Dickens and the Workhouse
Oliver Twist and the London Poor
Published on 7. November 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
392 pages
978-0-19-968128-0 (ISBN)
Description
The recent discovery that as a young man Charles Dickens lived only a few doors from a major London workhouse made headlines worldwide, and the campaign to save the workhouse from demolition caught the public imagination.
Internationally, the media immediately grasped the idea that Oliver Twist's workhouse had been found, and made public the news that both the workhouse and Dickens's old home were still standing, near London's Telecom Tower.
This book, by the historian who did the sleuthing behind these exciting new findings, presents the story for the first time, and shows that the two periods Dickens lived in that part of London - before and after his father's imprisonment in a debtors' prison - were profoundly important to his subsequent writing career.
Internationally, the media immediately grasped the idea that Oliver Twist's workhouse had been found, and made public the news that both the workhouse and Dickens's old home were still standing, near London's Telecom Tower.
This book, by the historian who did the sleuthing behind these exciting new findings, presents the story for the first time, and shows that the two periods Dickens lived in that part of London - before and after his father's imprisonment in a debtors' prison - were profoundly important to his subsequent writing career.
Reviews / Votes
[Richardson] conjures up vivid images of poverty-stricken Victorian London and deepens our understanding of the sense of outrage that compelled Dickens to bring the predicament of the poor to wider attention. * Glasgow Herald * It is a lively, compassionate, and revealing account of the man and his times. * Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday * Intriguing volume * Daily Mail * Richardson's enthusiasm for her subject shines throughout this hugely engaging and informative book * BBC History Magazine * The important discoveries in this surprising book come from an intimate knowledge of Dickens and London, coupled with a historian's passion. We're seized by the hand of a detective and walked into Dickens's world. Unputdownable. * Miriam Margolyes * The book offers a detailed study of the Dickens's family home and its surrounding neighbourhood, as well as an evocative and damning portrait of Britain's de-facto 'prison system to punish poverty'. * New Yorker * Gives an intimately evoked view of Dickens's childhood and the New Poor Law of 1834 by which workhouses became 'a sort of prison system to punish [the poor]. * New York Review of Books * Pulls off that rare combination of a perfectly and thoroughly executed piece of academic research whilst remaining not only immensely readable but positively compelling ... this book is wonderful. * London Historians *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
44 black and white halftones
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
422 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-968128-0 (9780199681280)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2012
1st Edition
Oxford University Press
€39.20
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Ruth Richardson is a historian and the author of a number of books. The Wall Street Journal described her last book, The Making of Mr. Gray's Anatomy (Oxford University Press) as 'one of those rarities, history that reads like a novel'. That book won the 2009 Medical Journalists' Open Book Award.
Content
Introduction: Oliver Twist and the Workhouse ; 1. Discovery: Threat, Puzzle, Silences ; 2. Vicinity: Environs of Gentility, Environs of Poverty ; 3. Institutions: Hospital and Workhouse ; 4. Home: House, Landlord, Shop, Inside, Upstairs, Downstairs ; 5. Street: Looking Down and Around ; 6. Calamity: Sheerness, Chatham, Camden Town, Marshalsea, Somers Town ; 7. Young Dickens: Return to Norfolk Street, Young Professional, First Essays ; 8. Workhouse: St Paul's Parish, Farming the Infant Poor, Paul Pry, Parliament ; 9. Works: Contemporaries, Sketches, Spectres, Oliver Twist, Names, Echoes ; 10. The Most Famous Workhouse in the World: Truth and Fiction ; Appendix ; Notes ; Index