DICKENS OLDER PEOPLE: TRANSITIONAL NOVEL and MIDDLE NOVELS 

The Portrayal of Older Adults in Charles Dickens's Sixth Novel

MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT ( 1842)

An alcoholic nurse, a conniving architect, a"senile" clerk, a wealthy but embittered grandfather, a secret agent, a bony and hard featured Proprietress and a kindly American physician, plus a cast of other primary and supporting characters.

[PART ONE]  INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

In constructing an analysis of both primary and supporting older characters, I am reminded of Keith Selby's comment that, as with any novelist, Dickens "tends to pattern events, characters and settings in such a way that they are opposed with one another thereby dramatising and illustrating the conflicts at the centre of the novel." (1). The contrast between the younger and older character portrayals helps us make sense of Dickens, not just in terms of selfishness as a theme but also in understanding the familial relationships between generations. In addition, Dickens's writing of older adults and how the humanities and literary gerontology guide us to better interpret the subjectness of the lived experience as a process. (2)

Author Jesper Soerensen rightly points out that while the plot of Chuzzlewit goes "in different directions, it is basically a basic drama about testament, inheritance ...it is the characters and their dialogue, together with Dickens's humour and satire, that carry the book" (3). If this is true, as Soerensen suggests, the book lacked planning and coherence; nevertheless, several individual characterizations have become iconic. This does not apply to young Martin Chuzzlewit, the main protagonist, but to several older characters, like Seth Pecksniff, the cousin of old Martin, and thought to be in his fifties or sixties, who, in my mind, is the most villainous. However, Mrs Gamp is believed to be in her fifties, whom Soerensen labels "monstrous", and remains a memorable, humorous, and unforgettable character, as Dickens intended her to be. 

So, all memorable and all older adults.

As discussed in a previous blog, if Dickens struggled with his fifth novel, Barnaby Rudge, he also struggled with his sixth. Why? Scholars generally accept Chuzzlewit as a transitional work compared to his early and later books, which are considered in the light of being a young adult rather than in maturity. (4 ) Arguably, Dickens, at thirty, had his hands full in both his personal and professional life ( was it ever thus), what with his driven, complex and often contradictory nature. A passage from Sorensen reflecting on what was going on for Dickens during the thinking and writing of Chuzzlewit captures this brilliantly. I thus fully quote at length the narrative, which reflects the very essence of Dickens. "Father of four, internationally famous, living in a house by Regents Park, London, six years married to Catherine, who he became an invaluable support during his travels in America earlier that year. He maintained his circle of friends, often in an atmosphere of boisterous fun. He was partying and dancing all night; he performed wholeheartedly as a magician in an elaborate costume at his son Charley's birthday party." It was, as Sorensen adds," in many ways, a happy period of his life" but acknowledges that "during the two years of writing Chuzzlewit, it was a time of contrasts.... enjoyed his success, but rather fretted about the future, he lived in a mansion but owed his publishers money, he was in high spirits, but broke into a rage; he wrote masterly a Christmas tale that sold like hot cakes, but yielded a devastatingly low profit; he won a lawsuit, but overwhelmed with legal costs; he spent time raising money for charity, but had to borrow money to pay his own expenses." (5) We could add that Dickens's mental well-being suffered. 

The serialization of his novel did not go well. Indeed, it shares the bottom place alongside Barnaby as his worst with readers, then as now. This generalisation, however, might be unfair. Dickens self-championed it to his friend, John Forster, as 'the best of his stories ( as he did all his early novels) but was forced to concede, even lamenting its poor reception and low readership (6) and hence the income he derived from it. The serialization was without doubt ' lacking a coherent plot and a mess.' (7)  This is not the place to debate the numerous subjective evaluations and the repurposing, re-engineering or re-contextualizing of this transionary novel. (8) In today's parlance, it had and still has mixed 'reviews.' 

                               Mrs Gamp makes Tea. Illustration by Hablot Browne

                                           

                            Mr Pecksniff and his charming daughters. (Jan 1843)

                          Victorian Webb; Scanned image by Philip V. Allingham

The American 'Diversion'

Dickens needed a break. Oliver Twist, a half-written Barnaby Rudge, the tragic death of Mary Hogarth, his idealized sister-in-law, and the poor sales of Master Humphries Clock, his weekly journal, were among several factors that led Dickens to travel across the Pond to America (1842). He believed his reflective and unfinished travel book American Notes for General Circulation (1842) would be a helpful counter to the hostile response of American readers. Young Martin would be Dickens's proxy to rebut the criticisms. Remember, despite his struggle with Chuzzlewit, he produced A Christmas Carol.

Remember, too, that Dickens owed his publishers £3000, which was in dispute, not only about American copywriting and therefore no royalties, and his publishers also wanted to deduct £50 per month from his salary if sales could not cover his debt. (9)

Schlicke notes that everything Dickens hated about America is 'concentrated' in Martin and Mark's first 24 hours there (10). Above all, the American diversion was, in narrative and plot terms, the boost he hoped would rescue the serial novel's poor readership numbers. His friend Forster considered Dickens's own experience to represent the "turning point" of his career. He would use less the picaresque and more character development. (11) Hence, the novel has a transitional positioning between his early and middle works, which started with Domby and Son (1842). The characters represent 'types of ' rather than be taken literally. As Schlike reasoned, young Martin's journey to America represents the last time that Dickens structures a story as he did in previous novels. He had developed a more mature approach that "refers also to self discovery, identity, human nature and one's place in the world" (12)

Young and Old: Mirror images?

             

Front cover Illustration: Montesinos

edition. abebooks.com [date unknown]

        

                  Illustration by Phiz- Hablot Knight

                                  Browne. (1842 edition)

 

 

When Dickens had completed the serialization of Chuzzlewit (mid-June 1844), he had had enough and left for a year-long sabbatical to Italy with his family. Additionally, he took away the knowledge that the characters of a story 'triumphed over structure.' The plot of Chuzzlewit was indeed weak; however, as Goldie Morgentaler writes, it was a " demonstration of how great a writer can overcome the limitations of a weak plot by infusing his characters with so much life that the weaknesses of the plot are secondary" (13). Young Martin could be viewed as a highly forgettable character whom Morgentaler describes as eponymous but cites Seth Pecksniff and Sarha Gamp being both "inspired examples of the comedic imagination at work."(14)  It is noteworthy that both were older adults alongside twenty-three others characterized in the book. Nobody reading Chuzzlewit can fail to forget them, and they are considered representative of type but also of Victorian cant and values. The themes related to age and ageing are seen in his early novels. Old Martin, Selby posits, is "a mirror image of young Martin: both start selfish, both go through a learning process, and both have lost their selfishness by the end of the novel", and here comes Selby's most relevant point in our discussion, namely "....the theme of selfishness is repeated in both young and old Martin, this suggests that Dickens is talking about the recurrence of human failings and weaknesses. This idea is supported by the new country that Martin is swindled: there is no clear divide between young and old whereby new is wholly good and the old wholly bad, or visa versa" (15)

