This is the first major study of Dickens's villains. They embody, John argues, the crucial fusion between the "deviant" and "theatrical" aspects of his writing. Though there have been many studies of both the macabre and the dramatic Dickens, this book sets up a dialogue between these two main strands and suggests a new way understanding the cultural and political implications of his melodramatic aesthetics.

At the cusp of literary and cultural studies, this wide-ranging critical anthology reevaluates Victorian culture in the light of the literature of the period and vice versa. Also, essays by eminent and emerging Victorianists offer a reassessment, explicit and implicit, of Victorian studies and its methodologies.

Charles Dickens Oliver Twist is one of the most significant novels of the Victorian era and having been adapted for both stage and screen, retains its impact in the cultural consciousness of many nations. Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Dickens novel includes:

• extensive introductory comment on the contexts, critical history and interpretations of the text, from publication to the present
• annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself
• cross-references between documents and sections of the...

The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Literary Culture is a major contribution to the dynamic field of Victorian studies. This collection of 37 original chapters by leading international Victorian scholars offers new approaches to familiar themes, including science, religion, and gender, and gives space to newer and emerging topics, including old age, fair play, and economics. Structured around three broad sections (on "Ways of Being: Identity and Ideology," "Ways of Understanding: Knowledge and Belief," and "Ways of Communicating: Print and Other Cultures"), the volume is sub-divided...