Fictional Apprenticeship

Abstract

Dickens began writing fiction in the 1830s, a period which, to some degree, witnessed the closing stages of the Romantic movement in English literature and simultaneously the beginnings of the Victorian age. There is, of course, no really clear-cut division, for, indeed, the Romantic approach remained deeply rooted in the work of many writers for a number of decades to come, running parallel, if one will, with the newly awakened desire for a more rational basis of life, for more down-to-earth attitudes in which the accent would be on continuous evolution and the superiority of man and his achievements in the more material sense. The continual forays into the country away from the dirt, crowds and crime of urban life, to be found so frequently in the novels of the early Victorians — and Dickens’ first five novels, especially, provide examples in abundance — are a typical product of this tug-of-war between the two movements: Wordsworthian Nature was still written with a capital letter.