How did later critics reassess the importance of Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Great Expectations?

During Charles Dickens's lifetime and for several decades after his death, critics often demurred against his later novels, such as Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Great Expectations. These works were frequently viewed as "darker" and less genial than his earlier fiction, with critics baffled by his increasingly symbolic mode of art and his shift toward radical questioning of social institutions.12

A major shift in critical perspective occurred around 1940–1941, followed by a substantial reassessment in the 1950s. Scholars began to identify these later works as containing Dickens’s finest artistry and greatest depth. Critics came to appreciate how Dickens achieved technical coherence by relating plots to themes through insistent imagery and symbols—such as the fog in Bleak House or the prison in Little Dorrit—and by creating more complex characters. By the 1970 centenary of his death, a critical consensus had emerged that placed these novels at the heart of his standing as one of the greatest figures in English literature.21