Dickens and the Classics

A reassessment of Dickens' use of antiquity to address race, sex, empire and class, highlighting his collaboration with his illustrator, Phiz.

This book examines Charles Dickens’s underappreciated engagement with Classical knowledge and its role in his cultural commentary. By treating his novels as collaborations with illustrators, particularly Phiz, it explores how Dickens drew on Ancient Greek and Roman myths, history and art to engage with 19th-century debates. Through detailed analysis of both text and illustrations, the book reveals the complexity of Dickens’s Classical references and their significance in shaping broader cultural conversations.

Each chapter pairs novels such as David Copperfield, Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities with Dickens’s journalism, letters and short fiction, supported by analysis of a range of illustrations. Christian Lehmann challenges the notion that Victorian Classics were the preserve of an elite, showing instead how Dickens adapted a demotic Classicism rooted in burlesque, satire, architecture and popular culture. He argues that Dickens’s Classical allusions, often dismissed as superficial, form an integral part of his literary output. These references are examined alongside historical developments in the ideology of scientific racism, evolving views on sexual violence, and critiques of imperialism, demonstrating how Dickens reshaped Classical traditions to reflect and critique the cultural and political dynamics of his era.