Includes bibliographical references (p. [175]-177) and index.

A career and its context -- Dickens discusses creativity -- The awareness of art in Sketches by Boz, Pickwick papers, Oliver Twist, Barnaby Rudge, The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas carol and The chimes -- The artist as narrator in Doctor Marigold, David Copperfield, Bleak House and Great expectations -- Talkative men and women in Pickwick papers, Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit and Little Dorrit -- Imaginative extremes, negations and norms -- Subversions and oppositions -- Crises of imagination in Oliver Twist, A Christmas carol, Domeby and son, Bleak house, Hard times and The lazy tour of two idle apprentices -- Forecast and fantasy in Little Dorrit -- Creative conversation in Hard times, Great expectations and Our mutual friend -- Assertions of style : rhythm and repetition in A tale of two cities and Our mutual friend -- Shakespeare in Dickens : David Copperfield and Great expectations -- Dickens in the twentieth century.

All age.