Whilst Chuzzlewit is about family and its dynamics, Dickens constantly continues this theme and will do so in his next novel, Dombey and Son (1846). The intersections between young and old and drawing upon his own intra-family relationships are constant. The repentant or enlightened older adult sees the error of their ways, leading to either restitution and wellbeing, death or suicide. Dickens also highlights intersections between wealth and poverty, gender, old age, societal injustice and the accruing or securing of inheritances. We cannot ignore or marginalize the older supporting characters, their role and social standing, power and control; Dickens certainly didn't. 

Was the thirty-year-old Dickens a Radical and/or Reformer?  The highly influential Dickensian scholar Emeritus Professor Jenny Hartley says his "own 'visionary dialogues', his extravagant conceits and metaphysical yokings together the totally disparate, his willful category confusions of animate and inanimate, wordplay; for him, it is ultimately the carnival of language itself which will defy the 'grim realities' and the iron binding of the mind' he saw all around him." (16) 

Overthinking Dickens's intentions and mindset concerning his characterizations of older characters is dangerous territory. Scholars, even amateur commentators such as myself, can read something that does not exist in them. Like most of his novels, he was more preoccupied with being a literary comic performer and entertainer (17). Martin Chizzelwit and its' cast of older adults are no different. But Selby also highlights that concerning Pecksniff, Dickens exposes the selfishness and hypocrisy that existed generally through the character. The character of old Martin Chizzlewit demonstrates irascibility, jealousy, suspiciousness and rigidity, but he is no fool and gets the measure of Pecksniff. Could it be, rather than Dickens stereotyping old age and older people, he was, in fact, portraying a patriarch protecting the interests and financial security of family members and at the same time confronting their ( and his own) selfishness and greed? Was Dickens challenging the obsession with wealth accumulation in a very materialistic lower/middle-class section of society? 

Before getting carried away with Old Martin's 'altruism', we are reminded that he raised his grandson, who became a selfish, self-centred, uncaring young man. This influence on young Martin's character cannot be ignored—' like father, like son'. The reformation of young Martin was his experience in America, where he realised that he was selfish and committed himself to change. Old Martin sees the 'new' grandson on his return. He becomes cupid, ensuring that the relationship between Mary Graham, his 17-year-old companion and young Martin is encouraged, culminating in a happy-ever-after ending. Pecksniff's gratuitous behaviour in attempting to bully Mary into marrying him is, in fact, thwarted by Old Martin. As an aside, and not surprisingly, Dickens portrays Mary as 'timid and yet self-controlled, she was short, slight and charming.'(18)

                            Old Martin and Mary - illustration by Sol Eytinge Jr. Victorian Webb

'Happy Families' and their Fortunes

I unsuccessfully searched for an illustrated Chuzzlewit family tree to better show its genealogy and thus clarify its complicated intergenerational relationships. However, I did come across Catherine Waters's Fractured Families in the Early Novels, where she draws upon "feminist and new historical methodologies focussed upon the normalizing function of middle-class domestic ideology", showing how Dickens's early novels "record a shift in notions of the family away from earlier stress on the importance of lineage and blood towards a new ideal of domesticity assumed to be the natural form of the family." (19)  Pointing out that reclaiming birthrights is very much part of the early novels, Waters references the original title when it was serialized whereby Dickens sought to demonstrate those of the Chuzzlewit clan "came from silver spoons, and who from wooden ladles" illustrating the introductory "satirical chapter 'Concerning the Pedigree of the Chuzzlwit Family serv(ing) to establish the Paradise Lost motif that pervades the novel, as it traces the dubious genealogy of the Chuzzlewits who undoubtedly descended from Adam and Eve" (20)(21). Don't we all.

While Dickens was already a successful novelist, we have already noted that he was not particularly wealthy (unless we consider the level of Victorian poverty). Inheritance would become vital to him, but already at thirty, he was aware of 'poor moral inheritance, which he reflected in Chuzzlewit.' (22) In passing, the protection of inheritance and its exploitation remain with us even today (23) 

In seeking to protect the family's inheritance and expose their greed and manipulation, Old Martin adopts the persona of a frail and mentally incapacitated older adult. Professor Jacob Jewusiak demonstrates how Old Martin's failed physical and mental capacity and decrepit old age drive the novel's plot. It is, he says, "a tacit belief that the inevitable progression towards the end of life is one marked by decay and debilitation." - old age and decay allowed Old Martin to take control. (24) Arguably, the fractured Chuzzlewit family, their greed and selfishness were born out of Old Martin's wealth, his desire to be regarded as the patrician and, above all, to be in control. His ruse, as Jewusiak says," by which Old Martin can set his grandson free from the influence of Pecksniff, do penance for his own pride, and punish Peckniff in the process." (25)  The expectation, or even entitlement to an inheritance—whether cash or property—remains a motivator, particularly in fractured families and broken intrafamily relationships. Nothing changes.

How did older adults as wealthholders control their power and authority in the structured class demarcations of late Georgian and early/mid-Victorian society? Jewusiak again: "The promise of inheritance and power of money are widely acknowledged as the best way to ensure independence and respect for elderly people who might otherwise be pushed to the margins". He quotes Cole and Edwards, Pat Thane and Helen Small, and I could do no better than likewise draw on their insights: "The elderly's bargaining power over the bequests of land, tools, and other economic assets, as well as trade skills, will safeguard their comforts until death." (26)(27)(28)  

The somewhat convoluted and long-drawn-out plot and subplots present for many readers a narrative maze, which, interestingly, includes the portrayal of several older characters, such as Chuffey, Nadgett, Anthony, Gamp, possibly George, and Mrs Ned Chuzzlewit. Happy Families, indeed. 

