Dickensian simpleton involved in tedious donkey-work (8)
I believe the answer is:
drudgery
'donkey-work' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'dickensian simpleton involved in tedious' is the wordplay.
'dickensian simpleton' becomes 'rudge' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'involved in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tedious' becomes 'dry' (I've seen this in other clues).
'rudge' placed within 'dry' is 'DRUDGERY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for drudgery that I've seen before include "Grinding toil" , "Grind" , "Boring hard work" , "Tedious toil" , "tedium" .)