Dickens

12 Jul, 2001 820 English and Old English literatures

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the achievements of the 19th century literary giant, Charles Dickens. George Bernard Shaw said of Little Dorrit that it was “more seditious than Das Kapital”. We can all think of classic Dickens; the gin palaces, grimy narrow lanes, shoe shine boys sitting in the gutters and the terrible city smog. Silas Wake with his peg leg, young Oliver asking for more. But were these figures fictional agents for the radical change that Bernard Shaw suggests? Or was Dickens a great caricaturist but really a conservative at heart? What kind of person was the man Charles Dickens? And what is his political and literary legacy to our age? With Rosemary Ashton is Professor of English at University College London; Michael Slater is Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London and editor of The Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens’ Journalism; John Bowen, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Keele.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

  • Rosemary Ashton 10 episodes
    Professor of English at University College London
  • Michael Slater No other episodes
    Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London and editor of The Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens' Journalism
  • John Bowen 6 episodes
    Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Keele

Related episodes

Programme ID: p00547hx

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547hx

Auto-category: 823.8 (English fiction–19th century)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello George Bernard Shaw said of Little Dorrit that it was quote more seditious than Das Kapital unquote.