Charles Dickens: A Life
Oct 2011 · Penguin UK
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About this ebook
THE ACCLAIMED DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF ONE OF THE GREATEST BRITISH WRITERS OF ALL TIME
Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: a journalist, a father of ten, a supporter of liberal social causes, but most of all, a great novelist.
From unpromising beginnings sent to work a black factory age twelve, he rose to such social and literary heights that when he died, the world mourned. Yet the brilliance concealed a divided character: a republican, he disliked America; sentimental about the family, he took up with a young actress; usually generous, he cut off his impecunious children.
From the award-winning author Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens: A Life paints an unforgettable portrait of Dickens, capturing brilliantly the complex character of this great genius. If you loved Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, this book is invaluable reading.
'By far the most humane and imaginatively sympathetic account yet for the general reader' Amanda Craig, New Statesman
Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: a journalist, a father of ten, a supporter of liberal social causes, but most of all, a great novelist.
From unpromising beginnings sent to work a black factory age twelve, he rose to such social and literary heights that when he died, the world mourned. Yet the brilliance concealed a divided character: a republican, he disliked America; sentimental about the family, he took up with a young actress; usually generous, he cut off his impecunious children.
From the award-winning author Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens: A Life paints an unforgettable portrait of Dickens, capturing brilliantly the complex character of this great genius. If you loved Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, this book is invaluable reading.
'By far the most humane and imaginatively sympathetic account yet for the general reader' Amanda Craig, New Statesman
Ratings and reviews
3.7
3 reviews
A Google user
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December 18, 2011
Paper back of this old book costs £1 in your local charity shop or car boot sale... Get real with prices.
David Mellor
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April 2, 2020
Ironically, I haven't yet read the book, but am listening to it being read on BBC Radio 4. The excerpts read have been utterly fascinating. Facts uncovered about Dicken's include that he met the Russian author Dostoevsky. According to Dostoevsky, Dicken's confessed to him that he (Dicken's) was a cruel man who had treated his 'nearest and dearest' abonimably! How Claire Tomlin discovered these fascinating facts and stories could probably make an interesting novel in themselves! I am purchasing this book just on the basis of having listened to the readings on BBC Radio 4. Truly exceptional. Regards, David Mellor, London
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
Claire Tomalin was literary editor of the New Statesman then the Sunday Times before leaving to become a full-time writer. Her first book, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, won the Whitbread First Book Award, and she has since written a number of highly acclaimed and bestselling biographies. The Invisible Woman, a definitive account of Dickens' relationship with the actress Ellen Ternan, won three major literary awards, and Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self was Whitbread Book of the Year in 2002. Claire Tomalin is married to the writer Michael Frayn.
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