Kincaid argues that the funny Dickens and the "dark" Dickens are one, and that our response to his humour is no less important is Little Dorrit than in Pickwick.
Contents
The Pickwick papers: the vision from the wheelbarrow -- Oliver Twist: laughter and the rhetoric of attack -- The old curiosity shop: laughter and pathos -- Barnaby Rudge: laughter and structure -- Martin Chuzzlewit: the comedy of accommodation -- David Copperfield: laughter and point of view -- Little Dorrit: the attack on comedy -- Our mutual friend: Mr. Pickwick in Purgatory.