Dickens and Other Essays

Since the 1930’s critics and scholars began to take increasingly a new interest in Dickens both as a man and a writer. Facets of his personality, hitherto unknown, were discovered and they shed new light on his writings. Dickens began to be regarded not merely as a humorous writer but a serious artist, deeply preoccupied with the essential issues of life. In course of time, Dickens attracted so much interest from critics and scholars that innumerable number of books, essays and biographies were turned out every year. Soon people began to speak of the Dickens boom or Dickens industry. Of the ten essay, selected for this book from the writings of Professor Amanullah Ahmed, four are devoted to an evaluation of Dickens as a novelist. Professor Ahmed, who has an abiding interest in Dickens’s novels, attempts to present to the readers a balanced view of the author, paying attention to a variety of aspects of his works. In doing so, he depends more on Dickens’s texts than on any other currently popular and modish critical methods. The other essays illustrate Professor Ahmed’s choices and preferences. He is on the side of the Catholic and the humane and pleads for a tolerant view of life.