Dickens and the Despised Mother

Shale Preston is an honorary research fellow in the Department of English at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She has published articles and book chapters on Dickens and has presented papers on his work at international conferences in Europe, the United States, Asia and Australia.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments deleteviPrefaceChapterThe Autobiographical FragmentChapterThe Etiology of DisgustChapter ThreeClara Copperfield, Betsey Trotwood and the Construction of the Feminine Sublime in David CopperfieldChapter FourMiss Barbary, Lady Dedlock and the Disfigurement of Esther Summerson in Bleak HouseChapter FiveGeorgiana Pirrip, Mrs. Joe and the Case for the Hero’s Disgust in Great ExpectationsChapterPostscriptChapter NotesBibliographyIndex

“In this enjoyable and cogently argued book, the reader is immersed in a series of well researched debates, while accompanied by a lively, engaged, personal voice, sorting and sifting a variety of points of view in pursuit of fresh textual readings.”—International Dickens Fellowship; “a groundbreaking study of Charles Dickens' autobiographical novels focusing on how he represents motherly figures with disgust”—Reference & Research Book News; “Preston’s Dickens and the Despised Mother yields persuasive new readings of Dickensian mothers that add significantly to important work by Carolyn Dever, Patricia Ingham, Natalie McKnight, and Michael Slater.”—Dickens Studies Annual.