邓小平1984年在京见到英国首相撒切尔，寒暄时问：雾都一切都好？其实二战后，伦敦的环境得到治理，早已不再是雾都。但人们根深蒂固地把英国首都伦敦称为雾都，大体和英国批判现实主义小说家狄更斯的小说有关。
他的早期作品《雾都孤儿》更是直接以雾命名。在这本书里，雾体现为Mist（8次）、Fog（3次）两个词。这本书是作者写的长篇小说中比较短小的，共285页。
在他1859年写的《双城记》里，雾这个词体现为Mist（21次）和Fog（2次）。本书321页（Wordsworth版本，1999年出版）。
在1860年出版的《远大前程》里，全书共有59章，其中雾用了三个词，Mist、Fog、Veil，分别出现了32遍、4遍和5遍。与雾往往有一定关系的词是Damp，即潮湿、湿漉漉之意，也出现了8次。本书383页（Airmont版本，1965年出版）。
1864-5年出版的《我们共同的朋友》里，雾这个词体现为Mist（4次）和Fog（27次）。Mist这个词使用频率低了很多，而Fog多了很多，大概是因为全世界范围内，这种天气大家更多地用Fog了。本书894页（Wordsworth版本，1999年出版）。
那么这些书里雾的价值何在？拿《远大前程》为例，正如大律师Jaggers把一个硕大的丝绸手绢当作道具一样，以身体语言暗示或胁迫客户赶紧招供或赶紧付费（别磨蹭，我他妈的可没那么多时间），狄更斯笔下的雾也是一个重要的道具，烘托着气氛，预示着故事的演变和发展，陪伴着主人公从乡下到镇上到伦敦再到镇上的起起伏伏，与主人公内心世界按照同一个频率共振。
雾起雾落，雾浓雾淡，雾聚雾散，和人物的心情交织在一起，和他们的命运和处境相伴，为人物的命运和处境做铺垫、做背景、做预示。
早晨离开铁匠铺，离开农村，去伦敦时，雾起了，前路迷茫，伦敦等待他的是什么，他心里一阵迷茫。
小说里是这么写的：但村里非常平和，一片静谧。淡淡的雾肃穆地升起来了，似乎要向我展示这个世界，我涉世未深，年纪轻轻，雾那边一切都是未知和宏大，我不禁一声抽噎，哭了出来，潸然泪下。。。大雾肃穆地笼罩着周遭，整个世界在我面前展现开来。（But the village was very peaceful and quiet, and the light mists were solemnly rising, as if to show me the world, and I had been so innocent and little there, and all beyond was so unknown and great, that in a moment with a strong heave and sob I broke into tears....And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.）
需要指出的是，主人公每次离开自己的村子，就有大雾升起：
又一次，当我转身离开时，大雾升起了。正如我怀疑的，假如大雾已经告诉我，我是不会回村的，碧迪已经猜对了，那么我只能说 - 他们的确说的很对。（Once more, the mists were rising as I walked away. If they disclosed to me, as I suspect they did, that I should not come back, and that Biddy was quite right, all I can say is—they were quite right too。）
世事沧桑，沧海桑田。主人公的经济状况从天上掉到了地下，窘迫至极。所有的财富和荣华富贵都如村里沼泽地的雾，一见阳光，踪迹皆无。小说里写道：
但是，我不知道，乔是否知道我有多穷，我的远大前程已经释然全无，消失的就像我们自己沼泽地的迷雾见了太阳一样。（But whether Joe knew how poor I was, and how my great expectations had all issolved, like our own marsh mists before the sun, I could not understand.）
若有若无的飘荡的雾中，偶遇11年未见但仍耿耿于怀的初恋。两人携手走出废墟时，月光的疏影下，浓雾中，两人的身影合二为一。。。。
书里最后一章具体是这么写的：
我握着她的手，相伴走出了这废墟。在我离开铁匠铺的时候，晨雾早已升起，现在黄昏的雾也升起来了。在这一片广阔的宁静的雾色中，我看到，我们两人的身影没有再分开过。（I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.）
在这一章里，狄更斯在“雾”前面又加了一个“银色”的词，成为“银色的雾”（the silvery mist），体现了作者对雾的深入细致的观察。这时是隆冬12月，下雪也是常见的天气了，有雾的话，必然呈现出类似结晶的状态。
连天风雨，遍地雾霾，在《远大前程》第39章里，预示着作者发现自己的经济赞助人竟然不是自己很久就认定的郝薇香女士（而且相信她准备将美丽的养女许配给他），而是自己七岁时在村边沼泽地上救济过的逃犯时的剧烈的心里活动。
在这一章里，狄更斯告诉我们，雾的形态不仅有季节之分，雾还有延迟扭曲声音的能力。整个城市本来几乎在同一时间敲响的钟，但在浓浓淡淡的雾里，形成了一个有先有后、有强有弱的钟声的协奏曲：
