Charles Dickens 
Master Humphrey’s Clock 

This volume combines two titles of great biographical interest. The weekly miscellany, ‘Master Humphrey’s Clock, ‘ besides providing the original setting for ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ and ‘Barnaby Rudge, ‘ was the scene of Dickens’s revival of Mr. Pickwick and the Wellers. ‘A Child’s History of England’ is not representative of Victorian schoolroom history: filled with distrust for the ‘good old days, ‘ writes Derek Hudson in the Introduction, it gives ‘an unsparing picture of prolongued wickedness in high places, exposed with lurid detail and much rough sarcasm.’