By the time Charles Reade had reached the age of forty, he had written only two of his fourteen novels, Peg Woffington (1853) and Christie Johnstone (1853); but he had already written at least fifteen...
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In the following excerpt, originally published in 1889 and reprinted in 1973, Wilde laments Reade's decision to abandon his sense of beauty in order to write realistic social-problem novels.
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In the following excerpt. Smith discusses Reade's general approach to writing novels about social issues and discusses specific aspects of It Is Never Too Late to Mend.
The last sentence of ...
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In the following excerpt, Barrett discusses the controversial premiere of Reade's play It is Never Too Late to Mend.
The première of It Is Never Too Late to Mend at the Princess...
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In the following excerpt. Hays discusses the way Reade 's play It is Never Too Late to Mend reflects the newly developing ideology of harmony between the social classes in England based on expl...
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In the following excerpt, Hornung surveys Reade's novels.
Charles Reade was the youngest son of a country gentleman, one of the Reades of Ipsden, in Oxfordshire, where he was born twelve mon...
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In the following excerpt, Sutcliffe discusses Reade's often negative portrayal of women and his depiction of women characters who disguise themselves as men or act in traditionally masculine wa...
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In the following excerpt, Sutcliffe discusses plot devices in Reade's novels.
Charles Reade had the romancer's fondness for startling and rare, even unparalleled incidents, and heaped...
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In the following excerpt, Burns considers Reade's theories of art and the influence of those theories on his novel Christie Johnstone.
That Charles Reade was interested in art, along with Cr...
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In the following excerpt, Burns and Sutcliffe suggest that Reade's style of documentary realism was influenced by Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
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Uncle Tom'...
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In the following excerpt, Smith contends that although Reade drew on factual sources for his didactic novels, he exaggerated and introduced melodramatic elements in the tradition of the sensation nove...
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In the following excerpt, Burns discusses the epic qualities of the novel version of It Is Never Too Late to Mend.
In a letter to The Times (August 26, 1871) Reade wrote: "A noble passage in...
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In the following excerpt, Burns discusses Reade's portrayal of feminine psychology and sexuality in Griffith Gaunt.
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In the midst of this turmoil [over the stage version of It Is Never To...
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Charles Reade
Critical Essay by Oscar Wilde
