Fictions of History/Fictions of Charles Dickens

The main aim of this study is to analyse English novelist Charles Dickens' two historical novels Barnaby Rudge (1841) and A Tale of Two Cities (1859) in relation with historical facts and fiction and also to find out the English and European historians' effects on Dickens while he was writing these particular novels.The controversial debate on history and its methodology along with the principles of a German historian Ranke and the French historians Tocqueville and Michelet seem to influence Dickens' ideas to a large extent. In this study, the historical novel which was initiated by Sir Walter Scott in Britain, and was further developed by Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens; the concept of history which was elaborated by Ranke in Germany and by Michelet and Tocqueville in France is analysed. In Charles Dickens' first historical novel Barnaby Rudge (1841) not only Sir Walter Scott's principles of writing historical novel but also Tocqueville's, Michelet's and Ranke's principles on history and second historical novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859), principles of writing historical novel in relation with Tocqueville's and Michelet's principles on history are discussed in detail.