Dickens and the Victorian City - Softcover

When we think of Dickens and the Victorian City, we think of Dickens and London. While it is impossible to underestimate the importance of London in Dickens' work, readers, critics, and enthusiasts inevitably ignore the indirect influence of those other English villages, towns and cities in which Dickens lived, worked, and played, including Portsmouth, the city in which he was born. Focussing on aspects such as crime, poverty, education, women, and public entertainment, this book highlights those points at which Portsmouth becomes visible in Dickens' works,and looks at Victorian Portsmouth as a microcosmic version of London, sharing with the metropolis, many of the philanthropic and political concerns that animated Dickens during his lifetime.

Patricia Pulham is a Reader in Victorian Literature at the University of Portsmouth, and has written on a variety of Victorian writers including, Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins, and Oscar Wilde. Born in Gibraltar, she studied at the University of London and lived in the city for many years before settling in Portsmouth where she now lives and works. Brad Beaven is a Principal Lecturer in Social and Cultural History at the University of Portsmouth. He has published widely popular culture and the city during nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was born in Coventry and researched social history at post graduate level at Warwick and De Montfort Universities. Since joining the University of Portsmouth in 1994 he has lived in Southsea.