Dickens's Little Red Riding Hood and Other Waterside Characters
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2009
Department
English
School
Humanities
Abstract
Beginning with a moment in "A Christmas Tree" when Charles Dickens recalls Little Red Riding Hood as his lost "first love" and moving on to illustrate how the fairy-tale child served as a recurrent imaginative figure for the author as a maiden always already devoured, this essay reveals Dickens's speculation upon labor, nostalgia, and the literary value of folklore in his last novel Our Mutual Friend, in which the author recognizes that to decry the commercial value of girls is itself commercially valuable and that to mourn the death of Riding Hood is to eternally resurrect her body.
Publication Title
SEL - Studies in English Literature
Volume
49
Issue
4
First Page
945
Last Page
973
Recommended Citation
Hillard, M.
(2009). Dickens's Little Red Riding Hood and Other Waterside Characters. SEL - Studies in English Literature, 49(4), 945-973.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/21178