Shakespeare and Dickens: The Dynamics of Influence

Shakespeare and Dickens traces Dickens’ own interest in Shakespeare from childhood, not only through his own reading and performance but also through numerous theatrical, literary and artistic sources. The book proceeds to examine theoretical ideas about influence and allusion as aspects of style and analyses ways in which Dickens typically employs references to Shakespeare. It is argued that imaginative transformations of Shakespeare’s words and ideas enrich all aspects of Dickens’ writing, including aesthetic principles, language, imagery, plot, atmosphere, theme, tone, structure, foreshadowing and characterization. Dombey and Son and David Copperfield are examined to demonstrate the sophisticated manner in which Dickens engages the reader in a continuous process of reassessment by creating a dense network of quotations, allusions and echoes and integrating successive references to comment upon, modify, or amplify prior usage. The final section contains an annotated catalogue of approximately one thousand references to Shakespeare’s plays and poems drawn from Dickens’ fiction, essays, letters and speeches.

• Examines Dickens’ textual relationship with Shakespeare • Illuminates Dickens’ interest in and patronage of the theatre in Victorian England • Provides a catalogue of Dickens’ references to Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays

List of illustrations; Preface; A note on the text and acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. \'A Shakespearean Lot\': 1. \'Treading in the steps\': early Shakespearean influences; 2. \'At his tongue’s end\': Dickens\'s remarkable memory; 3. \'Eloquent associations\': W. C. Macready and Daniel Maclise; 4. \'As if I had been another man\': Dickens as actor-manager; 5. \'The noblest of all dramatists\': Dickens as theatre critic and editor; Part II. \'All the Removes and Definitions of Shakespeare’s Touchstone\': 6. \'Of imagination all compact\': Dickens\'s aesthetic principles; 7. Definition of critical concepts; 8. Verbal \'fireworks\': typical functions of Dickens\'s Shakespearean references; 9. \'The web I have spun\': Shakespeareana in Dombey and Son and David Copperfield; Part III. \'Signs and Tokens\' of Shakespeare: Preface to the catalogue; Catalogue of Dickens\'s references to Shakespeare; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.