Paul Schlicke is an internationally renowned Dickens scholar. His work delves into the life and writings of one of Britain's greatest novelists, drawing upon an unparalleled diversity of information. Schlicke sheds new and often unexpected light on Dickens's most familiar works, exploring the experiences, events, and literature that shaped him. This approach offers readers a deeper understanding of the master storyteller.
Unusually for Dickens, Hard Times is set, not in London, but in the imaginary mid-Victorian Northern industrial town of Coketown with its blackened factories, downtrodden workers and polluted environment. This is the soulless domain of the strict utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind and the heartless factory owner Josiah Bounderby.
Following the success of Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby was hailed as a comic triumph and firmly established Dickens as a 'literary gentleman'. It has a full supporting cast of delectable characters that range from the iniquitous Wackford Squeers and his family, to the delightful Mrs Nickleby, taking in the eccentric Crummles and his travelling players, the Mantalinis, the Kenwigs and many more.