ABSTRACT
Even if this story seems bad (or good) enough as is, Dickens evidently did not think so. No less inventive than Mercy herself, he preferred to draw on a cannibalistic variant of the tale-type and garnished it, so to speak, with further grisly flourishes. Moreover, just as Dickens did not spare his audiences, so I too do not intend to omit any of these picturesque details, and having thus been fairly warned, you may forthwith leave off reading, although it is my candid hope that curiosity will overcome prudence once again.
