Following recent interest in Dickens's writings as a journalist, this is the first critical study of this essential aspect of Dickens's creative and professional career. Drew explores Dickens's journalism as a three-dimensional field of study in its own right and attempts to tell the story of Dickens's forty-year career in the media, explaining and recording much that has been previously unknown or obscure.It restores Dickens's journalism in depth to its historical, political and media context, offering critical commentary, an extensive bibliography and some rare, unpublished material and new discoveries - including what is probably the first piece of writing published by Dickens in any genre.