The Companion to 'Bleak House'

Susan Shatto

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032051062
• eBook ISBN: 9781000425000
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book, first published in 1988, is the most comprehensive annotation of Bleak House ever undertaken. It provides authoritative background information about the topical issues of the novel that interested Dickens as a social critic and activist. It also describes the novel's literary antecedents and identifies the sources of its hundreds of literary and historical allusions. The annotation is based on a wide range of nineteenth-century sources – from newspapers, periodicals and parliamentary papers to travel guides and cookery books – and gives the modern reader unprecedented access to both Bleak House – Dickens's tract for the times – and the period when it was written.

Index

• Abercrombie, Dr John, Inquines Concerning the Intellectual Powers 221
• Aberdeen, fourth Earl of see Hamilton-Gordon, George, fourth Earl of Aberdeen
• academies: dancing 131
• accidents: firework factories 3, 196;
  • gasworks 3, 193, 196
• Accountant-General 94
• acrobatics 176
• Acts of Parliament. See under title of Act
• Addison, Joseph 129;
  • The Spacious Firmament on High’ 199, 200;
  • Spectator 67, 122
• Adelphi Theatre 96
• Administrative Reform Association 34
• advertising phraseology: ‘desirable property’ 142;
  • Something to his advantage’ 175
• advocates see barristers
• Aesop’s Fables 76, 129, 234
• Africa 154, 277;
  • expeditions to 152;
  • fever 55, 129;
  • and missionaries and philanthropists 54-5;
  • Niger expedition 2, 55, 129, 231;
  • ‘Noble Savage’ 208;
  • slavery 54, 131, 152;
  • tribes 115
• Agar Town 91
• Ajax 150
• Albaro 30, 151
• alcoholic drinks see drinks;
  • drunkenness Aldgate 130
• Alexander the Gre...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• General Preface by the Editors
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations for Dickens’s Works and Related Material
• Bibliographical Symbols and Abbreviations
• Introduction
• A Note on the Text
• How to Use the Notes
• The Notes
• Appendix: Alternative Titles
• Select Bibliography
• A Note on the Index
• Index