SOURCE: Allingham, Philip V. “Dickens's Aesthetic of the Short Story.” Dickensian 95, no. 448 (summer 1999): 144-53.

In the following essay, Allingham delineates the defining characteristics of Dickens's short fiction.

Like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens did not publish a thorough aesthetic or theory of the short story or novella, despite ample evidence that he has left of his mastery of these forms. However, throughout his essays, sketches, and novels Dickens addresses the necessity for fancy, and for fellow-feeling and an emotional and imaginative release in an increasingly Utilitarian age. His letters are a particularly useful resource in attempting to determine his attitudes towards short fiction. Certainly, he seems to have regarded short fiction as a testing ground for ideas and narrative strategies that he might later use in full-length novels, as well as an imaginative vacation from novel-writing. As Slater notes in his introduction to the two-volume Christmas Books, the shorter...