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
Bentley Rare Book Gallery Bentley Rare Book Gallery The Bentley Rare Book Gallery is a rare book library housed on the lower level of the Horace W. Sturgis Library at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. It is one of only three certified, museum-grade rare book libraries in Georgia, the others located at the University of Georgia in Athens and Emory University in Atlanta. Named after Mr. Fred D. Bentley, Sr, one of its principal benefactors, and his wife Sarah Bentley, the library contains a diverse collection of works documenting the history of the written and printed word in English. The rare book room