Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0860120147, Paperback)
"There is no better critic of Dickens living than Mr Chesterton" - T S Eliot. "[Chesterton is] perhaps Dickens' best critic" - Peter Ackroyd. "Readers seeking a short introduction to the Inimitable should try G K Chesterton's "Dickens"" - John Carey.Chesterton is so good on Dickens because his wit is as sharp as that of the Great Inimitable himself: "Dickens was most accurate when he was most fantastic...He exaggerated when he had found a truth to exaggerate...In one sense truth alone can be exaggerated; nothing else can stand the strain." No one excels him at catching and conveying the sense of wonder that is Dickens, and his contagious enthusiasm will be sure to send the reader to the books with more alertness and keener appreciation.
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:46:53 -0500)
He praises the broad comic novels of the early period which, to be personal, I find his Dickens' weakest. But he can be relied for some unexpected insights. Dickens the world-famous and wealthy middle-aged man stilll tended to see life through the eyes of the impoverished pre-adolescent who spent his lonely evenings wandering through the wondrous but frightful london streets.