Charles Dickens. Modernism, Modernity

First and foremost, Paroissien reflects on the role Dickens assigned to memory in historical writing, and then detects instances of "Dickens's satirical lash" (2: 110) against the Monarchy, the Established Church and the peerage disseminated in his Child's History of England, to the point that the writer seems to give voice to a covertly republican sentiment. According to Baumgarten these individuals identify two different aspects of Jewish culture and heritage, since Fagin embodies the poor Ashkenazi newcomer who is socially degraded, and Riah the wealthy and well-educated merchant of Sephardic heritage. [...]the "Author's preface" (which originally appeared in the last installment of novels) may be seen as another paratextual ending and, as such, indicative of the "many threads that make up the richly woven fabric of a Dickens narrative" (2: 250). [...]although some contributions do not live up to critical expectations (in a few cases good ideas are too briskly presented in pieces rather than fully completed) and a handful of essays veer off topic, the quality of the collection is excellent and offers a wide range of analytical perspectives on Dickens by some of the most representative scholars in the field.