ll passages from Dickens' novels cited in the foregoing pages have been taken from tbe Gadshill Edition, 38 uols. (1897-1908). The most readily accessible complete edition is The New Oxford Illustrated Dickens, 21 vols. (194-1958). The long-standing need for a critical edition of the novelist's work is now being met by The Clarendon Edition, the first volume of which, Oliver Twist, edited by Kathleen Tillotson, appeared in 1966. Other editions of single novels which include textual commentary are: Hard Times, edited by George H. Ford and Sylvere Monod and Great Expectations, edited by Edgar Rosenberg, both in The Norton Critical Editions; and David Copperfield, edited by George H. Ford in Riverside Editions.
The three most important collections of Dickens' correspondence are: the Nonesuch Press Letters of Charles Dickens, 3 vols. (1938), edited by Walter Dexter; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens: His Letters to Her (193S). edited by Walter Dexter; and The Heart of Charles Dickens, As Revealed in His Letters to Angela Burdett-Coutts (1952), edited by Edgar Johnson. All of the foregoing will be superseded, however, by the magnificent Pilgrim Edition of The Letters of Charles Dickens, the first volume of which, edited by Madeline House and Graham Storey, was published in 196S
Another important primary source is The Speeches of Charles Dickens (1960), edited by K. J. Fielding. The two essential biographies of the novelist are John Forster's The Life of Charles Dickens, which should be read in tbe edition edited by J. W. T. Ley (1928); and Edgar Johnson 's Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph, 2 vols. (1952).
For the historical context of Dickens' writings, tbe following may be especially recommended: Humphry House, The Dickens World (1941); and two studies by Philip Collins, Dickens and Crime (1962) and Dickens and Education (1963).
The best accounts of Dickens' writing habits are contained in Dickens at Work by John Butt and Kathleen Tillotson; and in Dickens Romancier: Etude sur la creation litteraire dans les romans de Charles Dickens (19S3) by Sylvere Monod (Since the completion of the present volume Professor Monod has published an English version of his work, with substantial revisions:Dickens the Novelist, 1968). George H. Ford in Dickens and His Readers: Aspects of Novel-Criticism since 1836 (1955) enchaustively surveys the novelist's literary reputation.
Three classics of Dickens criticism continue to bold their ground: Charles Dickens: A Critical Study ( 1898) and Critical Studies of the Works of Charles Dickens (1924), both by George Gissing; and Charles Dickens: A Critical Study (1906) by G. K. Chesterton. Among more recent critical studies, two are outstanding: J. Hillis Miller, Charles Dickens: The World of His Novels ('9S9)i and Steven Marcus, Dickens from Pickwick to Dombey (sg6S). Much of the best writing about Dickens has appeared in tbe form of articles. Two recent collections contain a generous sampling of varying critical approaches to the novelist: The Dickens Critics (1961), edited by George H. Ford and Lauriat Lane, Jr., which covers tbe [170/171] period from the mid-nineteenth century to the present; and Dickens in the Twentieth Century (1962), edited by Jobn Gross and Gabriel Pearson.
Readers who wish to carry farther their study of Dickens should consult the very full bibliographical essay by Ada Nisbit in Victorian Fiction: A Guide to Research (1964), edited by Lionel Stevenson.
Last Modified January 2000