{"product_id":"charles-dickens-and-the-properties-ushashi-dasgupta-9780198859116","title":"Charles Dickens and the Properties of Fiction: The Lodger World","description":"When Dickens was nineteen years old, he wrote a poem for Maria Beadnell, the young woman he wished to marry. The poem imagined Maria as a welcoming landlady offering lodgings to let. Almost forty years later, Dickens died, leaving his final novel unfinished - in its last scene, another landlady, Mrs Tope, sets breakfast down for her enigmatic lodger. These kinds of characters are everywhere in Dickens's writing. \u003cem\u003eCharles Dickens and the Properties of Fiction: The Lodger World\u003c\/em\u003e explores the significance of tenancy in Charles Dickens's fiction. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn nineteenth century Britain the vast majority of people rented, rather than owned, their homes. Instead of keeping to themselves, they shared space - renting, lodging, taking lodgers in, or simply living side-by-side in a crowded modern city. Charles Dickens explored both the chaos and the unexpected harmony to be found in rented spaces, the extreme loneliness and sociability, the interactions between cohabitants, the complex gender dynamics at play, and the relationship between space and money. \u003cem\u003eCharles Dickens and the Properties of Fiction \u003c\/em\u003edemonstrates that a cosy, secluded home life was beyond the reach of most Victorian Londoners and that Dickens's conception of domesticity was more nuanced. Tenancy maintained an enduring hold upon his imagination, offering him a set of models to think about authorship and giving him new stories to tell. He celebrated the fact that unassuming houses and rooms brim with narrative potential: comedies, romances, and detective plots take place behind their doors. \u003cem\u003eCharles Dickens and the Properties of Fiction: The Lodger World\u003c\/em\u003e wedges these doors open.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ushashi Dasgupta\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0198859112\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780198859116\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/20\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 324\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2021","brand":"Ushashi Dasgupta","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44450240790783,"sku":"9780198859116","price":99.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_d8223b6e-baa9-4364-b912-977550b03f25.jpg?v=1698503636","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/charles-dickens-and-the-properties-ushashi-dasgupta-9780198859116","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}