Here’s a challenge for you – which was written first, ‘Oliver Twist‘ or ‘Great Expectations’? And for a bonus point, how many years were there between these two great novels being published?

The answer is in the list below – Oliver Twist was published over 20 years before Great Expectations. Other than looking it up, I can’t think of another way of working that out. There’s little in the texts by way of a clue. This question was prompted by my reading of ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’, this year’s Dickens. I was not sure what period of Dickens’ life and work the novel came from. Its much criticised sentimentality might suggest the work of a younger writer not yet ready to confront the complexities of human character, but many other aspects of the novel suggest a more mature author, not afraid to kill off a central character, controlling a complex plot with considerable skill, and written in a style extraordinarily rich with characterisation and descriptions.

Normally it is not that difficult to work out from which period of an author’s life a text comes. ‘The Tempest’ is so obviously late Shakespeare, reflexive and mature; ;Titus Andronicus‘ is equally obviously an immature work, derivative and clumsy; ‘Hamlet; and ‘King Lear‘ come from that intense period of creativity around the turn of the century when his powers were at their most intense. Taking another example, ‘Northanger Abbey’ is quite obviously early Austen – lighter in tone, and the jokes are not that funny; ‘Pride and Prejudice‘ and ‘Emma‘ are Austen at her best; Persuasion is late Austen, again more reflexive and mature, where happy ever after isn’t the simple solution to everyone’s problems.

With Dickens I don’t think you can make such classifications. His most striking feature as a novelist is his consistency. There is obviously a distinctive Dickensian style, and the method of publication drove the novels’ length and structure. but that was established early on and didn’t seem to change over the years.  His themes ranged from the Gordon Riots of 1780 (Barnaby Rudge) to the French Revolution (A Tale of Two Cities) but always returning to the state of industrial/Victorian England and in particular a compassionate interest in the lives of the working classes.  Pick a Dickens novel at random, and try and tell from its themes, structure, style or composition when it dates from, in relation to the rest of his work. I don’t think you can – can you?

Dickens novels in chronological order

‘Pickwick Papers’ (full title ‘The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club’) – monthly serial, April 1836 to November 1837

‘Oliver Twist’ (full title ‘Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy’s Progress’) – monthly serial in Bentley’s Miscellany, February 1837 to April 1839

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – monthly serial, April 1838 to October 1839

The Old Curiosity Shop – weekly serial in Master Humphrey’s Clock, 25 April 1840 to 6 February 1841

‘Barnaby Rudge’ (full title ‘Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of ‘Eighty’ – weekly serial in ‘Master Humphrey’s Clock’, 13 February 1841, to 27 November 1841

‘The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit’ – monthly serial, December 1842 to July 1844

‘Dombey and Son’ (full title ‘Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation’) – monthly serial, October 1846 to April 1848

‘David Copperfield’ (full title ‘The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery’) monthly serial, May 1849 to November 1850

‘Bleak House’  – monthly serial, March 1852 to September 1853

‘Hard Times’ (full title Hard Times: For These Times) – weekly serial in ‘Household Words’, 1 April 1854, to 12 August 1854

‘Little Dorrit’ – monthly serial, December 1855 to June 1857

A Tale of Two Cities’ – weekly serial in ‘All the Year Round’, 30 April 1859, to 26 November 1859

‘Great Expectations’ – weekly serial in ‘All the Year Round’, 1 December 1860 to 3 August 1861

‘Our Mutual Friend’ – Monthly serial, May 1864 to November 1865

‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ – monthly serial, April 1870 to September 1870.  (unfinished)