Prof. Dwight Lindley, the Barbara Longway Briggs Chair in English Literature at Hillsdale College, discusses some of the best of Dickens’s novels and of the studies on them. He recommends:

1. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
2. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
5. Chesterton on Dickens (Ignatius Press Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, vol. 15) by G.K. Chesterton ...and some extra recommendations...
6. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
7. The Genius of Dickens by Michael Slater
8. The Mystery of Charles Dickens by A.N. Wilson

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Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is one the best-loved novelists in the English language and arguably the greatest. Like Shakespeare, he created a host of memorable characters from all stations of life, entertained a wide public, and was equally adept as a writer of both tragedy and comedy. Whereas Shakespeare exploited his gifts as a poet and actor in his plays, Dickens, a novelist, deployed his extensive skills and experience as a journalist. He described vividly the plight of the poor, the injustices wrought by the Industrial Revolution, malfunctioning institutions, and widespread indifference. This led Dostoevsky to call him “the great Christian.”

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