I am reading Victorian literature, especially the works of Charles Dickens, with due attention to their historical and social background, so as to elucidate fully their attractiveness and significance. Dickens’s career langes over a variety of activities as author, journalist, stage manager, actor, and social worker; and synthesizing his literary achievement and his other activities together, I am eager to portray the life-size picture of Dickens and his station in the history of English literature.

The Reader’s Encyclopedia of Charles Dickens (838 pages, with 165 illustrations)

It took me nearly 5 years, starting in 2002, to finish editing The Reader’s Encyclopedia of Charles Dickens (838 pages, with 165 illustrations), which I hope will present to the reader an all-inclusive image of Dickens in his multifarious activities, as author, journalist, public reader, actor-manager, and philanthropist. Dickens, as one of the two national bards in England, stands far above other writers in his personal appeal and his literary achievements. Now when the editing work is over, I am looking at him anew with awe and respect, comparing his inimitable achievements to a magnificent view of the Alps in all their grandeurs, with mountain peaks, lakes and plateaus. I hope that from “the table of contents” given below you will be able to get an impression of what it covers.