Becoming Dickens

by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

2013 · Harvard University Press

This provocative biography tells the story of how an ambitious young Londoner became England’s greatest novelist. Focused on the 1830s, it portrays a restless, uncertain Dickens who could not decide on a career path. Through twists and turns, the author traces a double transformation: in reinventing himself Dickens reinvented the form of the novel.

Motives in English Fiction

by Robert Naylor Whiteford

1918

"The material presents is not only a history of English fiction, but a view of its variations in atmosphere, motivation, dialogue, and characterization." -- Preface.