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Dickens, theater, and the making of a Victorian reading public. (Charles Dickens)

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From: Studies in the Novel
Date: 19970622
Author:Vlock, Deborah M.

The novels of Charles Dickens should be read as theatrical texts. There is evidence that Victorian readers saw Dickens' works as performed voices, including his borrowing many of the characters from the stage. Reading the texts aloud helps these books find a new kind of life while allowing readers to actively participate in the creative process. Theater actually and metaphorically influenced Victorian fiction.

Nineteenth-century English fiction has undergone a certain transformation at the hands of twentieth-century critics who have read Victorian novels in discrete critical editions ...

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