My main research interests fall under the following headings: (1) literature and literary theory in relation to moral philosophy; (2) Charles Dickens. I have also published on wide range of other authors and subjects, including William Blake, James Joyce, French literature, modern American poetry, and the visual arts (such as cinema, painting, and land art). I have specific interests in railway culture and the 1820s. I am General Editor of Dickens Quarterly, published by Johns Hopkins UP.