LEADER 02450oam 2200505 450 001 9910150342703321 005 20210330043528.0 010 $a1-315-38624-0 010 $a0-367-17567-3 010 $a1-315-38626-7 024 7 $a10.4324/9781315386263 035 $a(CKB)3710000000932790 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC4741306 035 $a965710252 035 $a(OCoLC)959611013 035 $a(OCoLC-P)959611013 035 $a(FlBoTFG)9781315386263 035 $a(PPN)231710593 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000932790 100 $a20160928d2016 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $2rdacontent 182 $2rdamedia 183 $2rdacarrier 200 10$aDickens and the myth of the reader /$fby Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton 210 1$aNew York :$cRoutledge,$d2016. 215 $a1 online resource (198 pages) 311 $a1-138-23032-4 311 $a1-315-38625-9 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $a1. Reciprocal readers and the 1830s-40s -- 2. The hero of his life -- 3. First-person-narrators and editorial 'conducting' : limited intimacy and the shared imaginary -- 4. Decoding the text -- 5. Afterlives. 330 $aThis study explores the ways in which Dickens's published work and his thousands of letters intersect, to shape and promote particular myths of the reading experience, as well as redefining the status of the writer. It shows that the boundaries between private and public writing are subject to constant disruption and readjustment, as recipients of letters are asked to see themselves as privileged readers of coded text or to appropriate novels as personal letters to themselves. Imaginative hierarchies are both questioned and ultimately reinforced, as prefaces and letters function to create a mythical reader who is placed in imaginative communion with the writer of the text. But the written word itself becomes increasingly unstable, through its association in the later novels with evasion, fraud and even murder. 606 $aAuthors and readers 606 $aReader-response criticism 615 0$aAuthors and readers. 615 0$aReader-response criticism. 676 $a823/.8 700 $aOulton$b Carolyn$f1972-$0929943 801 0$bOCoLC-P 801 1$bOCoLC-P 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910150342703321 996 $aDickens and the myth of the reader$92091136 997 $aUNINA