Charles Dickens: A Life
Technical:
- ID: 152
- Added: 2025-09-03
- Updated: 2025-09-03
- ISBN: 9780141971452
- Publisher: Penguin UK
- Published: 2011-10-06
- Reviews: 3
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
Reviews
Pull quotes
- She fits Dickens' 58 frantic years, 20 novels/novellas/Christmas books, his raft of journalism, parties, speeches, tours and benevolent projects into just over 400 pages.
- Tomalin sticks to the essence of Dickens’ character.
- In the third part of the book a brooding darker side emerges.
Pull quotes
- Claire Tomalin's biography of Charles Dickens is compelling and brilliant.
- The portrait provided of him is lively, sympathetic but never one-sided.
- We see clearly the brilliance and the flaws of the great man.
Pull quotes
- Charles Dickens: A Life gives full measure to Dickens's heroic stature.
- The man who emerges is one of extraordinary contradictions.
- Tomalin provides her usual rich, penetrating portrait.