Items related to The Companion to "Hard Times": No. 6 (Dickens...
This companion is an invaluable aid to modern readers in understanding Dickens's book, as it examines both specific details and the broader context of the story. To discover the meaning of a difficult detail or idea, the reader needs only find the appropriate chapter in ^IThe Companion^R, look for the italicized phrase that identifies the relevant paragraph, and then read the discussion of the word or passage in question, which will be marked in bold. The book is the result of extensive original research and will appeal to both scholars, secondary school students and amateur Dickens enthusiasts. From details about food, costume, and transport to the political and social concerns of the day, ^IThe Companion^R will open up Dickens's world in an accessible, fascinating way.
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Review:
"Margaret Simpson's admirably thorough Companion can stand as a valuable supplement to paperback and scholarly editions, not least because a reader can keep it open next to the novel itself. Not even the longest on-page footnote could comfortably provide as much background on nineteenth-century labour relations as Simpson's annotations, some of which are almost essays in themselves. Even more useful are the links made between the serialized sections of the novel and contemporary articles on similar topics in Household Words. But the incidental delights are also worthy of notice - this book is comprehensive without being coercive; it should prompt gratitude - and not just from research students engaged in one-upmanship."--Times Literary Supplement
About the Author:
"Margaret Simpson's admirably thorough Companion can stand as a valuable supplement to paperback and scholarly editions, not least because a reader can keep it open next to the novel itself. Not even the longest on-page footnote could comfortably provide as much background on nineteenth-century labour relations as Simpson's annotations, some of which are almost essays in themselves. Even more useful are the links made between the serialized sections of the novel and contemporary articles on similar topics in Household Words. But the incidental delights are also worthy of notice - this book is comprehensive without being coercive; it should prompt gratitude - and not just from research students engaged in one-upmanship."--Times Literary Supplement
"Hard Times [...] has never been explained so clearly, justified so fully, and on the basis of oriignal research expalined so well as in the account given by this present, ever helpful, alert and attentive companion. It is encyclopaedic; not everything in it is vital to every reading; but it is difficult to envisage a reading that would not gain from much that it tells us."--K.J. Fielding, Dickens Quarterly
"This is a book in its own right, a fragmentary social and cultural history oriented around a single fictional text. It makes for fascinating reading, maybe even for those who have little or no knowledge of the novel itself."--Dickensian
"As I've indicated, everything necessary for the student of Hard Times is here in abundance: explanations of allusions, details of relevant political, social and cultural issues, and bibliographical material. All readers of Dickens's comparatively short but taut, intense novel will find this Companion an indispensable fund of information."--Donald Hawes, Analytical & Enumerative Bibliography
"The Dickens Companions are clearly indispensible to the scholar."--Modern Language Review
MARGARET SIMPSON is an independent scholar./e She completed her thesis at Queen's University, Belfast.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherEdinburgh University Press
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0748606599
- ISBN 13 9780748606597
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages256
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