'The first [chapters] give potted plot summaries as well as critical insights which will be particularly useful for beginners. The latter explore recurrent symbols and those topics which Dickens made his own - for example nineteenth century London and its relation to the labyrinthine system of jurisprudence which permeates Bleak House, or the prisons, most notably in Little Dorrit. Donald Hawes clearly knows Dickens's work inside out, and all his arguments are illustrated by well-chosen details from the best known works. In most cases he gives some notion of their contemporary reception, plus an account of how these reputations have lasted into the twentieth century... ...Hawes covers all the major novels, the stories, and some of the occasional writing. With this and the thematic chapters, plus an extensive bibliography of further reading, there's everything here for someone who wants a comprehensive departure point for further Dickens studies.'   Roy Johnson, 2007 - mantex.co.uk

'This is a book to be recommended to anyone wanting a lucid, reliable, sensible, balanced introduction to Dickens. It can be read with profit and interest as it guides readers into further areas for investigation.' The Dickensian, Winter 2007

"...certainly Donald Hawes's fine new guidebook [cited above] is an example of one that can offer 'newcomers'. . . an entry point into Dickens's work."- Referenced in Laurence W. Mazzeno's The Dickens Industry (Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2008), p. 255:

Review in Etudes anglaises, vol. 62, no. 4 (October-December 2009), pp.493-494 by Natalie Vanfass, University of Toulouse, France