Charles Dickens, Radical

Jack Lindsay applauds Dickens’ literary innovation and political complexity. He identifies the background of Dickens’ critique of major nineteenth-century social institutions in the family, the Church, the legal system and the parliament. He also identifies the major influence of Thomas Carlyle and acknowledges Dickens’ long-term involvement in debates and committees that explored social injustice and inequality. In his analysis of Dickens’ writing, he emphasises his manipulation of sensory and emotional appeals to engage readers with major social and political issues. Far from dismissing Dickens as ‘Mr. Popular Sentiment’ Lindsay recognizes in Dickens’ caricatures, elaborate and interconnected narratives, and sensory and emotional excess an articulation of the trauma experienced by many individuals in a profoundly divided and unequal society.