The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 15: Chesterton on Dickens; Victorian Age in Literature

Introduction by Alzina Stone Dale

It is not widely known that the author of the Father Brown detective stories, Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man was also an accomplished man of letters and a literary critic of the first order. This volume brings back into print GKC's masterful Critical Study of Charles Dickens, his Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens which is made up of the individual introductions he wrote for Dickens' complete works, and The Victorian Age in Literature. Among three additional, smaller pieces will be found Chesterton's article in The Encyclopaedia Brittanica on Charles Dickens, and a speech Chesterton gave at a Dickens Commemoration Dinner entitled "The Immortal Memory of Charles Dickens".

It is not widely known that the author of the Father Brown detective stories, Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man was also an accomplished man of letters and a literary critic of the first order. This volume brings back into print GKC's masterful Critical Study of Charles Dickens, his Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens which is made up of the individual introductions he wrote for Dickens' complete works, and The Victorian Age in Literature. Among three additional, smaller pieces will be found Chesterton's article in The Encyclopaedia Brittanica on Charles Dickens, and a speech Chesterton gave at a Dickens Commemoration Dinner entitled "The Immortal Memory of Charles Dickens".

The reader of this volume will not only learn much more about Charles Dickens and other Victorian writers, but also about the fascinating mental universe in which Dickens wrote his literary masterpieces. And, finally, as always with G.K. Chesterton, one will learn to see with fresh eyes that magical universe we all inhabit but which both Dickens and Chesterton have helped us to see in all its variety and splendor.

The reader of this volume will not only learn much more about Charles Dickens and other Victorian writers, but also about the fascinating mental universe in which Dickens wrote his literary masterpieces. And, finally, as always with G.K. Chesterton, one will learn to see with fresh eyes that magical universe we all inhabit but which both Dickens and Chesterton have helped us to see in all its variety and splendor.