The Empire Strikes Back: Dickens on the Rioting Colonists

Abstract

Commends Moore for her thorough research in ferreting out Dickens’ writings on issues of empire, most notably in the periodicals he edited. Calls quite accurate and insightful her portrait of Dickens’ balancing his tendencies to side with the poor and oppressed with his generally conservative attitudes toward the means by which redress might be possible. Objects to Moore’s occasional use of contemporary theory that seems patronizing toward the Victorians.