Abbreviations and References -- Introduction -- 1. Why We Read Dickens -- 2. Life of Dickens -- 3. Sketches by Boz, Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist -- 4. Dickens's London -- 5. Social Class in Victorian England -- 6. Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge -- 7. Prison and Crime -- 8. Dickens and Education -- 9. Medicine, Doctors, Nurses and Hospitals -- 10. Martin Chuzzlewit, A Christmas Carol, Dombey and Son -- 11. Women and Children in Dickens -- 12. Dickens and Animals -- 13. David Copperfield, Bleak House -- 14. Dickens's Comic Characters and Villains -- 15. Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities -- 16. Theatre and Entertainment -- 17. Christmas Stories -- 18. Dickens's Public Readings -- 19. Dickens's Friends and Contemporaries -- 20. Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, The Mystery of Edwin Drood -- 21. Adaptations and Versions of Dickens's Writings -- Index -- |