Dickens and the Popular Radical Imagination [Hardcover]

Sally Ledger offers substantial readings of the influences of radical writers on works from Pickwick to Little Dorrit.Sally Ledger explores the influence on Dickens of the popular radical culture of his time. This richly illustrated study, originally published in 2007, offers readings of works from Pickwick to Little Dorrit against radical writings and popular graphic art.Sally Ledger explores the influence on Dickens of the popular radical culture of his time. This richly illustrated study, originally published in 2007, offers readings of works from Pickwick to Little Dorrit against radical writings and popular graphic art.The relationship between the work of Charles Dickens and popular literature has often been noted, but the extent to which his fiction and journalism were rooted in, and continued to respond to, the popular radical culture of his time had so far been unexplored. Sally Ledger traces the influence of Regency radicals, such as William Hone and William Cobbett, and mid-century radical writers, such as Douglas Jerrold and the Chartists Ernest Jones and G. W. M. Reynolds. She offers substantial readings of works from Pickwick to Little Dorrit, arguing that Dickens's populism bridged eighteenth- and nineteenth-century conceptions of the 'popular', the first identified with the political idea of 'the People', the second identified with a mass-market 'populace' that emerged during Dickens's career. Richly illustrated, this study also uncovers the resonance between Dickens's writings and popular graphic art by George Cruikshank, Robert Seymour, C. J. Grant and others.List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Note on editions and abbreviations used; Introduction: Dickens and the popular radical imagination; 1. Popular radical culture in Regency England: Peterloo and The Queen Caroline Affair; 2. Dickens and nineteenth-century show trials; 3. Dickens, popular culture and popular politics in the 1830s: Oliver Twist; 4. Christmas is cancelled: Dickens and Douglals*