PART TWO: 

I reflect in more detail Dickens's portrayals of these older characters, both major and minor, and how we might interpret the subjective experience of Victorian ageing as a lived experience

Sources, Notes and References

1.  SELBY. K  ' How to Study a Charles Dickens Novel'. How to Study Literature Series. General Editors: John Peck & Martin Coyle. Introduction. Macmillan. (1989) (p2)

2. JOHNSON. J (Ed) 'Writing Old Age'. The Open University & Centre for Policy & Ageing. Nos 3. The Representation of Older People in Ageing Research Series. Introduction  (2004) (p1)

3. SOERENSEN. J. 'Charles Dickens; The Stories of His Life' Chapter Six: Martin Chuzzzlewit. Olympia Publishers. (2023) (p115)

4. SCHLICKE. P. (General Editor); The Aniversary Edition 'The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit  (2011) (p 373)

5. Ibid. (SOERENSEN) (p116-117)

6. BROWNING. L.G. 'Martin Chuzzlewit'. Chapter Eleven. In PATTEN.R, JORDAN.J, WATERS (Eds). The Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens. Oxford University Press (2018) (p 166-167)

7. BOWDEN. J. 'Other Dickens: Pickwick to Chuzzlewit':Oxford (OUP). Ibid BROWNING.(p 167)

8. Ibid. BROWNING .L. (p178)

9. Ibid SCHLICKE. P. Sub Title: Contract, Text and Publishing History of Martin Chuzzlewit. (p 375)

10. Ibid. SCHLICKE. P. ( p374)

11. Ibid. (p376)

12. Ibid (p376)

13. MORGENTALER. G. In Chapter 24, Martin Chuzzlewit. PAROISSIEN. D. (ed) ' A Companion to Charles Dickens' Wiley-Blackwell. (2007) (p 348)

14. Ibid (p 348)

15. Ibid SELBY. K. (p 82)

16. HARTLEY, J. ' Charles Dickens- An Introduction  Chapter Five. Oxford University Press (2016) (p 112)

17. Ibid. SELBY.K ( p 84)

18. HAWES. D. 'Who's Who in Dickens'  Routledge. London and New York (2002 ed) (p. 95). 

19. Taken from the Blurb Backpiece: WATERS, C. 'Dickens and the Politics of the Family' Cambridge University Press. (1997)

20. Ibid. WATERS, C.(p39)

21. BEER, G. 'Darwins Plots' London ARK Paperbacks. Quoted in WATERS.C (1985) (p 128)

22. Ibid. WATERS C. (p 39)

23. THE CARE ACT: England ( 2014. Implemented 2015).> "Safeguarding, which specifically addressed financial or material abuse.

24. JEWUSIAK. J. 'Ageing, Duration, and the English Novel; Growing Old from Dickens to Wolf'. Chapter 2. 'No Plots for Old Men'. Cambridge University Press. (2020) (p 58-59)

25. Ibid. JEWUSIAK.J (p57-58)

    

 

DICKENS OLDER PEOPLE: The Portrayal of Older Adult  Characters in his Novels

Novel Five

BARNABY RUDGE: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty' (1841)

PART TWO:  THE CAST OF OLDER ADULTS: MEETING 'THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY' 

                     

                    Taken from Charles Dickens Info ( Published February 18. 2021)

There are basically thirty-four characters in Rudge, of whom fifteen could reasonably be viewed as fifty years or older ( based on my definition of an older adult). Dickens frequently refers to them as 'elderly or old', so this is not in dispute,  but on occasions, others could also be classified as 'of uncertain age.' Where the character falls within this category, I have explained why their description and/or friendship or familial relationships give the impression of being in their later years. Where the character is based on a natural person, I have checked the historical record of their birth and what age they would have been in 1780 ( the date of the Gordon Riots). 

Additionally, to gauge the traits and roles assigned to them and how far  Dickens and Victorians generally attributed them to "old age" derives from the intrinsic character portrayed. (1)     

With these caveats, let's meet them and what they tell us about Dickens and early Victorian approaches to age and ageing. 

Sir John Chester: Often referred to as "old Mr Chester" and clearly 'past the prime of life'. He was loosely based on the 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773) and was obviously dead by the time of the Gordon Riots. The character is Edward Chester's father, and later,  becomes Sir John. There is a "deep and bitter animosity" between him and Geoffrey Haredale, "which is aggravated by Chester being a Protestant and Haredale a Roman Catholic "(2). He is described as a "soft-spoken, delicately made, a precise and elegant gentleman, cold, calculating and scheming."(3)  In addition ", he wore a riding coat of a somewhat brighter green that might have been expected of a gentleman of his years, with a short black velvet cape, and laced pocket holes and cuff of linen, which was of the finest kind, worked in a rich pattern at wrists and throat, and scrupulously white."(4) Note that his dress was viewed as age-inappropriate. 

Chester is a villain, coercively controlling towards his son and manipulative towards Hugh and evicts Edward from the house. Gabriel Varden confronts Sir John with the revelation that "Hugh was his illegitimate son by a gypsy woman who he had abandoned and who had been hanged for petty theft" (5)(6) 

Unlike the late Earl of Chesterfield, Dickens's portrayal is not of the aristocracy. Still, as in many of his novels, it is of an unsympathetic older parent who thwarted, denied, and abandoned his son. This abusive parent does not repent - he always remains outwardly unruffled, "the same imperturbable, fascinating gentleman of previous days."(7). Apart from the age-inappropriate quip, does Dickens's evidence of ageism? I think not. Instead, if we use Berman Nelsons's analysis of Voltaire's portrayal of old age, Chester reflects as an old man who had power due to his social standing, relative wealth and egotistically obsessed wanting his son to marry into wealth that would contribute to securing his own lifestyle. (8) One is reminded of Ralf Nickleby, who abandoned his son Smike and came to a sticky end! (9)

       Mr Chesters's Chair. Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). Woodcut, Chapman and Hall          (1841)  

                    Death of Sir John. George Cattermole.Woodcut. Chapman & Hall (1841)
      

 

Tom Cobb: Although of uncertain age, he is a general Chantler and Post Office keeper in Chigwell, Essex. He is a cronie and sidekick of old John Willetts, Solomon Daisy and Long Phil Parks at the Maypole Inn. It may be a stretch to assume he is fifty-plus, and they were all of the same generation, but the term chronic implies that they were all of a certain age. Regulars at local public houses tend to be. His description doesn't really help us. I simply felt uncomfortable to have discounted him entirely. I am sure Dickensian scholars will put me right! 

