"The second theme of my talk at this year’s Hay Festival was the way Dickens often uses linguistic features as a means of character description, or refers to language in the narrative. The examples below are in some cases adapted from the novels, to suit the dialogue style used in the talk (there were two of us on stage: myself and Hilary Crystal)." - Maitani from Bookmarklet

"Dickens paints amazing visual portraits; but I’ve been struck by how often he refers to the voice, as in these instances: In Our Mutual Friend, Bradley Headstone: Grinding his words slowly out, as though they came from a rusty mill. In Nicholas Nickleby, Ralph Nickleby: If an iron door could be supposed to quarrel with its hinges, and to
 make a firm resolution to open with slow obstinacy, and grind them
 to powder in the process, it would emit a pleasanter sound in so
 doing, than did these words in the rough and bitter voice in which 
they were uttered by Ralph." - Maitani

"In Bleak House, Sir Leicester Dedlock: His voice was rich and mellow; and he had so long been thoroughly persuaded of the weight and import to mankind of any word he said, that his words really had come to sound as if there were something in them." - Maitani