Dickens, Charles (John Huffam)
Dickens, Charles (John Huffam) (1812–70),novelist, the only English author whose prodigious gifts may justifiably be compared to Shakespeare's. Dickens's life and work are continuously informed by his familiarity with and admiration for all of Shakespeare's work, which undoubtedly had a transforming influence on Dickens's creative imagination. There are at least 1,000 textually supported references, echoes, and allusions in novels, essays, stories, letters, and speeches; matched only by those to the New Testament. His first speech refers to Shakespearian principles of composition and the earliest surviving fragment of manuscript is a burlesque O'Thello (1834); his last novel (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 1870) includes echoes, allusions, and quotations from Hamlet, Henry V, and Macbeth; his last published article is devoted to the actor Charles Fechter as Iago and Hamlet; his last written words are a...
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