The Maturity of Dickens.

Through the title he has chosen, Monroe Engel intends not only to indicate in which novels his main interest lies, “but to insist that Dickens can and should be read with pleasure and no restriction of intelligence by post-Jamesian adults.”

Engel shows how Dickens’ novels constitute a lifework notable both for the continuity of its themes and preoccupations and for its astonishing range and development within that continuity.

Emphasis on Dickens’ later novels reveals the increasing place consciousness and control play in the author’s artistry. A particular purpose of Engel’s work is to show a unique kind of multiple construction that Dickens uses repeatedly—the immediate control of the intricate plots and of the great social themes and their symbols; and also the less overt control of the obsessional private themes, with their symbols. Engel relates the themes to each other, and he shows that the way in which they support each other and are connected reveals much of Dickens’ genius and power.