Charles Dickens: But for you, dear stranger (My Reading)

A personal approach to Dickens's art that pays attention to what magnetizes Federico or strikes her as newly relevant to our own world, and to her life, as she explores what Dickens' works are emotionally about. Dickens's first concern in all his fiction is with people's feelings and their imaginations.Everything else--the social criticism, the satire, the comedy--flows from that spring.How does a person begin to imagine, to enter vividly into the life he or she has been given, and into the lives of others?How does someone change, how do they love, give their trust, look forward to the future?These questions make their way into all of Dickens's novels, including the four discussed in this contribution to the My Reading series: Oliver Twist (1837-39), David Copperfield (1849-50), Little Dorrit (1855-57), and A Tale of Two Cities (1859).Consistent with the aims of the series, this book takes a personal approach to Dickens's art.Federico follows her own responses, paying attention to what