The World of Charles Dickens

I have this book, bought used. The sentence construction and choice of words seems a bit "British" to me, which is not a criticism, merely an observation. It is written well and offers psychological insight into Dickens' works. Whether the insights are accurate or not, I am not qualified to say. There are a large number of illustrations in this over-sized soft-cover book of nearly 300 pages. Most of them are black-and-white line drawings with some color plates. There is, I believe, only one photograph. Worst point: this book does not really set out to describe the London of Dickens' day. I wanted to read a straight history of the city, and England as well, as it was in those days, with some explanation as to how those conditions may have affected Dickens' works. This book doesn't offer this. This is really a psychological biography of Dickens and tries to explain how his life experiences influenced his writing. The resulting feeling is rather cramped and claustrophobic. Also, by concentrating so much on the inside of Dickens' head, we are necessarily dealing with more speculation than hard fact. This is uncomfortable for me. However, it is what it is and must be judged according to the author's goals. My rating of four stars is reasonable for, although it disappointed me in the type of treatment used, it executes that treatment well. I deducted one star because I think even a psychological treatment requires some general historical background, largely lacking here; also, I think there should have been SOME photographs as the modern reader expects such things out of a book which deals partly with late-19th century history. If you are new to Dickens studies, you certainly will learn something from this book. However, I would follow it up with a "straight" biography that deals more with fact and less with speculation. There is an index of about three pages in length.