Dickens, “Dickensian,” and the Pseudo-Dickens Industry

This article situates Charles Dickens in the context of early imitations and plagiarisms based on his fiction, such as Oliver Twiss and Nickelas Nickelbery, and shows that they inform our understanding of the word “Dickensian” at the moment when it entered the English language. Further, these derivative works altered the direction of Dickens’s career and imprinted them selves in his fiction. By reading ephemeral texts of dubious ethi cal or legal stature, this article offers insight into the workings of nineteenth-century print culture and illuminates the process by which Dickens asserted his authorial voice amid an echo chamber of competing, imitative voices.