After Dickens is both a performative reading of Dickens the novelist and an exploration of the potential for adaptive performance of the novels themselves. John Glavin conducts a historical inquiry into Dickens's relationship to the theatre and theatricality of his own time, and uncovers a much more ambivalent, often hostile, relationship than has hitherto been noticed. In this context, Dickens's novels can be seen as a form of counter-performance, one which would allow the author to perform without being seen or scrutinized. But Glavin also identifies a rich performative potential in Dickens's fiction, and describes new ways to stage that fiction in emotionally powerful, critically acute adaptations. The book as a whole, therefore, offers a reading of Dickens through an unusual alliance between literary criticism and theatrical performance.

"...this is a title that serious students of Dickens need to read." Choice

"After Dickens is a self-consciously clever book that advocates "takings what we want rather than accepting what we are offered"..." Essays in Theatre

"The entire study is a virtuoso critical and (play) writerly preformance...brilliant and entertaining." Victorian Studies, Summer 2001