The Dickens Society

Dickens and Animals

“The Objectionable Dog”: Dog and Master as Metaphor in Little Dorrit

This post has been contributed by Clara Defilippis. Read her first post for the Dickens Society blog, ‘Gift-Giving in the Proper Dickens Spirit’, here. You can also read Molly Katz and Erin Horáková’s post about dogs in David Copperfield here. A flurry of short encounters...

Using the Whole Animal: Domestic Economy in The Charles Dickens Cookbook

This post has been contributed by Christian Dickinson.   In 1980, Brenda Marshall brought out The Charles Dickens Cookbook, a text which features a brilliantly eclectic mix of dishes and recipes from the mid-Victorian Era, based on the writings of the Inimitable himself. In the...

“Take Care of Him. He Bites”: Dogs in David Copperfield

This post has been contributed by Molly Katz and Erin Horáková. David Copperfield’s idyllic childhood is marked by the absence of dogs. He is brought into the world by Dr. Chillip, “the meekest of his sex, the mildest of little men…he hadn’t a word to...

Dickens and Dog-Drama: the Walworth Dog meets the Uncommercial Traveller

This post has been contributed by Dr Ann Featherstone (University of Manchester). Dickens is well-known for his love of theatre, whether it was Christmas treats at Drury Lane or a bloody melodrama at the Victoria Theatre in the New Cut. But in the guise of...

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Dickens and the Underdog

This post has been contributed by Catherine Burgass, a Lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow at Staffordshire University with a specialism in local literary studies. She also teaches at Keele University Continuing Education. The use of animal metaphors for mechanical or human subjects is a common...
The Dickens Society

The purpose of the Dickens Society is to conduct, further, and support research, publication, instruction, and general interest in the life, times, and literature of Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870).