Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
The Violent Effigy : A Study of Dickens' Imagination, Paperback / softback Book

The Violent Effigy : A Study of Dickens' Imagination Paperback / softback

Paperback / softback

Out of stock

Description

An exploration of the strange poetry of Dickens's imagination by leading academic and critic John Carey. Setting aside the usual interpretations of Dickens's work, A Violent Effigy delves into the wonderful, terrible fantasy world it inhabited.

It shows Dickens torn between the appeal of violence and a fanatical orderliness: he was attracted by characters who commit murder or burst into flame or want to eat one another, but also required people soaped and regimented.

The children he created were either the pious gnomes beloved of Victorian readers or callous, sharp-nosed children who pick out adults by the odd personal atmospheres they carry around.

Among his females are mythic women whose insidious miniature weapons - needles, scissors - threaten the dominant male.

He created a shadow-land between life and death, peopled by effigies, walking coffins, waxworks, stuffed creatures and disturbingly animated corpses.

John Carey skilfully shows how Dickens demolished Victorian shams, while keeping at bay the terrors of his fantasy.

He celebrates, above all, Dickens' peculiar genius for renewing the world by the curious lights he saw in it.

Information

Other Formats

£14.00

Out of stock
Add to Basket
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information