Study of the genesis of the novel is facilitated by the reproduction of Dickens' working plans and, for the first time, by some thousands of meticulous textual notes.
"Backgrounds" offers all of Dickens' correspondence about Bleak House as well as contextual materials that document the Victorian controversy over pollution, a theme central to the novel, and present contemporary attitudes toward the government, the courts, and the police, to enhance the setting of the story.
Also featured are several hundred annotations which fully elucidate for today's readers the allusions and topical references in this remarkably allusive Victorian masterpiece.
Especially helpful is a clear exposition of the nature of law procedures in the Court of Chancery, which is crucial to an understanding of the central action of the story.
"Critical essays" reprinted here include interpretations by G. K. Chesterton, J. Hillis Miller, George Ford, A. O. J. Cockshut, W. J. Harvey, H. M. Daleski, and Ian Ousby.
- ISBN10 0143037617
- ISBN13 9780143037613
- Publish Date 1 February 2006 (first published 1 March 1852)
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Publish Country IN
- Imprint Penguin Random House India
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 1024
- Language English