Racism in the work of Charles Dickens For example, in his novel "Bleak House" Dickens mocks Mrs. Jellyby, who neglects her children for the natives of a fictional African country. The disjunction between Dickens' criticism of slavery and his crude caricatures of other races has also been noted by Patrick Brantlinger in his "A Companion to the Victorian Novel". He cites Dickens' description of an Irish colony in America's Catskill mountains a mess of pigs, pots, and dunghills. Dickens views them as a "racially repellent" group. Jane Smiley writing in the Penguin Lives bio of Dickens writes "we should not interpret him as the kind of left-liberal
Kim Dickens she appeared in "Great Expectations", a film adaptation of the Charles Dickens's novel, and had the female leading roles in "Zero Effect" and "Mercury Rising". In 1999, she starred alongside Antonio Banderas in the comedy film, "The White River Kid". In 2000, Dickens had co-starring roles in films "Committed" opposite Heather Graham, "Hollow Man" with Elisabeth Shue and Kevin Bacon, and "The Gift" starring Cate Blanchett. The following year, she played the lead in the independent film, "Things Behind the Sun". Dickens received critical acclaim for her performance, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead nomination. Later that