Ned Dennis: (Tyburn Hangman). Again, it may be a supposition on my part to include him in this listing. My rationale is based on his occupation, being a natural person, and the fact that by the time Dickens was writing, attitudes to public hanging were changing. Above all, the description and imagery given in Rudge are telling. The words and phrases speak for themselves: "A squat, thick set personage, with a low forehead, a course shock of red hair, and eyes so small and near together that his broken nose alone seemed to prevent their meeting and fusing into one of usual size. A dingy handkerchief twisted like a cord about his neck - his dress was of threadbare velveteen - a faded, rusted, whitened black, like ashes of a pipe - in lieu of buckles at his knees, he wore unequal lengths of packed thread" (10) 

By the time Dickens wrote Rudge, he was aware of the changing attitudes associated with public executions. The real Edward Dennis (1740-1800) was known to be theatrical and brutal. In 1780, he was not, within our definition, an older adult, and he retired eight years after the Gordon riots and lived until 1800 in reduced financial circumstances. Dickens has his 'Ned Dennis' imprisoned and condemned to death, crying and cowardly until he experiences 'the drop.' Do we feel pity for this thoroughly pathetic character in his last days? Was it Dickens's intention? I think not.

       Dennis and Hugh Condemned. (Harry Furness (1910)). Scanned by Philip                              V. Allingham. (Victorian Webb)

         

                                

      Dennis by Clark, Joseph Clayton (KYD) "Very Good No Bindimh (1920)

Notwithstanding the literary and historical importance of his character and physical attributes, some key terms Dickens uses cannot be ignored if they reflect and generalise 19th-century age and ageing imaging ( 'twisted', 'dingy', 'faded' and 'rusted' ). The illustration above by Furness is clearly an adaption of Phiz's original, "Dennis and Hugh in the Condemned Cell"). Dickens personally selected and agreed to all illustrations in his fiction. The illustration by Furness is reminiscent of Daniel Quilp ( The Old Curiosity Shop), discussed in a previous blog. (11.1) It is also worth reminding ourselves of the meaning of "red hair" during the 19th Century and its inference of antisemitism. (11.2)

Daisy Soloman: Although we are not given his age, there are some indicators from the storyline, relationships, and illustrations, both in the original serialization and subsequently. Soloman is a parish clerk and regular at the Maypole Inn. He tells his cronies, Cobb and Parks, addinfaniteam of the murder of Reuben Rudge and the discovery of his body twenty years previously. He was a direct witness to that discovery. Dickens describes him as having ' little black shiny eyes like beads', and this 'little man wore at the knees of his rusty breeches, a rusty black coat' (12). In narrative terms, it is not of an infirm man, given he, together with Parks and Cobb, 'walks from Chigwell to London to see for themselves what is happening there' (13). The illustration below, however, by Phiz ( and agreed by Dickens) appears to give a different impression.

                    

                               Soloman enters the Parlour. Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) .Woodcut.                               (1840-1)

Sir John Fielding (1721-1780): English Police Magistrate at Bow Street. At the time of the Gordon riots, he was fifty-nine and died in the same year. Brother of the novelist Henry Fielding, commonly called the "Blind Beak." A recognised reformer of the criminal justice system. He championed a better understanding of juvenile offenders, and Dickens would be aware of his attempts to professionalize the role of magistrates and an advocate of understanding the social and economic causes of crime. This resonated with Dickens, who generally regarded the Gordon Riots less as an inter-religious conflict than a statement of social conditions.

Mr Gashford: ( Lord George Gordon's Secretary) At the outset, this character cannot reasonably be within our definition of an older adult. So why include him?  I discussed in previous blogs that we need to look at a pattern of portrayals that reflect gerontophobia and/or ageism in his writings. Notwithstanding Dickens's portrayals of children (especially pre-pubescent girls, evidencing ephebophilia) in terms of older adults, the dismal, grotesque, physically disabled, evil, criminal, and exploitative characters are dominant. Dickens throws his net wide, equally capturing these negative characteristics across demographic age groups. Gashford is a case in point.

Hawes comprehensively summarises Gashford's role and description of this 'villainous' character. He was loosely based on Lord George Gordon's biographer, Robert Watson (1746-1838), who claimed to be the Lord's Secretary.  This claim is generally disputed. Hawes believes that Dickens would have been very much aware of the Inquest on Watson shortly before he started the serialisation of Rudge and the discovery of Watson's body, which "may have been responsible for Dicken's choice of name for this character '  concluding that the " personality and behaviour"  is entirely of Dickens invention. Watson would have been thirty-four at the time of the Gordon riots. An invention that describes Gashford thus: "angularly made, high shouldered, bony, and ungracfull. His dress, imitating his superior, was demure and staid in the extreme; his manner was formal and constrained. This gentleman had an overarching brow, great hands and feet and ears, and a pair of eyes that seemed to have made an unnatural retreat into his head...the man that blows the fire, a servile, false, and trucking knave" (14)  The young adult Dickens ( he was aged twenty-five when he started writing Rudge, and at the same time still penning Oliver Twist) showing his narrative brilliance. 

              Gashford on the Roof. Hablot Knight Brown (Phiz) Woodcut (1840-1)

Reuben Haredale: Father of Miss Haredale and elder brother of Mr Haredale. "He is not alive, and he is not dead - not dead in the common sort of way..found murdered in his bed chamber, and in his hand was a piece of cord attached to an alarm bell outside the roof."(15) The brutal murder of Reuben, bloody and cruel by the hands of Barnaby's father is probably more critical to the plot than in fact The Gordon Riots. The intra-family dynamics of the Haredales are classic Dickens, which I will refer to later in the series.

Mr Langdale: Here again, Dickens has based his character on a historical figure, Thomas Langdale (1740-90), a well-known distiller and vintner whose premises fell victim to the riots. At the time, he would be aged forty. Dickens, however, refers in his portrayal as a "portly old man, with a very red face, or rather purple... but also a very hearty old fellow and a worthy man" (16). Philip and Gadd's commentary adds that Langdale was a " rubicund, choleric, but a good hearted gentleman" (17). Whatever Dickens had in mind regarding his portrayal, the reference to the description of a forty year old man as "old." is interesting. (18) It goes to the current notion that "age is just a number." Remembering, again, that Dickens was both a novelist and a journalist. This good-hearted character showed anger at the refusal of the Lord Mayor to arrange the transfer of Mr Rudge (senior) and put him in custody, even though he was contained in a coach outside Mansion House.

The illustration by Fred Barnard (1874) below, and the always valuable commentary of the Victorian Webb, shows the cowardly Mayor in his nightshirt refusing the aristocratic Haredale and the middle class Langdale pleading to arrest and put Rudge in prison. It was, says the Victorian Webb, a result of both being Catholics. It reflects Dickens's political satire of public officials who were afraid; in this instance, the mob supported Gordon's call for "No Popery" (19). Political satire should, in the pen of Dickens, its master, always be factored in officialdom as a process and/or of a particular character. It asks if Victorian age stereotypes intersect with how Dickens portrayed his older characters. In this case, being based on a natural person who happened to be forty years old.

