Dickens's London often acts as a complex symbol, composed of numerous sub-symbols, such as crowd, river, railway networks and police systems. This book is particularly interested in how Dickens's treatment of the city allows him to re-examine traditional Christian discourses on the issues of revelation, renunciation and regeneration.

Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Reading Dickens's Novels After The Waste Land 'A revelation by which men are to guide themselves': Dickens and Christian Theology 'The debilitated old house in the city': London as Haunted House 'A great (and dirty) city': London's Dirt and the Terrors of Obscurity 'Angel and devil by turns': The Detective Figure in Bleak House 'A road of ashes': London's Railways and the Providential Timetable 'The secrets of the river': The Thames within London 'A dream of demon heads and savage eyes': The Metropolitan Crowd Conclusion: 'What is the city over the mountains?' Notes Bibliography Index

'Taking his cue from T. S. Eliot, Karl Smith explores the spiritual values of Dickens's symbolic city through the lens of The Waste Land. Combining alert attention to detail with wide range of reference, Dickens and the Unreal City offers judicious discussion of the complex relationship between the mundane and the transcendent in Dickens's world view.' - Paul Schlicke, University of Aberdeen, UK 'This is a judicious study which fully recognises that 'any position of overview from which Dickens's London can be seen in its totality is an artificial construct' ...Rather like the novelist's writing about the city perhaps, this study also serves to revivify a reading of the novels and is a further reminder of their layered richness and complexity and of a spiritual dimension which goes beyond simple ideas of human charity.' The Use of English