When it comes to assessing Dickens’s literary afterlife, Chesterton’s name has a tendency to turn up. Indeed, a widespread notion among Chestertonians is that Chesterton’s eponymous study on Dickens, published in 1906, was a landmark in the appreciation of Dickens’s literary reputation. However, to the contemporary reader (especially a foreign reader), such an assertion is inconceivable, given the unrivalled stature of Dickens in the Western canon. And upon closer look, the idea that Chesterton’s biography gave rise to a revival of Dickens appears as a misconception albeit a fruitful one. If indeed Chesterton wrote his study at a threshold moment for Dickens studies, this paper aims to offer a slightly different perspective on the nature of Chesterton’s contribution to Dickens’s afterlife, especially on Dickens studies ?