日复一日，伦敦上空总是从东边吹送过来一幕广阔沉重的面纱，现在就笼罩在雾纱中，好像东边什么地方有着无限的雨和云。。。我把表放在桌上，打算十一点钟时合上书去睡觉。我合书时，圣保罗大教堂以及伦敦城的所有教堂里的钟都在敲响，有的领头，有的相伴，有的随后响起。在狂风之中，钟声听起来有时怪怪的。我听着听着，思忖着着风是如何袭击揉碎着这钟声，突然，楼梯上响起了脚步声。-《远大前程》（Day after day, a vast heavy veil had been driving over London from the East, and it drove still, as if in the East there were an Eternity of cloud and wind... I read with my watch upon the table, purposing to close my book at eleven o’clock. As I shut it, Saint Paul’s, and all the many church-clocks in the City—some leading, some accompanying, some following—struck that hour. The sound was curiously flawed by the wind; and I was listening, and thinking how the wind assailed and tore it, when I heard a footstep on the stair.）
还有的雾，更过分些，是不祥的雾，突如其来，预示着主人公家中已突然发生了事故。比如第15章，铁匠铺的临时帮工Orlick趁着夜色用镣铐从背后突然袭击主人公的姐姐：
剧本朗读结束后，我和沃甫赛先生一起回村里，这时天已漆黑一片。一出镇就见大雾迷漫，湿湿的浓浓的。收费站的灯影影绰绰，明显偏离了原来的位置，射出的光也好像是一些固体的什么东西。我们看着大雾，寻思着我们那边沼泽地起了什么风，带来这么大的雾。突然，我们发现收费站后面松松垮垮地站着一个人。-《远大前程》（It was a very dark night when it was all over, and when I set out with Mr. Wopsle on the walk home. Beyond town, we found a heavy mist out, and it fell wet and thick. The turnpike lamp was a blur, quite out of the lamp's usual place apparently, and its rays looked solid substance on the fog. We were noticing this, and saying how that the mist rose with a change of wind from a certain quarter of our marshes, when we came upon a man, slouching under the lee of the turnpike house.）
爬行着的雾
不祥之雾，狄更斯还有一个词在用，那就是Vapour，这是一种小规模的气雾，冬天哈气出来的就是Vapour。作者用这个词描述了沼泽地上水闸房旁边的空地上的雾，是那种贴着地的神秘兮兮的像毒蛇一样爬行的雾。预示着主人公将要遭受一场大难：
我在等待开门时，打量了一下四周，注意到这座水闸已经废弃，而且破损不堪。这所房屋从其木结构和砖瓦顶的情况来看，也是遮不住几天的风雨了，甚至现在就已经不能遮风雨了。外面的泥泞地上积了一层白灰，窑里飘出一股令人窒息的白雾，就像幽灵一般地向我袭来。。。我知道，我就会变成一股白雾，和刚才袭击我的白雾一样，似幽灵般地与它合二为一，然后他就会像谋杀我的姐姐之后一样，匆匆地走到镇上，让大家都看到他懒洋洋地在酒店里喝酒。我的思绪又起伏万千，跟着他仿佛走到镇里，一片街景出现在眼前，灯火辉煌，人来人往；而这里是荒凉的沼泽地和升起的白雾，而我自己早已融进了茫茫的白雾中。-《远大前程》（Waiting for some reply, I looked about me, noticing how the sluice was abandoned and broken, and how the house—of wood with a tiled roof—would not be proof against the weather much longer, if it were so even now, and how the mud and ooze were coated with lime, and how the choking vapour of the kiln crept in a ghostly way towards me... I knew that when I was changed into a part of the vapour that had crept towards me but a little while before, like my own warning ghost, he would do as he had done in my sister’s case—make all haste to the town, and be seen slouching about there, drinking at the ale-houses. My rapid mind pursued him to the town, made a picture of the street with him in it, and contrasted its lights and life with the lonely marsh and the white vapour creeping over it, into which I should have dissolved.
