The Edinburgh Companion to Charles Dickens and the Arts

A monumental achievement, this superb collection comprehensively surveys the variety, complexity and sophistication of Dickens’s engagement with ‘the Arts’, defining them capaciously and embracing the popular, as he did. -- Catherine Waters, University of Kent
This richly engaging collection of essays by a distinguished group of scholars brings out the surprising range of art forms and conventions that helped to shape Dickens’s extraordinary career. -- James Eli Adams, Columbia University
This illustrated collection includes 33 essays on how the arts—broadly defined and including the popular—shaped both Dickens’s works and the cultural responses to those works. In assembling this collection, John (City Univ. of London, UK) builds on her oft-cited Dickens and Mass Culture (2010) to create additional avenues for exploration. Her excellent introductory essay, written with coeditor Wood (Univ. of Leicester, UK), contextualizes Dickens’s view of the arts and the ways in which his attitudes about the arts often anticipate those in the 21st century. The strength of the collection is its breadth. For example, in the section “Performing Arts,” scholars focus on dance, musical theater, puppetry, and rap music (which features a surprising number of references to Dickens’s characters and plots). Another strength of the volume is the innovative nature of many of the essays. While analyses of film and television adaptations of Dickens’s works are common, this collection offers essays on Dickens films from the silent era, recent television adaptations, and global film treatments. Overall, the collection is remarkably rich, entertaining, and provocative. Essays include suggestions for further reading and helpful scholarly apparatus. Summing Up: Highly recommended. -- R. D. Morrison, emeritus, Morehead State University * CHOICE *