Introduction
One: The Speeding of the Pickwick Coach
I: Time
II: Space
III: Serialization
IV: Systems
Two: On Tragedy's Tracks
I: In Clock
II: A Tale That Is Tolled
III: Clock Strikes
Three: International Connections
Perspective
Simultaneity
Plottability
Afterword
Jonathan H. Grossman is Associate Professor of English at UCLA. He is also the author of The Art of Alibi: English Law Courts and the Novel (2002).
a fine book about a series of equally fantastic techno-imaginary
developments in Britain beginning in the 1820s ... I admire the
disciplined focus Grossman demonstrates in his emphasis on the
novel, and in particular on the novel as a precision tool wielded
by Dickens
*Carolyn Dever, Victorian Studies*
Throughout, Grossman moves deftly between close textual analysis
and attention to the narrative form, enriching stylish and often
surprising readings of Dickens's work with historical details
Charles Dickens's Networks presents a nation transformed by a
rapidly expanding transport system; Grossman's ambitious analyses
of narrative form promise a similarly transformative effect on
Dickens criticism. The great pleasure of this book lies in its
nuanced, attentive close readings.
*Claire Wood, The Review of English Studies*
Written with considerable esprit, Charles Dickens's Networks is a
fascinating and provocative study of the connections between social
history, narrative theory, and Dickens's fictional construction of
the ways in which Victorian experience was being remade by the new
systems of transport ... [it] is a major contribution and one that
will enrich our thinking about transport, systems, and the
increasingly networked reality of nineteenth-century life that the
novels represent and interrogate.
*Iain Crawford, Dickens Quarterly*
This carefully documented study will be of interest not only to
students of Dickens but also to anyone interested in Victorian
history and culture ... Recommended.
*J.D Vann, Choice*
illuminating, and invigorating.
*Judith Flanders, Times Literary Supplement*
[an] exhilarating study ... Grossman's close engagement with the
texture of each work is a constant delight.
*Laurence Davies, Review 19*
Grossman gathers his material convincingly. At every stop along the
line we're offered something both fresh and useful for the journey
... In the 200th anniversary year of his birth, Grossman's book is
a stimulating contribution to the Dickens Roadshow.
*Gee Williams, Review 31*
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