             Illustration by Fred Barnard (1874) Scanned and text by Philip Allingham.                           Victorian Web   

                    

 Mr Rudge: Steward of  Reuben Haredale and father of Barnaby Rudge, who murders his employer for financial gain, in fact, robbery! In addition, he murders Haredale's gardener whilst escaping from the house, who is subsequently believed to be that of Rudge himself. Unsurprisingly, he goes on the run but returns decades later as the Stranger in the bar of the Maypole Inn and is now aged "sixty or thereabouts." Dickens described him as having " hard features..much weather-beaten and worn by time, and the naturally harsh expression was not improved by a dark handkerchief bound tightly around his head. His face scarred and his complexion of a hard hue." (20). 

Together with Stagg, he tries to now exploit his wife, whom he had abandoned and later would be imprisoned with her. Mrs Rudge is keen for him to 'repent' but true to form this dastardly character aggressively "in a paroxysm of wrath, and terror, and the fear of death ...rushes into the darkness of his cell...casts himself jangling down upon the stone floor, and smote it with his iron hands" (21) Yet again, Dickens, as he had done with numerous older characters throughout his literature has the older unrepentant ( and even the repentant) facing a justified end, this time by the hangman. A good Victorian riddance! 

It could be argued, however, that Rudge's age was irrelevant, given his lifetime of criminality (e.g. Fagin). It again demonstrates Victorian beliefs and approaches to crime and punishment of the criminal classes, which, as Clive Emsley highlights, Dickens himself 'helped shape popular conceptions' (22). Older criminals were considered unreformable, whereas young male adolescents were. Indeed, in Dickens's numerous family sagas, they were, by and large, older adults who were exploited, robbed, abandoned, abused and murdered, whilst the stereotypical girl or woman was seen as a victim or in need of 'psychiatric treatment' and confined in asylums rather than prison. Dickens was a rescuer of females, both in his writings and life. The intersections of gender, sexuality, criminology and ageism come into play throughout the Victorian age. He advocated prisons and transportation ( ended in the mid-1850s). Older male criminals were 'incorrigible' as were some older male parents and guardians within families, but older female characters could be bad, maybe mad, harsh and unfeeling, but seldom criminal.

It could be said that he, in today's terms, 'exploited' -  female sex workers whilst also opening Urana Cottage, a refuge for them in 1847. His motivation has been a matter of debate amongst Dickensian scholars. I'll leave it there.

                         Barnaby and his father. Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz)

                                  WoodcutChapman & Hall 1840-1

However, there is an additional point when we explore the parenting of Barnaby by his father - it was nonexistent. It cast a sinister shadow over him. In several of his characterizations, Dickens demonstrated their ego-centricity, of which Mr Rudge, according to Dr Archana Gautam, was arguably "the most outstanding" (23). Gautam examined several of Dickens's egocentric parents where children "suffer at the hands of their own callous and uncaring, and selfish parents and demanding parents", adding that 'mothers are odd and fathers bad.' Mr Rudge was killed on the very day Barnaby was born, adding that "in the eyes of his murderous father, it is as if the baby son... sprung from his victim's blood." In the many examples of wicked, evil, neglectful, and murderous fathers, there is a dynamic in the Rudge son/father dynamic ( literary and personal) that the parent must suffer and pay for their behaviour (24). Their age is perhaps irrelevant, but it is interesting from a literary gerontological perspective that the debt is paid in full in their later adult years - an untimely but deserved death.

At this juncture, it is worth considering the relationship between Chester and his son Edward, which has been the focus of a study that emphasises Chester's refusal to take parental responsibility, shaping the father and son relationships in Barnaby (25). The representation of father figures towards their children is a common theme Dickens reflected in his early ( and even later) novels. Here, they mirrored Mr Rudge's senor in the characters of Barnaby and Chester with Edward. These older characters do not accept responsibility. Bergh-Seeley talks about "the dark halves in Dickens's writing" (26), which I would suggest reflected the two sides of Dickens himself. Youth and its Portrayal v's that of Old Age

Revisiting Gabriel Varden and introducing his Mrs Martha Varden as "of uncertain temper."

                    Gabriel Varden with Miggs and his wife Martha

Whilst referenced earlier in the Background and Context, the portrayal and function of Gabriel Varden and his wife now require closer attention. Prompted by Sylvia Kasey Marks, who wrote in the Journal The Dickensian, "Dickens's very portrayal of him is to engage the reader to be attentive to what Gabriel Varden says and does"( 27). He is charitable, selfless, kind, and a better creature than ever. He is also courageous but, at the same time, "a long suffering husband in a chaotic household."(28) Marks points out that Vardens " domestic situation is a microcosm of the political and religious divisions in the novel...full of little people with undisciplined hearts."

Martha Varden's chronological age is unclear, but her physical portrayal is described as "plump and buxom and not unattractive". Her personality, however, is shrewdish and mercurial. Donald Hawes says she made people uncomfortable, adding "that when people were merry, Mrs Varden was dull; and that when other people were dull, Mrs Varden was disposed to be amazingly cheerful" (29). Being contrary has always been a stereotype of older people, and though she could arguably be viewed as in her middle years, her description is telling. In transactional analysis terms, she moves from a critical parent to an unrestrained child ego state as she becomes conflicted, transitioning from an ardent supporter of the Protestant cause during the early stages of the riots and "becomes quite young." Evidence again of the Victorian view that older people who repent somehow undergo a personality change.

As we have seen, during his early career as a journalist and novelist, Dickens married Catherine (1836) and was some years away from his separation from her in 1858. He came to resent her in his middle life and wrote unflatteringly about her physical appearance compared to the attractive and petite young woman he married. Dickens never loved her, and his courtship was businesslike, serving his role as a husband, provider, father, and increasingly national personality.  It would be foolish to think he did not care about Catherine as he wrote Barnaby along with his initial novels (30). He did, nevertheless, portray many female middle-aged women in the style of Martha Gabriel, perhaps foreseeing the heavy and sedentary thirty-six year old Catherine. The Varden's daughter Dolly is Dickens's ideal modelled after his 'first love', Maria Beadnell. Martha, whilst 'buxom and plump', was at the same time portrayed as attractive, perhaps reflecting the intersectionality of Dickens's childhood experiences, perception of self,  sexuality, ageism, ambivalence and guilt. 

