The previous reviewer is certainly correct in saying that Vogel writes badly. Her prose is bombastic and overblown; her assertions of similarity between passages in Dickens and the Bible are wildly overstated, and often involve willful misreading of one or both of the texts she's comparing in order to make her comparisons even sound plausible. Her handling of biblical narratives is particularly inept, although her allegorical anti-"Hebrew" readings of Dickens are no better, as well as theologically repugnant. For books like this you should offer a "0 star" option!