Breaking the rules

This book tries to do justice to Dickens's inventiveness, his ingenuity, his experimentalism — above all, to show the daring of his fiction.

John Mullan, The Artful Dickens

What was true of Pablo Picasso was also true of Charles Dickens. When you know what you're doing, breaking all the rules can actually work in your favor.

John Mullan makes this point in The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist (2020), a scholarly book that will appeal equally to anyone who values Dickens novels.

Writers aren't supposed to repeat the same words in the same paragraph. Dickens did this again and again and again. Writers should avoid cliches. Dickens used them like they were going out of style. Writers shouldn't switch tenses. Dickens does.

Mullen gives countless examples of the great British writer's passion for making lists. Because his novels have so many characters and because they were originally printed in monthly installments, Dickens used unique names and unusual speech patterns to help readers remember those characters.

Why do so many people drown or nearly drown in Dickens novels? Mullen explores this phenomenon. Why does he write so much about the sense of smell? Why are there so many ghosts? How does Dickens so often use the phrase "as if" to his advantage?

Unlikely coincidences are often a turnoff for serious readers, yet Dickens used then often, and his novels are still taught in college courses. Charles Dickens got away with a lot of supposedly unforgivable sins. Mullen gives us so many examples that his book sometimes becomes tedious — another unforgivable sin — yet in the end it helps those who appreciate Dickens to appreciate him all the more.