Dickens remained virile, trim, and physically active at forty and into his fifties ( his depression and general mental health are another matter). However, he became increasingly intolerant of his wife. In the portrayals of Martha and Dolly, this young author perhaps displays signs of an inner conflict concerning his relationship with young and older women. I cannot, however, hold him to account for the Victorian stereotyping of old age, which increasingly became pathologising. Nevertheless, his portrayals, generally and particularly with the Vardens, were shaped and influenced by his childhood and adolescence. Thus, we find a multi layered approach that serves a literary and personal purpose.  

                              

                                  

                                        Dolly Varden. Alamy

              

Those of An "Uncertain Age"  

Obviously, in all of Dickens's early novels, there are some character portrayals we can easily exclude, but not always those in their forties. This inevitably is the case with Barnaby Rudge, e.g., John Grueby, Tom Green, Emma Haredale, Hugh, Mary Jones, Miss Miggs, Simon Tappertit, etc. However, some of these are analysed in the context of a relationship with an older adult. This is found in all of Dickens's early novels ( including the novella A Christmas Carol).

However, I have included characters whose portrayals suggest an older person but may not have been seen as such in Dickens's mind. Could they reflect a level of ageism through today's prism? If he was even in young adulthood, demonstrating that 'being younger is better than being older", would it reflect his discomfort with ageing? (31) From Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and A Christmas Carol to Barnaby Rudge, we have seen in Victorian cultural and policy terms being older was increasingly seen as a time of deficit, sickness and fragility. However, underpinning that notion, there is evidence that compassionate ageism existed. Workhouses were brutal, but so were poverty and abusive family relationships. Dickens knew this, and his characterisations pored into his fiction from the processing of his own childhood, his journalistic and court reporting experiences, and his relationships. 

Barnaby Rudge is not an easy book, nor was writing and trying to understand it in relation to literary gerontology. I have deliberately avoided exploring Dickens and his attitude to Learning Disabled people (see Simon Jarrett) for rationale. (32), but it may be focussed upon in future publications about Dickens's Older People. 

Sources and References 

 1.  BERMAN, L & NELSON "Voltaire: Portrayal of Old Age". International Journal of Human Development. Vol 24 (3) (1986-7) Baywood Publishing.Co. Inc, from which these quotes are based

2. HAWES, D. "Whose Who in Dickens". Routledge imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group. (1998,2000) (p 39)

3. Ibid (p 39)

4. PHILIP, A & GADD, L. "The Dickens Dictionary" Bracken Books. London. (1989 Ed). (p54)

5. Ibid. HAWES. (p39)

6. SCHLICKE, P. "The Oxford  Companion to Charles Dickens". Anniversary Edition. Oxford University Press (2011) (p 32)

7. Ibid. HAWES.( p39) 

8. Ibid. BERMAN & NELSON. ( p 163)

9. EASTMAN. M. "The Portrayal of Older Adults: Nicholas Nickleby. Blog CooperativeMerveUleashed.blogspot. co. (Posted March 2023)

10. Ibid. PHILIP & GADD. (P84)

11. Ibid. EASTMAN, M  "The Old Curiosity Shop"  blog (Posted December  2023)

12. Ibid. HAWES (p 54)

13. Ibid . HAWES (p54)

14. Ibid. PHILIP & GADD. (p 113) 

15. Ibid. PHILIP & GADD. (p 134)

16. Ibid. HAWES ( p133)

17. Ibid. PHILIPS & GADD (P 169-70)

18. Ibid. HAWES. (p 133)

19. BARNARD, F. (1874) "The Victorian Webb. created 20.08.2020. Modified 4.10.2020. Picture Scanned and Text by Philip.V. Allington 

20. Ibid. HAWES. (p 203)

21. Ibid HAWES. (p 204)

22. EMSLEY, C. "Crime, Crime Prevention, and Criminals" in Ibid SCHLICKE.P. ( 2011) (p 129)

23. GAUTAM, A. "Ego-Centric Parents in the Novels of Charles Dickens". SmartMoves Journal / Jellh 4(7):7 July 2016. (p272-3)

24, Ibid. GAUTAM (p272)

25. BERGH-SEELEY, R. "The Other Self: Dark Counterparts in the Novels of Charles Dickens ". A Thesis Presented to the Department of Literature. The University of Oslo in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree. Spring Semester (2011) ( p39)

26. Ibid (p 41)

27. KASEYMARKS, S. "Little People Matter in David Copperfield and Barnaby Rudge" The Dickensian . Summer 2024. No 523.Vol 120. Part 11. (p 162)

28. Ibid. (p263)

29. Ibid HAWES. (p135)

30. GARNETT, R. "Charles Dickens in Love". Pegasus Books. New York/London (2012) (p135)

31. LEARDI. J. "Ageing Sideways - Changing Our Perspectives on Getting Older" Copywrite (c) 2024. by Jeanette Leardi. ISBN: 979-8-218-45246-9. Psychology/Development/Adulthood -Ageing. Introduction (p xv)

32. The importance of Barnaby Rudge's portrayal in the context of Charles Dickens's attitude to Intellectual disability has been brilliantly discussed by SIMON  JARRETT in his publication "Those They Called Idiots: The idea of the disabled mind from 1700 to the present day" Reakton Books. 2020. Barnaby Rudge as a character fell outside the Older Adult definition, hence the focus of "Charles Dickens's Older People".  I shall, however, pick up the issue in my forthcoming examination of David Copperfield, which will feature the character of Mr Richard Babley, commonly known as Mr Dick. 

 

   

 

 

                              

 

DICKENS OLDER PEOPLE: The Portrayal of Older Adult Characters in his Novels 

Novel Five

BARNABY RUDGE: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty ( 1841)

PART ONE:  BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

                               J. Yaeger, engraving of Barnaby Rudge. 1841. Illustrated in Simon

                                Jarrett: " Those They called IDIOTS." Reaktion Books. 2020. p170

ARGUABLY Barnaby Rudge, at its serialization ( in Master Humphrey's Clock 13. Feb -27.Nov.1841) and ever since, "is both the least loved and the least read" of all his novels. (1) It was Dickens's first of two historical novels. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) continues to outstrip Rudge in popularity with the general public. However, they both received mixed reviews from critics then and now. What was Dickens's intention and motivation for embarking on this project? Was it an attempt to build on his very successful writing to date? He wanted Rudge to be considered a serious historical novel (2), following in the footsteps of Sir Water Scott, whom he greatly admired, especially in his novel Ivanhoe, which remains relatively popular, unlike Rudge.  