《双城记》里也写到爬行着的雾，预示着主人公的下一站 - 巴黎 - 的险恶。
所有的山谷都笼罩着一层雾气，它孤独地向山上游荡，就像一个邪恶的精灵，似休还止。它是一种湿漉漉的、冷兮兮的雾气，缓缓地在空中荡漾着，就像邪恶的海洋的波涛一样，层层叠叠，你追我赶。雾很浓密，马车灯仅能照几码远的道路。拉车的马喷出恶臭的气息，弥漫到浓雾里，乍看以为是这几匹马制造的这些气雾。-《双城记》（There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the laboring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all. ）
爬行着的雾在《我们共同的朋友》里也出现过。以下景色是心胸狭窄的校长在河边袭击了情敌后看到的，太阳、星星、树木、河流等自然现象，在阴暗的心境下自然不同于常人眼里的热烈、美丽、生机勃勃：
在普拉什沃特堰磨坊船闸，天已经破晓。星星还看得见，但东方有一抹暗淡的光，那不是夜晚的光。月亮已经落下去了，雾气沿着河岸慢慢爬行。雾气中，树变成了树的幽灵，水变成了水的幽灵。这个地球看上去像幽灵，暗淡的星星也一样，而寒冷的东方闪耀着光芒，既看不出热，也看不出颜色，苍穹的眼睛被浇灭了，简直可以把它比作死人的凝视。（Day was breaking at Plashwater Weir Mill Lock. Stars were yet visible, but there was dull light in the east that was not the light of night. The moon had gone down, and a mist crept along the banks of the river, seen through which the trees were the ghosts of trees, and the water was the ghost of water. This earth looked spectral, and so did the pale stars: while the cold eastern glare, expressionless as to heat or colour, with the eye of the firmament quenched, might have been likened to the stare of the dead.）
雾可以爬行，也可以旋转着呈漩涡状：
一个人骑着马的身影慢慢穿过旋涡状的雾，来到了邮车的一侧，乘客就站在那里。-《双城记》（The figures of a horse and rider came slowly through the eddying mist, and came to the side of the mail, where the passenger stood.）
不光成漩涡状，雾还有重量，海拔越低，雾越有重量：
马车又隆隆地前进着，开始下山时，更沉重的雾圈把它团团围住。-《双城记》（The coach lumbered on again, with heavier wreaths of mist closing round it as it began the descent.）
狄更斯小说里，雾（mist）这个词，不光指天气，还用来描述人欲哭未哭时眼睛里泪堤决堤的雾蒙蒙的状态：
“因为，”她说，“今天早上听说你妈妈病得很重，我很难过地告诉你。” 在我和克里克太太之间升起了一层薄雾，她的身影似乎在其中移动了一下。接着，我感到滚烫的眼泪顺着我的脸淌下来，她的身影又稳定下来了。
“她的病很厉害，”她补充道。
现在我全明白了。
“她已经死了。“
说这话真是多此一举。我早已凄凉地哭了起来，觉得自己在这茫茫世界里成了一个孤儿。（'Because,' said she, 'I grieve to tell you that I hear this morning your mama is very ill.' A mist rose between Mrs. Creakle and me, and her figure seemed to move in it for an instant. Then I felt the burning tears run down my face, and it was steady again. 'She is very dangerously ill,' she added. I knew all now. 'She is dead.' There was no need to tell me so. I had already broken out into a desolate cry, and felt an orphan in the wide world.
