1.  the foremost English novelist  the greatest critical realist writer of the Victorian era  one of the English language’s greatest writers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ foremost adj. 最著名的；最重要的；最好的

2.  I. Life & Literary Career  II. Dickens Points of View  III. Dickens’s Novels  IV. Features of Dickens’ Works

3. I. Life & Literary Career  The family:  large  moving from place to place:  Plymouth  London  Chatham former home of Charles Dickens

4. I. Critical Realism  1.  1. Definition  2.  2. Historical Background  3.  3. Features of Critical Realistic Writings

5.  The father:  a clerk at the Naval Pay Office  hard work  hard to earn enough money  In 1823 arrested for debt

6.  Charles had to start working in a factory, labelling bottles for 6 shillings a week.  The economy eventually improved.  Charles went back to school. ↙ ↙ Birthplace of Dickens: Portsmouth

7.  started to work in a solicitor’s office after leaving school  learned shorthand  working as a reporter for the “Morning Chronicle” in courts of law and the House of Commons ( 英国下院 ).

8.  First success:  The Pickwick Papers, 1836  Next:  Oliver Twist,1837  Nicholas Nickleby,1838-39  Barnaby Rudge,1841

9. A wooden house alongside the Thames in which Charles Dickens wrote some of his novels

10.  travel to America  arouse the hostility of the American press by supporting the abolition movement

11.  During the 1840s:  his fame and respect keep increasing  his social criticism became more radical  his comedy more savage  Last novel:  The Mystery of Edwin Drood  never completed  later published posthumously

12.  He suffered another stroke on 8 June 1870 at Gad's Hill, after a full day's work on Edwin Drood.  He died at his home in Gad's Hill Place next day.

13.  He wished to be buried in Rochester Cathedral  He was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.

14.  The inscription on his tomb reads: CHARLES DICKENS Born 7th February 1812 Died 9th June 1870 A child, dressed in appropriate attire, at the Dickensian Festival in Ulverston, Cumbria.

15. II. Dickens Points of View  seriously exposes and criticizes all the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and corruptness  sets out a full map and a large- scale criticism of the 19 th -cent. England

16.  But as a bourgeois writer, he can in no way supply any fundamental solution to the social plights.

17.  The best he can do seems  in his early novels: to try to retain an optimism with wishful thinking  in his later novels: to express a helpless indignant protest

18.  A combination of optimism about people and realism about the society is present from the very beginning.

19. III. Dickens’s Novels  i. Three periods  ii. Major Works

20. i. Three periods  1. The 1st Period: youthful optimist  2. The 2nd Period: excitement & irritation  3. The 3rd Period: steadily intensifying pessimism

21. 1. The 1st Period  The Pickwick Papers,1836, 《匹克威克外传》 ( picaresque)  Oliver Twist,1837, 《雾都孤儿》  The Old Curiosity Shop, 《老古玩店》

22.  Dickens believed that all the evils of the capitalist world would be remedied if only men treated each other with kindliness, justice, and sympathetic understanding.  This naïve optimism is the characteristic of the petty-bourgeois humanitarians ( 人道主义 者 ) of his time.

23. 2. The 2nd Period  American Notes, (1842), 《旅美札记 》  A Christmas Carol, (1843), 《圣诞欢歌》  The Chimes, 《钟声》  The Cricket on the Hearth, 《炉边蟋蟀》  Dombey and Son, (1846-1848), 《董贝父子》  David Copperfield,(1849-1850), 《大卫 · 科波菲尔》

24. 3. The 3rd Period  “Dark” Novels  Later works

25. “Dark Novels”  Bleak House, (1852-1853),  《荒凉山庄》  Hard Times, (1854), 《艰难时世》  Little Dorrit, (1855-1857), 《小杜利特尔》

26. Bleak House in Broadstairs, Kent, where Dickens wrote some of his novels. The house was for many years a Dickens museum