Remembering that Rudge was initially published in serial form, the angst Dickens had in putting his handwritten scrawl on paper, he disclosed to his then publishers Bently in 1836  embarking on this intended serious work of literature it was designed to "build his fame and was frustrating."(3) Later Dickens writes to John Forster ( his close friend and subsequently biographer) that it was "hanging over him like a hideous nightmare." (4) I shared the feeling when I was reading the book! But it is important to note that Dickens, professionally and personally, at the same time was still working on Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Pickwick, and The Old Curiosity Shop, which had already considerably enhanced his fame. Money was always a motivator for him, though not for its own sake( he was always generous), but increased fame was his crucial motivation. Once he got into the plot and chapters, completing it in late 1841 and writing again to Forster, he said, " I think you'll find it comes out strong to the last word" (5). This blog is not the place to go into Dickens's convoluted and complex contractual history with his publisher. Still, it had considerably drained his energy and patience, changing from Bently to the publishers Chapman and Hall. 

In his personal life, it was a period of activity and distraction. He became a father again, holidayed in Scotland, travelled backwards and forwards from a family stay in Broadstairs to London, planned a visit to America with his wife Catherine in early 1842, was forced to undergo surgery for a fistula and had to rest for a month, had difficulties with his feckless father, and, to top it all off, his pet Raven Grip 'fell off its perch'. 

Returning to the novel itself in terms of its genesis and conception, Dickens originally intended Gabriel Varden to be the central character and title. His portrayal is noteworthy, 'a round, redfaced, sturdy yeoman with a double chin and a voice husky with good living, good sleeping, good humour and good health.'(6) Varden was in a 'Green old age' - slowed down but active and fit, today classed as 'the young old'. Philips and Gadd point out that Dickens was skilled in portraying "hearty, kindly characters"- especially in this period of their life course, and his novels are peppered with them. Whilst Dickens could not then be in the same literary class as Water Scott, certainly not in producing informed historical novels either in quantity or quality, he undoubtedly remains a significant and outstanding Victorian author of contemporary life. (7)

                            

                         Breakfast at Mr. Varden's/. Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). Woodcut

                         first published in weekly parts by Chapman and Hall 1840-1.

So why did Dickens decide on the historical setting of the Gordon Riots ( 1780), which was, in fact, in the relatively recent past? It was very 18th-century. Chesterton posits that Rudge and the much later  A Tale of Two Cities were unconsciously connected, especially regarding the aristocrats. (8) Chesterton points too out that both the themes were about revolutions; Rudge dealt with 'ignorance and obscurantist Protestism' and A Tale of Two Cities, a revolt in favour of 'enlightenment and liberation' (9). These were always to occupy Dickens. Scholars differ in their view about whether Dickens was a historian; he, however, was a keen observer. The failure of Rudge against the success of  A Tale is, in part, a reflection of Dickens's anxiety and insecurity from his childhood and early young adulthood set against the maturity of his older self. Chesterton adamantly rejects the notion that Dickens became sadder in his later years, given he was only in his forties when writing his second historical novel and that he, in fact, never reached old age and was never " a victim of elderly disenchantment."  He was rather worn out by his "unremitting rapidity"; thus, he was not "wearied by his age; rather, he was wearied by his youth" (10). Perhaps Chesterton confused chronological age with life course experiences and his psychological ageing process. This would include Dickens's feelings about getting or being old, his age identity, anxiety about his perception of cognitive decline and general physical and mental health, underlying psychological issues, life events and especially his continuous goals,  beliefs, values, principles, and how he behaved to others. In my view, it was not fundamentally about his workload.

                                                                -000000000-

Dickens was acutely aware of the danger of mob violence, particularly in the context of the Chartist Movement, and his fascination with criminality, criminal and "abnormal" minds. A murder had a particular fascination, as did general violence and brutality. (11) I would also add intellectual disabilities, commonly phrased in the 19th Century as "idiots." These all intersect, and at the very heart of Rudge Dickens's striking prejudice against the Roman Catholic Church is evident. (12)

I share the opinion of Philip Hobsbaum that "Barnaby Rudge is hard to discuss as a novel. "The characterisations do not live, move or generally have their being in the fabric of the events. There are too many strands of action, and they are not satisfactorily interwoven"  (13). For good or ill, Dickens was greatly influenced by Thomas Carlyle, resulting in an "emphasis shifting from the individual lives disrupted by the Gordon Riots as a social phenomenon in themselves." (14) If Dickens's portrayal of the Green-aged Gabriel Varden is sympathetic to ageing, we are confronted by the character of the 18th-century politician Lord Chesterfield. Hobshaum writes "if the old man is objectionable villainess, we get no flavour of his sense that union between Protestant and Catholic is miscegenation". (15). Old Sir John Chester is described as a "staid, grave, placid gentleman, past the prime of life  (16); he is 'cold and calculating and scheming" who, in true Dickensian fashion, is killed off during an angry encounter with Geoffrey Heredale a Catholic squire and younger brother of the murdered Reuben Haredean. (17) Again, as we have seen in Dickens's earlier novels, the association between older characters eventually getting their violent comeuppance for failing to reflect on their wickedness and repent. A very Victorian notion.

                  Old Mr. Chester. Hablot Kight Browne (Phiz). Woodcut was first published 

                in the weekly parts by Chapman & Hall. 1840-1

The Intersection of The Gordon Riots of 1780 and The Chartists of 1836

The Gordon Riots of June 1780 "occasioned a mob rampage through London for eight days attacking private homes and public property." (18). They became, for Victorians and Dickens himself, a "most terrifying example of public disorder and violence" (19). Anti-Catholic prejudice that existed in the Eighteenth Century and the rhetoric of Lord George Gordon triggered by The Catholic Relief Act (1778), granting increased Civil Rights, was the torch that lit the flame.  

