Marsh - Charles Dickens: Hard Times/Bleak House

Charles Dickens:
Hard Times/Bleak House

ANALYSING TEXTS

General Editor: Nicholas Marsh

Published

Jane Austen: The Novels Nicholas Marsh

Aphra Behn: The Comedies Kate Aughterson

William Blake: The Poems Nicholas Marsh

Charlotte Bront: The Novels Mike Edwards

Emily Bront: Wuthering Heights Nicholas Marsh

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales Gail Ashton

Daniel Defoe: The Novels Nicholas Marsh

Charles Dickens: David Copperfield/Great Expectations Nicolas Tredell

Charles Dickens: Hard Times/Bleak House Nicholas Marsh

John Donne: The Poems Joe Nutt

George Eliot: The Novels Mike Edwards

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby/Tender is the Night Nicolas Tredell

E. M. Forster: The Novels Mike Edwards

Thomas Hardy: The Novels Norman Page

Thomas Hardy: The Poems Gillian Steinberg

John Keats John Blades

Philip Larkin: The Poems Nicholas Marsh

D. H. Lawrence: The Novels Nicholas Marsh

Marlowe: The Plays Stevie Simkin

John Milton: Paradise Lost Mike Edwards

Shakespeare: The Comedies R. P. Draper

Shakespeare: The Histories John Blades

Shakespeare: The Late Plays Kate Aughterson

Shakespeare: The Sonnets John Blades

Shakespeare: The Tragedies Nicholas Marsh

Shakespeare: Three Problem Plays Nicholas Marsh

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein Nicholas Marsh

Webster: The Tragedies Kate Aughterson

Virginia Woolf: The Novels Nicholas Marsh

Wordsworth and Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads John Blades

Further titles are in preparation

Analysing Texts

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BY THE SAME AUTHOR

How to Begin Studying English Literature

The Wife of Baths Tale

Shakespeare: The Tragedies

Virginia Woolf: The Novels

Jane Austen: The Novels

Emily Bront: Wuthering Heights

D. H. Lawrence: The Novels

William Blake: The Poems

Shakespeare: Three Problem Plays

Philip Larkin: The Poems

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein

Daniel Defoe: The Novels

Charles Dickens:
Hard Times/
Bleak House

NICHOLAS MARSH

Nicholas Marsh 2015

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2015 by

PALGRAVE

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Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave is a global imprint of the above companies and is represented throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN: 9781137379573 hardback

ISBN: 9781137379566 paperback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Marsh, Nicholas, 1948

Charles Dickens : Hard Times/Bleak House / Nicholas Marsh.

pages cm. (Analysing texts)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9781137379566 (paperback) ISBN 9781137379573 (paperback)

1. Dickens, Charles, 18121870. Hard times. 2. Dickens, Charles, 18121870.

Bleak House. 3. Literature and societyGreat BritainHistory19th century. I. Title.

PR4561.M37 2015

For Ella

General Editors Preface

This series is dedicated to one clear belief: that we can all enjoy, understand and analyse literature for ourselves, provided we know how to do so. How can we build on close understanding of a short passage and develop our insight into the whole work? What features do we expect to find in a text? Why do we study style in so much detail? In demystifying the study of literature, these are only some of the questions the Analysing Texts series addresses and answers.

The books in this series will not do all the work for you, but will provide you with the tools, and show you how to use them. Here, you will find samples of close, detailed analysis, with an explanation of the analytical techniques utilised. At the end of each chapter there are useful suggestions for further work you can do to practise, develop and hone the skills demonstrated and build confidence in your own analytical ability.

An authors individuality shows in the way they write: every work they produce bears the hallmark of that writers personal style. In the main part of each book we concentrate therefore on analysing the particular flavour and concerns of one authors work, and explain the features of their writing in connection with major themes. In there are chapters about the authors life and work, assessing their contribution to developments in literature, and a selection of critics views are summarised and discussed in comparison with each other. Some suggestions for further reading provide a bridge towards further critical research.

Analysing Texts is designed to stimulate and encourage your critical and analytical faculty, to develop your personal insight into the authors work and individual style, and to provide you with the skills and techniques to enjoy at first hand the excitement of discovering the richness of the text.

NICHOLAS MARSH

A Note on Editions

References to Bleak House and Hard Times, in this book, are to the Oxford Worlds Classics editions of both novels, for no other reason than that they are easily available. As Oxford Worlds Classics are sometimes re-edited, this note gives the specific editions used: Bleak House, edited with an introduction and notes by Stephen Gill (Oxford University Press, 1996); Hard Times, edited with an introduction by Paul Schlicke (Oxford University Press, 1989).

Page references to these editions appear in the text in brackets and preceded by