Charles Dickens scenes in "The Pickwick Papers" are claimed to have been influential in having the Fleet Prison shut down. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". George Bernard Shaw even remarked that "Great Expectations" was more seditious than Marx's "Das Kapital". The exceptional popularity of Dickens's novels, even those with socially oppositional themes ("Bleak House", 1853; "Little Dorrit", 1857; "Our Mutual Friend", 1865), not only underscored his almost preternatural ability to create compelling storylines and unforgettable characters, but also ensured
Richard Bentley (publisher) and 1840s, at which important writers and critics gathered. In October 1836, Bentley entered the periodical market. He founded "Bentley's Miscellany", which first appeared in January 1837, and selected Charles Dickens, known at the time for his "Pickwick Papers", as editor. Dickens also agreed to contribute a serialised novel to the periodical and to sell two novels to Bentley. The periodical was "an immediate success" – 11,000 copies were sold in 1837 – largely as a result of the serialisation of Dickens's "Oliver Twist", illustrated by George Cruikshank. Dickens became increasingly frustrated at the initial terms of his contract, which