SOURCE: "Dickens' Artistry and The Haunted Man," in South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. LXI, No. 4, Autumn, 1962, pp. 492-505.

Stone is an American scholar and critic, whose works—many award-winning—include Dickens and the Invisible World: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Novel-Making (1979) and The Night Side of Dickens: Cannibalism, Passion, Necessity (1991), In the following excerpt, Stone examines the evolution of Dickens's writing style as evidenced by his skillful uniting of elements of fairy tale, allegory, autobiography, and psychology in The Haunted Man.

If one reads Dickens' novels chronologically, one is astonished upon beginning Dombey and Son (1847-48). The first half of Dombey is almost perfect in conception and execution; each scene connects with the next, each throws light on what has come before and what is yet to come. Dickens calls up intricate themes and images, develops them, sustains them, and finally merges them with one another. He introduces experimental techniques...