Abstract:This article explores how Charles Dickens's failed romance with Maria Beadnell–which drove him to burn his early autobiographical attempt–haunts his fictional life-writing novel David Copperfield. Maria's rejection intensified Dickens's previous traumas of the blacking warehouse and his father's imprisonment–subsequently producing a type of Freudian split self that I term the Dickensian hero/protagonist split. David is the novel's protagonist, but Agnes is its hero/ine. These divisions underscore Dickens's overarching preoccupations with legacy, and his notoriously fraught relationship with the life-writing genre. Agnes may not be a figure modern readers can admire; however, her position as hero/ine in David Copperfield's history nonetheless illuminates Dickens's own traumas, manifested in David's insecurities about heroism and narrative legacy.
{"title":"Dickensian Divisions: David Copperfield's \"Hero[ine] of my own life\"","authors":"Kathryne Ford","doi":"10.1353/dqt.2023.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/dqt.2023.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article explores how Charles Dickens's failed romance with Maria Beadnell–which drove him to burn his early autobiographical attempt–haunts his fictional life-writing novel David Copperfield. Maria's rejection intensified Dickens's previous traumas of the blacking warehouse and his father's imprisonment–subsequently producing a type of Freudian split self that I term the Dickensian hero/protagonist split. David is the novel's protagonist, but Agnes is its hero/ine. These divisions underscore Dickens's overarching preoccupations with legacy, and his notoriously fraught relationship with the life-writing genre. Agnes may not be a figure modern readers can admire; however, her position as hero/ine in David Copperfield's history nonetheless illuminates Dickens's own traumas, manifested in David's insecurities about heroism and narrative legacy.","PeriodicalId":41747,"journal":{"name":"DICKENS QUARTERLY","volume":"40 1","pages":"45 - 63"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47930422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bite the Hand that Reads: Dickens, Animals and Sanitary Reform by Terry Scarborough (review)","authors":"M. Allen-Emerson","doi":"10.1353/dqt.2023.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/dqt.2023.0008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41747,"journal":{"name":"DICKENS QUARTERLY","volume":"40 1","pages":"112 - 116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48714060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Tramp in British Literature, 1850–1950 by Luke Lewin Davies, and: Vagrancy in the Victorian Age: Representing the Wandering Poor in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture by Alistair Robinson (review)","authors":"T. Wagner","doi":"10.1353/dqt.2023.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/dqt.2023.0006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41747,"journal":{"name":"DICKENS QUARTERLY","volume":"40 1","pages":"116 - 121"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49292320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The evolution in spring 1849 of Dickens's new eponym is traced, showing that the link between "Mag" (as "halfpenny") and "Copperfield" is not merely metallic but electrical. The forename "David" is also interrogated, revealing Humphry Davy as a major inspiration, and Robert Hunt's 1848 work The Poetry of Science as Dickens's immediate source for his knowledge of recent scientific advances. The researches of both Davy and Michael Faraday are also shown to lie behind the newly-coined name "Copperfield." The discussion moves on to reveal how the name "Uriah Heep" encodes a number of key significations that link the character to David Copperfield and contemporary scientific developments in previously unsuspected ways, as well as to the electrically-sparked monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
{"title":"Electrical Undercurrents in David Copperfield","authors":"J. Parrott","doi":"10.1353/dqt.2023.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/dqt.2023.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The evolution in spring 1849 of Dickens's new eponym is traced, showing that the link between \"Mag\" (as \"halfpenny\") and \"Copperfield\" is not merely metallic but electrical. The forename \"David\" is also interrogated, revealing Humphry Davy as a major inspiration, and Robert Hunt's 1848 work The Poetry of Science as Dickens's immediate source for his knowledge of recent scientific advances. The researches of both Davy and Michael Faraday are also shown to lie behind the newly-coined name \"Copperfield.\" The discussion moves on to reveal how the name \"Uriah Heep\" encodes a number of key significations that link the character to David Copperfield and contemporary scientific developments in previously unsuspected ways, as well as to the electrically-sparked monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.","PeriodicalId":41747,"journal":{"name":"DICKENS QUARTERLY","volume":"40 1","pages":"107 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43055060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Victorians like Charles Dickens both lauded the Romantic poets as heroes and deplored them for their loose morals. No figure caused more consternation for the Victorians than Lord Byron, a figure Dickens reimagined as James Steerforth in his novel David Copperfield. The character's tragedy re-enacts the ambivalent and highly charged relationship Victorians had with Byron, the most notorious hero–villain of the Romantic era. The ambiguous portrayal of Steerforth, constantly viewed through the worshipful eyes of David, reflects a broader coming to terms with the past that Victorian Britain sought to undertake in re-evaluating the heroic but problematic legacy of the Romantic era.
