in the process), this is an invaluable and definitive alphabetically arranged work of reference.
Plots are described, characters (even the obscurer subsidiary ones) are flushed out, and historical and geographical references are explained.
All of this will no doubt whet the appetite of armchair Dickensians to explore the books further once the easy visual satisfaction of costume drama has worn off.
Dicken's cast of hundreds, from all grades of Victorian society, are beckoning from these pages!« less