| lie is really strong term in this case. in his time he was not 'literature', it was pulp, common, 'popular'. is Stephen King today, 'literature' or just 'pulp fiction'? this is a subjective thing. authors that are 'popular' sometimes aren't considered 'literature'. in your very own citation::: "Among fellow writers, there was a range of opinions on Dickens. Poet laureate, William Wordsworth (1770–1850), thought him a "very talkative, vulgar young person", adding he had not read a line of his work, while novelist George Meredith (1828–1909), found Dickens "intellectually lacking"." "Henry James denied him a premier position, calling him "the greatest of superficial novelists": |