{"title":"\"In a Dark Wig\": Reinventing Byron as Steerforth in David Copperfield","authors":"James Armstrong","doi":"10.1353/dqt.2023.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/dqt.2023.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Victorians like Charles Dickens both lauded the Romantic poets as heroes and deplored them for their loose morals. No figure caused more consternation for the Victorians than Lord Byron, a figure Dickens reimagined as James Steerforth in his novel David Copperfield. The character's tragedy re-enacts the ambivalent and highly charged relationship Victorians had with Byron, the most notorious hero–villain of the Romantic era. The ambiguous portrayal of Steerforth, constantly viewed through the worshipful eyes of David, reflects a broader coming to terms with the past that Victorian Britain sought to undertake in re-evaluating the heroic but problematic legacy of the Romantic era.","PeriodicalId":41747,"journal":{"name":"DICKENS QUARTERLY","volume":"40 1","pages":"28 - 44"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45905390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Narrative Bonds: Multiple Narrators in the Victorian Novel by Alexandra Valint (review)","authors":"Kathy Rees","doi":"10.1353/dqt.2022.0044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/dqt.2022.0044","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41747,"journal":{"name":"DICKENS QUARTERLY","volume":"39 1","pages":"541 - 544"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41759641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Little Dorrit's first character introduced is none other than its devilish antagonist, Monsieur Rigaud. One of the villain's defining characteristics is his tendency to operate under several other names–"Blandois" and "Lagnier"–which are implied to be disguise aliases. Given Dickens's historical attention to character names, this case presents an entry point to ascertain covert authorial intentions behind Rigaud's portrayal. Considering these multiple identities in light of Dickens's naming habits, this article finds patterns connecting their etymologies to the villain's characterizing details, Little Dorrit's themes, and Dickens's political views. The study describes a subtext making Rigaud not just a pervasive caricature of Victorian England's vain bourgeoisie, but also a portrait of corruption in the pre-reform era of politics. It concludes that when the lineaments of this broader symbolic form converge in a single character, the resulting shape is a damning silhouette of revolutionary cause and effect.
{"title":"Etymological Co-Conspirators: The Names of Little Dorrit's Rigaud","authors":"Wesley Chai","doi":"10.1353/dqt.2022.0039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/dqt.2022.0039","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Little Dorrit's first character introduced is none other than its devilish antagonist, Monsieur Rigaud. One of the villain's defining characteristics is his tendency to operate under several other names–\"Blandois\" and \"Lagnier\"–which are implied to be disguise aliases. Given Dickens's historical attention to character names, this case presents an entry point to ascertain covert authorial intentions behind Rigaud's portrayal. Considering these multiple identities in light of Dickens's naming habits, this article finds patterns connecting their etymologies to the villain's characterizing details, Little Dorrit's themes, and Dickens's political views. The study describes a subtext making Rigaud not just a pervasive caricature of Victorian England's vain bourgeoisie, but also a portrait of corruption in the pre-reform era of politics. It concludes that when the lineaments of this broader symbolic form converge in a single character, the resulting shape is a damning silhouette of revolutionary cause and effect.","PeriodicalId":41747,"journal":{"name":"DICKENS QUARTERLY","volume":"39 1","pages":"504 - 512"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44389164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article explores how the campaign for, and changes to, the matrimonial and divorce laws of England in 1857 were approached in one very discrete area of Dickens's professional output, namely in his role as the "Conductor" of Household Words. It examines how the issue of divorce and the campaign for reform of the divorce laws, as well as the concurrent campaign for reform of married women's property rights, were approached from a journalistic perspective, both in Household Words and the Household Narrative of Current Events, whether an opinion as to the justice or efficacy of the divorce laws as they existed at the start of the run of Household Words in 1850 was expressed, and how the proposed changes to extant divorce laws were covered in Dickens's periodical publication.
{"title":"\"Misfortnet Marriages\": Discussing Divorce in Household Words","authors":"Deborah Siddoway","doi":"10.1353/dqt.2022.0038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/dqt.2022.0038","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article explores how the campaign for, and changes to, the matrimonial and divorce laws of England in 1857 were approached in one very discrete area of Dickens's professional output, namely in his role as the \"Conductor\" of Household Words. It examines how the issue of divorce and the campaign for reform of the divorce laws, as well as the concurrent campaign for reform of married women's property rights, were approached from a journalistic perspective, both in Household Words and the Household Narrative of Current Events, whether an opinion as to the justice or efficacy of the divorce laws as they existed at the start of the run of Household Words in 1850 was expressed, and how the proposed changes to extant divorce laws were covered in Dickens's periodical publication.","PeriodicalId":41747,"journal":{"name":"DICKENS QUARTERLY","volume":"39 1","pages":"488 - 503"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49557121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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