Critic of the Hour

Dickens: From Pickwick to Dombey by Steven Marcus. Basic Books, $5.95.

Dickens did not suffer critical fools gladly. He felt that all great writers were bitten and stung by the unseeing critics of their age, “insects of the hour, who raised their little hum, and died, and were forgotten.” Steven Marcus is not a critical fool, and hopefully his work will not be forgotten. And yet, to paraphrase Dickens’ words, he is a “critic of the hour,” and therein lie his strengths and weaknesses as a guide to Dickens.