While critics have remarked on Charles Dickens's decades-long association and friendship with Charles Babbage, we still lack close examination of the influence Babbage's wide-ranging work in political economy, mathematics, and mechanical inventions had on Dickens's literary production. Through analysis of Babbage's mathematical theory, his invention of the Difference Engine (the first programmable mechanical calculator), I argue that our current conception of intellectual property derives from Victorian efforts to establish the mental labor of the "professional" as unalienated and self-directed through its opposition to the monotonous, repetitive labor imposed upon factory workers and on mechanized mental laborers. While critical attention to the novel generally focuses on its representation of speculative finance, the crucial role of math in this central plot element has yet to be taken seriously, as has the related mechanization of the characters most closely involved in the mental labors of mathematics and finance. The novel's representations of mechanized mathematical labor thus illuminate the ways Dickens as a novelist and Babbage as an inventor were similarly engaged with contemporary debates about mental labor, intellectual property, and the social utility of the professional.
Founded in 1970, the centennial anniversary of Dickens's death, Dickens Studies Annual: Essays on Victorian Fiction publishes articles exploring the wide range of Dickens's interests and talents. The journal includes essays on other mid- and late-nineteenth century novelists and on the history and aesthetics of the period's fiction. Each volume also contains a solicited review article examining much of a prior year’s scholarship on Dickens. Periodically, Dickens Studies Annual publishes solicited surveys of studies of other Victorian authors. The journal is intended to be of interest to both students and scholars at various stages of their careers.
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