How to Use the Notes
Wendy S. Jacobson · 2021
To help the reader locate in the novel the word or phrase quoted in an entry, the notes are presented in this way: the opening phrase of the paragraph which includes the entry is quoted as a guide and printed in italics; the entry itself appears in bold-face type. Documentation within the notes is kept to a minimum by the use of an abbreviated form of referencing. The notes indicate the divisions of the novel in its first published form as a serial of six monthly numbers, published from April to September 1870. The notes include transcripts of the sheets of memoranda on which Charles Dickens sketched out his ideas for each monthly number. He folded each sheet once to make two pages, and he referred to the sheets as ‘Mems’. They are referred to as ‘work plans’.