27. Later Works  A tale of Two Cities 《双城记》, 1859  Great Expectations 《远大前程 / 孤星血泪 / 孤星奇缘》,1860-1861  Our Mutual Friend 《我们共同的朋友》, 1864-1865  The Mystery of Edwin Drood, (1870)

28. ii. Major Works  1. Oliver Twist  2. David Copperfield  3. A Tale of Two Cities  4. Great Expectations

29. 1. Oliver Twist  an early example of the social novel  the first novel in the English language to centre throughout on a child protagonist

30.  famous for its vivid descriptions of the workhouse and life of the underworld in the 19th-century London

31. Plot  Oliver is an orphan working in a workhouse.  He can’t stand the hungry and in order to live, he becomes a thief and leads an underworld life.

32.  At the end of the novel, with the help of kind-hearted men, he learns that he isn’t an orphan but is born in a decent family.

33. Significance of Oliver Twist  (1) The novel is the truthful presentation of the miseries of the poor and the oppressed.

34. (2) It blames the social system and institutions for such miseries.  In Dickens’s depiction, labors, they either become oppressors or criminals.

35. 2. David Copperfield  Charles Dickens’s autobiographical novel  full original title: The Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield the Younger  the author’s favorite  remained a favorite for generations of readers

36. Type of Work  a novel written in first- person point of view.  It is sometimes referred to as an apprenticeship novel.

37. apprenticeship novel  学徒小说  Definition: a novel that centers on the period in which a young person grows up – that is, serves his apprenticeship.

38.  also be identified by its German name, bildungsroman, meaning  novel (roman) of educational development (bildungs).

39.  pioneered by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749- 1832) in his novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.

40.  In the novel, David Copperfield has to leave school to work in a warehouse washing and labeling bottles used in the wine trade.  David’s initials (D.C.) are, of course, the reverse of Dickens’s (C.D.).

41. 3. A Tale of Two Cities

42.  a historical novel  a moral novel  the most printed original English book (200 million copies sold)  among the most famous works of fiction  The two cities: London & Paris

43. Major Figures  Charles Darnay  a French once-aristocrat  a romantic French aristocrat  Sydney Carton  an insolent, attorney  a cynical English barrister

44.  Doctor Manette  Lucie’s father and a physician  Lucie Manette  A young French woman who grew up in England

45.  Monsieur Defarge  A wine-shop owner and revolutionary  Madame Defarge  A cruel revolutionary

46.  The plot centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror.

47.  Darnay and Carton:  look similar but very different in personality  in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette

48. Main themes  social injustice  order and disorder  death and resurrection  The Necessity of Sacrifice  guilt  shame  redemption  Memory and Reminiscence

49.  The twists and turns in the work are sinuous ( 迂回的 ).  originally written as a serial novel for publication in newspapers

50.  Dickens' take on the French Revolution is balanced — he describes the horrors and atrocities committed by both sides.

51.  Throughout the novel, pairs of people, places, etc. are compared and contrasted.

52.  The opening sentence, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” is one of the most famous in all literature.  The final lines are almost as well-known, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

53.  Dickens’ second-to-last complete novel  first published as a weekly series in 1860 and in book form in 1861  ranked as his most perfectly executed work of art

54.  Early critics had mixed reviews, disliking Dickens’ tendency to exaggerate both plot and characters  Early readers were so enthusiastic that the 1861 edition required 5 printings.

55.  It tells the story of a young man's moral development in the course of his life -- from childhood in the provinces to gentleman’s status in London.

56.  Similar to Dickens' memories of his own childhood, in his early years the young Pip seems powerless to stand against injustice or to ever realize his dreams for a better life.

57.  However, as he grows into a useful worker and then an educated young man he reaches an important realization: grand schemes and dreams are never what they first seem to be.

58.  Pip himself is not always honest, and careful readers can catch him in several obvious contradictions between his truth and fantasies.

59. Evaluations  Victorian-era audiences were more likely to have appreciated the melodramatic scenes and the revised, more hopeful ending.  However, modern critics have little but praise for Dickens' brilliant development of timeless themes: fear and fun, loneliness and luck, classism and social justice, humiliation and honor.

