Dickens's working notes for Dombey and son
Subtitle: facsimiles and transcriptions of the original manuscript with commentary on Dickens's working methods
By: by Tony Laing
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Published: 2017
Place of publication: Cambridge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 214
ISBN-13: 9781783742240
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation
Description: "This critical edition of the working notes for Dombey and Son (1848) is ideal for readers who wish to know more about Charles Dickens's craft and creativity. Drawing on the author's manuscript in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London--and containing hyperlinked facsimiles--Dickens's Working Notes for Dombey and Son offers a new digital transcription with a fresh commentary by Tony Laing. Unique and innovative, this is the only edition to make Dickens's working methods visible. A special feature of our html edition is the high quality of images, which enable the reader to zoom in and out of the manuscript with ease and view small sections of the facsimile or transcription with a single touch. John Mullan has called Dombey and Son Dickens's 'first great novel.' Set amid the coming of the railways, it tells the story of a powerful man--typical of the commercial and banking magnates of the period--and the effect he has on his family and those around him. Laing presents the worksheets and other materials (transcribed for the first time) that together grew into the novel. Reading the book alongside this edition of the notes enlarges the understanding of Dickens's art among teachers, students, researchers and Dickens enthusiasts. As cultural tastes shift from print to digital, Dickens's Working Notes helps preserve Dickens's work for the future. The magnifying and linking functions of the edition mean that the notes are more easily and usefully--not to mention accessibly--exhibited here than elsewhere. Laing gives present-day readers the chance not only to recapture the effect of serial publication but also to gain greater insight into the making of a work which, by general agreement and Dickens's own admission, has a special place in his development as a novelist."--Publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliography (pages 195-196) and endnotes (pages 197-214).
Table of contents: title: Introduction to the working notes. Dickens's "green cover" novels ; History of the working notes ; Materials of the working notes; title: Transcribing the worksheets. Basic issues ; Special issues ; Comparison with other transcriptions; title: Procedures in the worksheets. Formatting the worksheet ; Entries on the left-hand half ; Entries on the right-hand half ; Entries in the double number; title: Introduction to the worksheets. Introduction to the facsimiles ; Numbering the entries in the transcriptions ; Deletion in transcription ; Dickens's order of work as shown in the commentaries ; Abbreviations and other conventions in the commentaries; title: The worksheets. Worksheet for No.1 ; (verso) Worksheet for No.1 (recto) ; Worksheet for No.2 ; Worksheet for No.3 ; Worksheet for No.4 ; Worksheet for No.5 ; Worksheet for No.6 ; Worksheet for No.7 ; Worksheet for No.8 ; Worksheet for No.9 ; Worksheet for No.10 ; Worksheet for No.11 ; Worksheet for No.12 ; Worksheet for No.13 ; Worksheet for No.14 ; Worksheet for No.15 ; Worksheet for No.16 ; Worksheet for No.17 ; Worksheet for No.18 ; Worksheet for Nos.19 & 20; title: Overview. Preliminary entries and the number of chapters ; Chapter titles: When and where they are entered and revised ; Memory, speech-making and planning ; Chapter descriptions as plans ; Chapter descriptions as summaries ; Development of number and chapter planning in each quarter; title: Afterword; title: Appendices. A. Chapter number, title and length by part issue and date ; B. Chapter title history with purpose and features of chapter description ; C. Transcription of the List of Chapter Headings ; D. Revisions to chapter titles in manuscript, worksheet and List ; E. False starts in the manuscript at chapter openings ; F. Use of blue inks in worksheet, manuscript, List and proofs.