Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens' Perils of Certain English Prisoners

Perils of Certain English Prisoners is a novella published by the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens in 1857 in collaboration with his close friend, the novelist Wilkie Collins. Of the novella's three chapters, Collins wrote the second, "The Prison in the Woods." The story is set in Asia and central America and deals with the theme of British Imperialism. Critics agree that Dickens was inspired by the Indian rebellion against British colonists that took place the same year of the book's publication. Unlike the other British literary figure and politician Benjamin Disraeli, Dickens did not side with the rebels and considered their action to be illicit. In the fiction, Dickens tells about a silver-mine island situated in a far-off British colony called Belize which has been seized by a gang of pirates. The latter terrorize the British, imprison them, and even murder some of them. However, thanks to the remarkable intelligence and bravery of British women, the captives eventually manage to escape. By the end of the narrative, the pirates are vanquished by the British in what appears to be an indirect homily on the consequences of any rebellious action against the Crown.