还用来指称别的抽象的东西。比如：
1）过去的事情。在睡梦里，过去的事情如过眼云烟，已经几近忘却，恰似一缕飘渺的薄雾，形影模糊。
然而，他从未向他开口说过这个话题。在汹涌澎湃的海洋的那边，在漫长无边的土路尽头，那座被遗弃了的城堡（那个坚固石头砌成的城堡早已是他梦魇中的一缕薄雾）发生的暗杀算来已经一年过去了。在这一年里，他从未向她吐露他的心境，哪怕只一个字，在他脑海里已经是薄雾一样的梦幻了。-《双城记》（But, he had not yet spoken to her on the subject; The assassination at the deserted château far away beyond the heaving water and the long, long, dusty roads—the solid stone château which had itself become the mere mist of a dream—had been done a year, and he had never yet, by so much as a single spoken word, disclosed to her the state of his heart.）
2）错综复杂、扑朔迷离的法律诉讼事务：
那天晚上，前天晚上，大前天晚上，一连好几个晚上，西得尼都在忙着清理斯特莱佛先生的文件，以便大家可以按时休长假。文件终于处理完了；斯特莱佛拖欠的账单也都干净的结清了；所有事情都被处理地一干二净，只等漫天雾气的11月的来临，他们好应付那迷雾般的法律事务，同时给磨盘带来待磨的粮食。-《双城记》（Sydney had been working double tides that night, and the night before, and the night before that, and a good many nights in succession, making a grand clearance among Mr. Stryver’s papers before the setting in of the long vacation. The clearance was effected at last; the Stryver arrears were handsomely fetched up; everything was got rid of until November should come with its fogs atmospheric, and fogs legal, and bring grist to the mill again.）
3）迷迷糊糊、稍纵即逝的思绪：
他没有说为什么不呢，也没再说什么。可是，当他胳膊肘支在膝盖上，双手托着头，坐在长凳上俯身凝视着暮色时，罗瑞先生觉得他朦朦胧胧地问自己：“为什么不呢?” 这位精明的商人看出了这可能是个机会，决心抓住它。-《双城记》（He made no effort to say why not, and said not a word more. But, Mr. Lorry thought he saw, as he leaned forward on his bench in the dusk, with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, that he was in some misty way asking himself, “Why not?” The sagacity of the man of business perceived an advantage here, and determined to hold it.）
在《大卫科波菲尔》里，初出茅庐的学霸离开学校时，志得意满，觉得可以做一番大事业了，但做什么呢？他没想好，只是朦朦胧胧地觉得自己前程宏大，但怎么个宏大法，他是无法知道的：
懵懵懂懂，隐隐约约，我觉得，我年轻力壮，正可大展宏图，创立一番丰功伟业，青史留名。（Misty ideas of being a young man at my own disposal, of the importance attaching to a young man at his own disposal, of the wonderful things to be seen and done by that magnificent animal, and the wonderful effects he could not fail to make upon society, lured me away.）
4）如是黑雾，则指某些人物经历的悲剧、冤狱。
这个被囚禁了多年的囚徒坐在那里目不转睛地盯着罗瑞先生，盯着德伐日，他的前额上曾经被抹去了的智慧的痕迹，似乎逐渐穿过了笼罩在他身上的黑雾，慢慢显现出来。-《双城记》（As the captive of many years sat looking fixedly, by turns, at Mr. Lorry and at Defarge, some long obliterated marks of an actively intent intelligence in the middle of the forehead, gradually forced themselves through the black mist that had fallen on him.）
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