First serialised between 1855 and 1857. The novel is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society
Remains of the Marshalsea
of the period. Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtor's prisons-in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they repaid their debts, most other critiques are about other issues with regards to the social safety net: industry, and the treatment and safety of workers, the bureaucracy of the British government's ministries, and the separation of people based on the lack of intercourse between the classes