While Dickens used to be seen as a writer of shallow and sentimental children's literature, as the prolific caterer to the new market of mass literature, this collection of essays shows that Dickens was not only a reader of high-brow literature, but also expected his readers to understand them in the context of contemporary scientific and economic debates. Covering a wide range of writers - from Sidney, Shakespeare, Cervantes to Swift, Smollett and Bulwer-Lytton - Dickens's novels reveal a multi-layered cosmos and supply their readers with richly woven nets of intertextuality.

Dieter Koch has been research associate in the Department of Anglistic Studies at the University of Vechta till March 2014. Dr Norbert Lennartz is a professor for English literature studies at the University of Vechta, Germany.