Content I. Introduction: Charles Dickens was a great comic artist and a great entertainer. Chapter I

Conclusion III
Ladies and gentlemen,--It is one of my rules in life not to believe a man who may happen to tell me that he feels no interest in children. I hold myself bound to this principle by all kind consideration, because I know, as we all must, that any heart which could really toughen its affections and sympathies against those dear little people must be wanting in so many humanising experiences of innocence and tenderness, as to be quite an unsafe monstrosity among men. Therefore I set the assertion down, whenever I happen to meet with it--which is sometimes, though not often--as an idle word, originating possibly in the genteel languor of the hour, and meaning about as much as that knowing social lassitude, which has used up the cardinal virtues and quite found out things in general, usually does mean. I suppose it may be taken for granted that we, who come together in the name of children and for the sake of children, acknowledge that we have an interest in them; indeed, I have observed since I sit down here that we are quite in a childlike state altogether, representing an infant institution, and not even yet a grown-up company. Nevertheless, it is likely that even we are not without our experience now and then of spoilt children. I do not mean of our own spoilt children, because nobody's own children ever were spoilt, but I mean the disagreeable children of our particular friends. We know by experience what it is to have them down after dinner, and, across the rich perspective of a miscellaneous dessert to see, as in a black dose darkly, the family doctor looming in the distance. We know, I have no doubt we all know, what it is to assist at those little maternal anecdotes and table entertainments illustrated with imitations and descriptive dialogue which might not be inaptly called, after the manner of my friend Mr. Albert Smith, the toilsome ascent of Miss Mary and the eruption (cutaneous) of Master Alexander²⁵.

References IV

1. 
   Abrams, Lynn. “Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain”. BBC - History. 20 September http://www.bbc.co.uk/history
   
2. 
   Allingham, Philip, V. “Wilkie Collins and ‘The Woman Question’ ”. The Victorian Web. 25 November 2004. 10 July 2008. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/collins/3.html.
   
3. 
   Altick, Richard, D. Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for the Modern Reader of Victorian Literature. London: Norton and Company, 1974.
   
4. 
   Anderson, Amanda. Tainted Souls and Painted Faces: The Rhetoric of Fallenness in Victorian Culture. New York: Cornell University Press, 1993.
   
5. 
   Ashton, Thomas, S. The Industrial Revolution (1760 - 1830). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.
   
6. 
   Atkins, Stuart. “A Possible Dickens influence in Zola”. Modern Language Quarterly, Vol. 8:3. (1947):302-308.
   
7. 
   Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. England: Tark Classic Fiction, 2008.. Sense and Sensibility. London: Penguin Classics, 2003.
   
8. 
   Ayres, Brenda. Dissenting Women in Dickens’ Novels: The Subversion of Domestic Ideology. West Port: Greenwood Press, 1998.
   
9. 
   Barrickman, Richard, Susan Macdonald and Myra Stark. Corrupt Relations: Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Collins and the Victorian Sexual System. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.
   
10. 
    Beddoe, D. Discovering Women’s History: A Practical Guide to Researching the Lives of Women since 1800. London: Longman, 1998.
    
11. 
    Benson, John. The Working Class in Britain, 1850 - 1939. London: I.B. Tauris, 2003.
    
12. 
    Blackshadow, Vincent. “A Marxist Critical Reading of Great Expectations”. The Brown Nois. 10 April 2006. 20 October 2007.
    

1^ Allingham, Philip, V. “Wilkie Collins and ‘The Woman Question’ ”. The Victorian Web. 25 November 2004. 10 July 2008. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/collins/3.html

2^ Abrams, Lynn. “Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain”. BBC - History. 20 September http://www.bbc.co.uk/history

3^ Anderson, Amanda. Tainted Souls and Painted Faces: The Rhetoric of Fallenness in Victorian Culture. New York: Cornell University Press, 1993.

4^ Altick, Richard, D. Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for the Modern Reader of Victorian Literature. London: Norton and Company, 1974.

5^ - Cody, David. "Charles Dickens." Victorian Web, 2002, https://victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/dickensbio.html

6^ Ashton, Thomas, S. The Industrial Revolution (1760 - 1830). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.

7^ - Merriman, C. D. "Charles Dickens - Biography and Works." The Literature Network, 2021, https://www.online-literature.com/dickens/.
Online-Literature (http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/)
Charles Dickens - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss.
Charles Dickens. Biography of Charles Dickens and a searchable collection of works.

8^ Atkins, Stuart. “A Possible Dickens influence in Zola”. Modern Language Quarterly, Vol. 8:3. (1947):302-308.

9^ - Pykett, Lyn. The "Improper" Feminine: The Women's Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing. Routledge, 2018.

10^ - Brown, John Russell. "Charles Dickens." The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, 1907–21.

11^ Barrickman, Richard, Susan Macdonald and Myra Stark. Corrupt Relations: Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Collins and the Victorian Sexual System. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

12^ - Brown, John Russell. "Charles Dickens." The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, 1907–21.

13^ - Roberts, Adam. "The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834." History Review, vol. 41, no. 1, 2001, pp. 98-103.

14^ Beddoe, D. Discovering Women’s History: A Practical Guide to Researching the Lives of Women since 1800. London: Longman, 1998.

15^ - Royal Commission on the Poor Laws Report. "Report from His Majesty's Commissioners for Inquiring into the Administration and Practical Operation of the Poor Laws." London, 1834.

16^ - Rose, Michael E. "The English Poor Law of 1834 and the European Revolutions of 1848." The American Historical Review, vol. 72, no. 2, 1967, pp. 603-632.

17^ - "1834 Poor Law." The National Archives, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1834-poor-law/.

18^ - Nardinelli, Clark. "Child Labor and the Factory Acts." Journal of Economic History, vol. 37, no. 4, 1977, pp. 739-755.

19^ - Fielding, K. J., and G. Smith. "Dickens and the Disciplines." Dickens Studies Annual, vol. 44, 2013, pp. 403-419.

20^ - Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. Penguin Books, 2003.

21^ The National Archives. "1834 Poor Law." www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1834-poor-law/.

22^ The National Archives. "1834 Poor Law." www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1834-poor-law/.

23^ Ayres, Brenda. Dissenting Women in Dickens’ Novels: The Subversion of Domestic Ideology. West Port: Greenwood Press, 1998.

24^ Nardinelli, Clark. "Child Labor and the Factory Acts." Journal of Economic History, vol. 37, no. 4, 1977, pp. 739-755.

25^ "The Board of Health." The National Archives, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-board-of-health/.