The Horn Book Guide

INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Mark, Jan

Mr. Dickens Hits Town

64 pp. | Tundra | October, 1999 | Trade ISBN 0-88776-468-1 $$16.95

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Regolo Ricci. Out of the few facts known about Dickens's 1842 visit to Montreal, Mark constructs a captivating fiction, skewering everything from the absurdities of celebrity culture to the false hierarchies of nineteenth-century Montreal society. In Mark's distinctly unflattering portrait, Dickens is pompous, unfeeling, greedy, and extremely loud in dress and demeanor. A wickedly enjoyable comedy of manners--or, in Mr. Dickens's case, the lack thereof.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2000