“England in the Age of Dickens 1812-1870” by Jeremy Black

Historian Jeremy Black, professor of history at the University of Exeter in the U.K., has published more than 100 books, many of them about 18^th century American, British, and European history. He’s also a lecturer and has written numerous articles for a wide array of publications (I became aware of his work through his articles for The Critic Magazine).  

He’s turned his attention to the 19^th century, and specifically to Charles Dickens. In his England in the Age of Dickens 1812-1870, published in 2021, he begins by asking a question. We think of Dickens as synonymous with the Victorian Age, but should we? Chronologically, roughly only half of his lifetime was lived while Victoria ruled, and she reigned for another 30 years after the author’s death. 

 

But he doesn’t stop there; Black goes on to discuss a broader question, that of Dickens and his work being synonymous with the England of the 19^th century. And he points out that a considerable number of Dickens’ novels are set in the years before Victoria became queen. And yet, such is the influence of books like David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and more that we almost automatically associated Dickens with all of 19^th century England and the entire reign of Victoria.

 

Jeremy Black

Black applies a considerable amount of his historical understanding to assess Dickens and England. The book is indirectly divided into three parts. First, he begins where you must to learn and understand the author – the metropolis of London. He considers the condition of the people. Railroads and technology, crime (a lot of Dickens’ work is about crime), the press. Government, reform movements for change, and culture. 

 

Second, Black than provides concise summaries of each of the decades of Dickens’ life, from the 1810s to the 1860s. The third part is a discussion of Dickens and the world – Dickens’s America and Britain and its place in the world. He uses passages and quotations from Dickens and his works throughout the book, answering his own questions and demonstrating why Dickens is the author, more than any other, who epitomizes England and the Victorian period. 

 

England in the Age of Dickens is an entertaining and informative book. Black writes in a style that is somewhere between popular and academic, meaning it’s thoughtful and reasoned and free of jargon. Hi audience is people like me – people who love Dickens’ stories and want a better understanding of his era.