Dickens’ Achievement

Abstract

The idiolects of Charles Dickens are the highest and most extreme xtensions of his unique, highly-stylised theatrical storytelling manner, and the artistry revealed in their development and itilisation makes decisively clear the author’s gradual progress owards a bettering of his fictional art. A glance at the available iterature will indicate that the present investigation is the first attempt at a systematic study of Dickens’ chief idiolects on a comprehensive scale, one aiming to approach them both individually, the idiolect as a separate entity, and structurally, the extent to which this or that idiolect has, if at all, been integrated onto the work to which it belongs.