Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture

Series Editor: Julian Wolfreys

Drawing on provocative research, volumes in the series provide timely revisions of the nineteenth-century's literature and culture.

Dickens's London

Perception, Subjectivity and Phenomenal Urban Multiplicity

Julian Wolfreys

This phenomenological exploration of the streets of Dickens's London opens up new perspectives on the city and the writer

Taking Benjamin's Arcades Project as an inspiration, Dickens's London opens a dialogue between phenomenology, philosophy and the Dickensian representation of the city in all its forms. Wolfreys suggests that in their representations of London Dickens's novels and journalism can be seen as forerunners of urban and material phenomenology. While also addressing those aspects of the urban that are developed from Dickens's interpretations of other literary forms, styles and genres, Dickens's London presents in twenty-six episodes a radical reorientation to London in the nineteenth century, the development of Dickens as a writer, and the ways in which readers today receive and perceive both.

Illustrated with 19 black and white maps and illustrations.

Julian Wolfeys is author and editor of more than 40 books on nineteenth- and twentieth-century English literature and literary theory. He is Professor of English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, where he is also Director of the Centre for Studies in Literature. His most recent publication is a novel, Silent Music, published by Triarchy Press. He is working at present on a second collection of poetry focused on the themes of memory, place, and loss.