In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • From the Editor
  • Dominic Rainsford

These days, the majority of readers of Dickens Quarterly probably access the journal electronically. But those who receive hard copies will already have noticed what for some may be a rather stunning transformation. This issue, March 2021, comes with a new cover: the first major change of this kind since the journal was founded in 1984, and indeed since the second issue of our previous incarnation, Dickens Studies Newsletter, in September 1970.

Part of the reason for the change is to acknowledge the gradually evolving nature of Dickens studies and the advent of new generations of Dickens scholars, with new approaches and perhaps a different sense of tradition and design from the norm of half a century ago. Nevertheless, the new look is not intended to be brashly of-the-moment. On the contrary, it celebrates what has always been at the center of Dickens studies: the texts themselves. The words now displayed on the cover, in Dickens's own hand, come from the working notes for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, now part of the Forster Bequest in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Dickens's handwriting on this page wonderfully expresses his energy (rather more so than many of his portraits), while the many alternative titles for the novel suggest his linguistic creativity, and the final line, "Dead? Or alive?" presents, as it were, the central crux of Dickens studies: is he "just" a pre-eminent 19th-century author or is he still very much with us? (Both, of course.)

I am very grateful to a number of friends and colleagues who participated in the decision and helped organise a speedy transition. Dickens Quarterly's production editor, Amanda Helm, came up with the design itself, in response to some quite vague ideas on my part. The other members of the editorial team, together with my predecessor, David Paroissien, gave generous support, as did President Sean Grass and other members of the Dickens Society executive. The Victoria & Albert Museum processed our request for the rights to the image very expeditiously, and Johns Hopkins University Press gave approval and moved ahead with the practicalities, all within a narrow time-frame. We hope that our readers will be happy with the results–once the initial shock has worn off. No disrespect whatsoever is intended to the gusto and brilliance of George Cruikshank, who has after all had a pretty good run. [End Page 5]

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Meanwhile, the Dickens Society has taken a far more significant step in issuing the "Anti-racism Statement" which we reproduce below– and which Dickens Quarterly fully supports. It is a happy coincidence that we are able to include Shannon Russell's article on Dickens and Frederick Douglass in the current issue, and we would like to welcome many further contributions to the understanding of race in Dickens studies. This is a matter of taking responsibility and doing justice, in the spirit of the Society's "Statement," but it is also a matter of opening up insufficiently explored areas in Dickens's life and art, of great intrinsic significance (and not always to Dickens's discredit). With this in mind, we look forward to hosting a special issue on "Dickens and Race": not because anything so momentous can or should be wrapped up in one number of the journal, but rather to add momentum to a process of expansive re-thinking that will surely play out for many years to come. As Amanda Gorman said, in her poem for the inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris: "… inherit. / … repair it."

Anti-racism Statement of the Charles Dickens Society

In light of the murder of George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis Police Department, the even more recent shooting of Jacob Blake, and the other unconscionable acts of violence inflicted lately and too routinely upon members of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities in the United States and around the world, the Dickens Society affirms that it stands in solidarity with BIPOC individuals and organizations. We stand with the courageous protestors demanding racial justice, and we repudiate the institutions and individuals who would deny them the justice to which they are entitled...

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