ABSTRACT
Charles Dickens uses rivers in his late novels to link country and city. Dickens maps much of the action of his late complete novels—Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend—along the banks and bridges of the Thames, its estuary, and the Medway. This chapter explores the tension between the urban and the rural river, between surfaces and depths. It argues that Dickens's imagery connects rural riversides outside London with the busy, urban river of dirt and commerce to ask if ethical relationships can be developed in the city in ways. Dickens's riverside idylls reappear in the frenetic heart of the city, part of its noisiest streets and bridges. Cultural concerns about river pollution seep into Dickens's descriptions of the Thames and its Estuary, and complicate any associations of the river with rural idyll and ethical space.