Gordon was the leader of the Protestant Association, and he used this platform to generate opposition, which was rejected by the Government.  The Association fed anti-Catholic feelings, culminating in riots, which reached their climax in July 1780. Martial Law was proclaimed, and the army called in, killing and wounding hundreds of rioters. Dickens was familiar via the writings of Thomas Carlyle (1839), whereby Chartism was "a manifestation of an inner fury latent in popular consciousness." Dickens had also read Carlyle's History of the French Revolution (1837), which later would shape Dickens's narrative in A Tail of Two Cities (20). The notion of mob rule, violence and cruelty was to be feared, but it was also fascinating to the young Dickens. It energised him as he penned the storming of Newgate prison and the burning down of Lord Mansfield's home. (21)  Uncontrolled violence and mayhem again intersect with both his fears and anxieties about such; his compulsive interest with murder, death, retribution, anti-Catholic feelings, social reform and Chartism. Barnaby Rudge was the result.  Jon Mee, however, points out that Dickens needed to 'offer a clear sense of a new order emerging from this conflagration.' which he ultimately failed to do (22)

 

        

           The Rendezvous of the Mob: Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) 

                                       The real Lord George Gordon ( 1751 - 1793)

The consequences of inadequate and poor criminal laws, penal conditions, and policing of the 1830s and 40s did Dickens think to demonstrate the lessons from 1780 precisely the same issues would be learnt? (23) However, Dickens's reading of Scott and Thomas Carlyle appears not to have led him to explore the socio-economic causes of the riots in Rudge. There is little sense of reform, but as Mee points out, he does not "provide its readers with a single, comfortable vantage point from which to view the past."  Instead, he re-enforces Victorian England's superiority (24). The riots of 80 were a reflection of, at best, ambivalence and, at worse, a denial of the consequences of poor social order and appear not to have grasped the different phases of the riots - who were the rioters?  In addition, he fails to explore its relationship to Chartism and the parallels or correlations between past and present. (25) 

The characters, settings, and multiple plot lines could have been more explicit for many readers then and the few now, but they have provided Dickensian scholars with rich pickings since their publication. How far are those characters a reflection of the phases of the Gordon riots?  This is important in understanding Dickens's mindset and self-perception of which social class he came from and his desperation to secure an enhanced one. He was not born into absolute poverty, but it is fair to say that his father's social position and family during his childhood were sometimes precarious. That precariousness was mainly a result of John Dickens spending well beyond his means and constantly moving house to avoid his numerous debtors'

The renowned social historian  E.P. Thompson argues that the initial 'revolutionary crowd" which presented the Petition to Parliament was, in the main, "the better sort of tradesmen ...exceedingly quiet and orderly and very civil" (26), reflecting the dissent of the lower middle class. The second followed the Parliament's rejection, which attracted journeymen, apprentices, and servants, as well as a minority criminal element motivated by antipathy, again to the rich (the middle class). The final phase was one of indiscriminate violence, orgies of drunkenness, arson and pickpocketing, whereby arguably, the mob was less about protest and more about thuggery and violence for its own sake (what's new). The conflation of the Gordon riots with the Chartist movement, comprised of radicals and reformers in peaceful and organised demonstrations, led to Victorian anxiety about Chartism, reform, and the ghost of mob rule. Dickens's position and ambivalence in the Rudge novel were how far the " unrepresented, and/or their organisations faced with persecution and repression to affect their objectives ?" (27) At what point do radicals and reformers ( of which it is argued Dickens was one) turn into a real threat to law and order and usurped into a violent mob?  Dickens was no Chartist; he did not support their Movement or Trade Unionism (28). He reflected the Establishment. Some have argued that his attitude was paradoxical. Rudge was a critique of mob rule. His earlier published novels show a young adult exposing various social issues but with an antipathy to reform. He supported many "good causes." as we would define them today. Still, as I explored in a blog previously in A Christmas Carol, he remains perplexing. He believed poverty, injustices, abuses, ignorance, want, and exploitation within society and families could be addressed through existing middle-class morals and values and by being charitable, kind, and compassionate. He could indeed be riding two horses and fell off in Barnaby Rudge. Barbara Hardy writes that he was "interested in the conditional character, but includes in his fiction a continuing fantasy about the ideal, the unconditional virtue" (29). The character Barnaby was 'pure' in a society of darkness, poverty, exploitation, aristocratic privilege, entitlement, abuse and riot, but he was, above all, a survivor. This was the essence of Dickens.  

The older adult characters will be explored in Part Two. The principal is, in fact, "a round, redfaced, sturdy yeoman with a double chin and voice husky with good living." He was living a good young, old age. 

References

1. RICE.T.J. (1987) Barnaby Rudge: An Annotated Bibliography. Routledge Revivals

2. The Dickens Page: (undated) Charles Dickens Barnaby Rudge. 

3. SCHLICKE. P. (Ed) (2011). 'Barnaby Rudge: Inception and Composition. The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens. Anniversary Edition. Oxford University Press. 

4. Ibid (p 29)

5. Ibid (p 30-31)

6. PHILIP, P. & GADD.L. (1989 ed) The Dickens Dictionary. Bracken Books. London. (p 302)

7. CHITTICK.K. (1990) Dickens and the 1830s. Quoted in SCHLICKE.P Ibid. (p 32)

8. CHESTERTON. G.K. (1911) Appreciations & Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens, Moncrieff Press. (2022 ed) (p 59-60)

9. Ibid (p 59)

10. Ibid ( p134-135)

11. GLANCY. R.F. (1999) Student Companion to Charles Dickens: Student Companions to Classical Works. Greenwood Press. Westport. Connecticut. London (p 37) 

12. WAGENKNECHT. E. ( 1970) The Man Charles Dickens: A Victorian Portrait  (2nd Edition) University of Oklahoma Press. Norman. (p 224)

13. HOBSBAUM.P. (1998 ed) A Reader's Guide to Charles Dickens. Syracuse University Press. (p 63)

14. Ibid (p 63)

15. Ibid  ( p63)

16. Ibid. Philipps &  Gadd (54)

17. HOWE .D. (1998) Whos Who in Dickens. Routledge & Taylor. Francis Group. London & New York. (p 102-3)

18. GARDINER. J. ( 2011) Dickens and the Uses of History (Chapter 16) in Paroissien, D.(Ed) A Companion to Charles Dickens. Wiley-Blackwell (2011) (p249)

19. MEE.J. (2011) Barnaby Rudge (Chapter 33). Ibid  Paroission. D (p 338)

20. Ibid (p 340)

21. Ibid ( p340) Quoting Dickens's letter to Forster ( Letters 2:385)

22. Ibid. MEE (p340)

23. Idid (p341)

24 Ibid ( p341)

25 Ibid ( 341)

26. THOMPSON. E.P. ( 1968 Edition) The Making of the English Working Class. Penguin. London  (p77)

27. Ibid (p 176)

28. Chartist Charter: (I). A vote for all males over 21: (2). A secret ballot. (3). No Property qualification. (4). Payment for MP's (5). Equal Constituencies (6). Annual Parliaments

29. HARDY. B. (1985 edition)  The Moral Art of Dickens The Athlone Press 

30. BROWN. J.M. ( Date unknown) A Sociological Analysis of the Novels of Charles Dickens. (PhD Thesis) London School of Economics 

 

 

 

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