The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist

"He is happy to be taken in by Dickens's sorcery ..."

"Although Mullan assumes a reader's familiarity with Dickens' many works, his ebullient analysis may well generate new fans."

"The book is divided into 13 essays which can be read separately, but whose impact is greater when taken together ..."

"Mullan, the Lord Northcliffe chair of modern English literature at University College London, is the best of professors ..."

"'Another kind of novelist might tell you Merdle's thoughts,' Mullan observes, 'or at least the symptoms of his anxieties.' Dickens, by contrast, insists on seeing him 'only from the outside', by means of fantastic analogy."

"This superlative, fresh collection will please stalwart fans and bring new readers to the Dickens canon."

"You must, and should, read Mullan's book."

"Some of these feel more random than others: it's hard to think of Dickens's obsession with death by drowning, for instance, as a sign of his artfulness, though Mullan has arresting things to say ..."