Social Dreaming: Dickens and the Fairy Tale

by Ostry,Elaine

• ISBN13: 9780415940184
• ISBN10: 0415940184
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-04
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Dickens was known for his incredible imagination and fiery social protest. InSocial Dreaming, Elaine Ostry examines how these two qualities are linked through Dickens's use of the fairy tale, a genre that infuses his work. To many Victorians, the fairy tale was not childish: it promoted the imagination and fancy in a materialistic, utilitarian world. It was a way of criticizing society so that everyone could understand. Like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, Dickens used the fairy tale to promote his ideology. In this first book length study of Dickens's use of the fairy tale as a social tool, Elaine Ostry applies exciting new criticism by Jack Zipes and Maria Tatar, among others, that examines the fairy tale in a socio-historical light to Dickens's major works but also his periodicals-the most popular middle-class publications in Victorian times.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
List of Abbreviations	xvii
Nurse's Stories: Fairy Tales as Cultural Voices	1	(28)
Frauds on the Fairies: Defending Fancy	29	(30)
Monsters and Fairies, Homes and Wildernesses	59	(20)
Dickens's Christmas ``Fairy Tales of Home''	79	(26)
The Fairy Tale in Dickens's Periodicals	105	(26)
Appendix A Survey of Criticism on Dickens and the Fairy Tale	131	(6)
Appendix B Perrault's Morals to ``Cinderella''	137	(2)
Notes	139	(16)
Works Consulted	155	(38)
Index	193