Reissued to celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens's birth, The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens (formerly The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens) draws together an unparalleled diversity of information on one of Britain's greatest writers: covering his life, his works, his reputation, and his cultural context. Featuring more than 500 A-Z articles, it throws new and often unexpected light on the most familiar of Dickens's works, and explores the experiences, events, and literature on which he drew. There is also a chronology of Dickens' life, a list of characters in his works, a list of entries by theme, a family tree, three maps, an invaluable bibliography, and a general index. Compiled by a distinguished editorial team, and written in a lucid, easy style that would have pleased him, The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens offers a more authoritative and accessible range of information than any other reference work on Dickens. Aspects covered include: The private man and the public figure - his family, friends, colleagues, and convictions The age in which he lived and worked - the people, events, and institutions that informed his writing The places that were significant to him - his homes, his London, and the countries he visited The ideas and social theories of the time - the attitudes he satirized and the ideologies he advocated The works on which his reputation rests - their history, structure, inspiration, and significance