PHASES OF DICKENS.
Phases of Dickens. By J. Coming Walters. (Chapman and Hall. 5s. net.)—This volume is published in anticipation of the Dickens Centenary (1912). As the work of a very diligent student of Dickens it is welcome, though we find ourselves not infre- quently in disagreement with its conclusions. We have, for instance, a classification of the stories. "I place the novels," writes Mr. Walters, "in the following order as they appeal to my taste." If this is an order of merit, as the words would seem to imply, we are simply amazed. There are six classes, and Pickwick is in the fifth, "the best book of a rambling type." Then why should Martin Chusxlewit be in Class 1 and Nicholas Nickleby in Class 6 ? The other occupants of Class 1 are Bleak House and David Copperfield. The latter may pass : it has qualities which are not so well represented elsewhere, but Bleak House will be a surprise to most people. For our own part we should be inclined to place the books in an order which would not differ very much from the order of publication, Sketches by Boa being put aside. The Tale of Two Cities might be well placed by itself, for it differs in kind from all the others. Little Dorrit marked, we think, the beginning of a decline. With this the faults of mannerism and wearisome repetition of little characteristic traits in the dramatis personae continued to increase. It will be well not to go beyond these literary criticisms ; to discuss the Dickens literature in its social aspect would take us too far.
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