60.  Some still puzzle over Dickens' revision that ends the novel with sudden optimism, and they suggest that the sales of Dickens' magazine All the Year Round, in which the series first appeared, was assured by gluing on a happy ending that hints Pip and Estella will unite at last.

61.  Some critics point out that the original ending is better because it is more realistic since Pip must earn the self- knowledge that can only come from giving up his obsession with Estella.

62.  However, Victorian audiences eagerly followed the story of Pip, episode by episode, assuming that the protagonist's love and patience would win out in the end.  Modern editions contain both denouements for the reader to choose a preference.

63. V. Features of Dickens's Works

64. 1. Dickens is a master story-teller.  With the first sentence, he engages the reader’s attention and holds it to the end.  Complicated and Fascinating Plot

65.  Dickens seems to love complicated novel constructions with minor plots beside the major one, or two parallel major plots within one novel.  He is also skillful at creating suspense and mystery to make the story fascinating. Statue of Dickens in Philadelphia

66. 2. Dickens’ works are also characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.  Dickens is well known as a humorist as well as a satirist.  He sometimes employs humor to enliven a scene or lighten a character by making it (him or her) eccentric, whimsical, or laughable.

67.  Sometimes he uses satire to ridicule human follies or vices, with the purpose of laughing them out of existence or bring about reform.

68. 3. Character-portrayal is the most distinguishing feature of his works.  His best-depicted characters are those innocent, virtuous, persecuted, helpless child characters such as Oliver Twist, Little Nell, David Copperfield, etc.

69.  about 19 hundred figures  some are really such “typical characters under typical circumstances”, that they become proverbial ( 出名的 ) or representative of a whole group of similar persons.

70.  As a master of characterization, Dickens was skillful in drawing vivid caricatural sketches by exaggerating some peculiarities, and in giving them exactly the actions and words that fit them: that is, right words and right actions for the right person.

71. Literary style: Characters  Charles Dickens used his rich imagination, sense of humour and detailed memories, particularly of his childhood, to enliven his fiction.  The characters are among the most memorable in English literature—certainly their names are.

72. Literary style: Episodic writing

73.  Most of Dickens’ major novels were first written in monthly or weekly installments in journals and later reprinted in book form.  These installments made the stories cheap, accessible and the series of regular cliff- hangers made each new episode widely anticipated.

74.  American fans even waited at the docks in New York, shouting out to the crew of an incoming ship, “Is Little Nell dead?”  Part of Dickens' great talent was to incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end.

75. Literary style: Social commentary

76.  Dickens' novels were, among other things, works of social commentary.  He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification ( 阶层的形成 ) of Victorian society.  Throughout his works, Dickens retained an sympathy for the common man.

77.  Charles Dickens is much loved for his great contribution to classical English literature.  He is the quintessential ( 精萃的 ) Victorian author: his epic stories, vivid characters and exhaustive depiction of contemporary life are unforgettable.

78. Dickens’ popularity, in his own day and since, is due chiefly: (1) to his intense human sympathy (2) to his unsurpassed emotional and dramatic power (3) to his aggressive humanitarian zeal for the reform of all evils and abuses, whether they weigh upon the oppressed classes or upon helpless individuals

79. Great Expectations Chapter 1 MY father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.

80. I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister - Mrs Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones.

81. Our Mutual Friend  IN these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between Southwark Bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.

82.  Noted scholar Harold Bloom, in his study of Dickens, praises the author’s “astonishing universality, in which he nearly rivals Shakespeare and the Bible”.

83. 北京第二外国语学院 2006 年硕士研究生入学考试试卷英语专业 文学专业综合考试 1 卷  VIII. Complete the following sentences by choosing and mark the best alternative (A, B, C or D) in each bracket (20)  ( ) 4. The following works are all of Charles Dickens except.  A. Oliver Twist B. David Copperfield C. Great Expectation D. Martin Eden