The Romantic Legacy of Charles Dickens - Peter Cook - Acknowledgements and Contents

Sep 21, 2026

A critical study of Charles Dickens that challenges simplistic “anti-romantic” readings while tracing how Dickens inherits and ultimately articulates High Romantic ideals associated with Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, P. B. Shelley, and Mary Shelley. The argument is organized around poetic prose and symbolic structures as unifying principles in Dickens’s writing. The book presents an author’s scholarly framework and a structured progression from childhood, to time, progress, and outsiders, culminating in a conclusion with bibliographies and an index.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages284

Reading Time7 h 17 min

AccessFree to download

Acknowledgements

contents

1 Introduction

2 Childhood

3 Time

4 Progress

5 Outsiders

6 Conclusion

Index

The Romantic Legacyof Charles Dickens Peter Cook The Romantic Legacy of Charles Dickens “Peter Cook’s study of Dickens offers us fresh, nuanced, and insightful readings of Dickens’s anti-romantic claims and, paradoxical, commitment to the High Romantic ideals of Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, P. B. Shelley, and Mary Shelley. Stylistically, the authentication of Dickens’s Romantic inheritance and eventual bequest, as Cook persuasively shows, is affirmed by a commitment to poetic prose and symbol as a unifying structuring principle in Dickens’s writing. Cook’s original account of Dickens marks a timely critical intervention that will be of interest to scholars and students alike of the discrete, but inter-related, fields of study concerned with Romanticism, Victorianism, Romantic legacies, and the Long Nineteenth Century.” —Mark Sandy, Professor of English Studies, Durham University, UK Peter Cook The Romantic Legacy of Charles Dickens Peter Cook Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge, UK ISBN 978-3-319-96790-5 ISBN 978-3-319-96791-2 (eBook) [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96791-2](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96791-2) Library of Congress Control Number: 2018949625 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: duncan1890/iStock/Getty Images Plus This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Samya with my love Acknowledgements The initial planning and development of this book were carried out during a sabbatical granted me by Anglia Ruskin University. John Gardner, Valerie Purton, Rohan McWilliam, Lizzie Ludlow, Sarah Annes Brown and Christine L. Corton all devoted time to reading drafts of the chapters and offering help and encouragement. Val also helped me define my intentions and shape the structure, and John showed me how it could be completed. I am deeply grateful to them all. Friends and colleagues at the Cambridge branch of the Charles Dickens Fellowship, and particularly Rick Allen, have offered stimulus and insight. I am also grateful to staff at Anglia Ruskin University Library, the British Library, and the University of Cambridge Library for their unfailing help and courtesy. My family, Samya, Nabil and Zeina, have lived with Dickens and the Romantics for the past five years with grace, humour and tolerance—thank you! contents 1 Introduction 1 Literary Context 2 A Methodology of Influence, Ecology and Things 8 Critical Context 11 Method, Design and Structure 16 Bibliography 25

FAQs

What central Romanticist claim does the book examine about Dickens?

It argues for Dickens’s anti-romantic claims being reconsidered and for his paradoxical commitment to High Romantic ideals.

Which stylistic principle is presented as a unifying structure in Dickens’s writing?

Poetic prose and symbol are presented as a unifying structuring principle.

How is the book’s material organized?

It moves through sections on Introduction, Childhood, Time, Progress, Outsiders, and a concluding chapter, supported by bibliographies and an index.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Seraphina