Dickens's Clowns : Charles Dickens, Joseph Grimaldi and the Pantomime of Life

Edinburgh University Press

Dickens's ClownsCharles Dickens, Joseph Grimaldi and the Pantomime of Life\nAuthor(s): Jonathan Buckmaster\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Edinburgh University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Edinburgh University Press\nISBN-13: 9781474406956, 978-1474406956\nSynopsis\nEstablishes the importance of the popular radical figure of the pantomime clown in the work of Charles Dickens\nThis book reappraises Dickenss Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi and his imaginative engagement with its principal protagonist. Arguing that the Memoirs should be read as integral to Dickenss wider creative project on the theatricality of everyday existence, Jonathan Buckmaster analyses how Grimaldis clown stepped into many of Dickenss novels. \nDickenss Clowns presents new readings of Dickenss treatment of topics such as identity, the grotesque and violence within the context of the tropes of the Regency pantomime. This is the first study to identify the Dickensian clown as a unifying force for several Dickensian they