The Dab of Dickens, the Touch of Twain, and the Shade of Shakespeare

by Elliot Engel

• GEOFFREY CHAUCER • WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE • JANE AUSTEN • ROBERT BROWNING & ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING • EDGAR ALLAN POE • CHARLES DICKENS • CHARLOTTE & EMILY BRONTË • EMILY DICKINSON • MARK TWAIN • GEORGE ELIOT • THOMAS HARDY • OSCAR WILDE • SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE • D. H. LAWRENCE • F. SCOTT FITZGERALD • ERNEST HEMINGWAY • ROBERT FROST

They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most readers, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown...until now! In this utterly captivating book, Dr. Elliot Engel, a foremost authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed men and women of literature's elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches A Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain reveals dozens of fascinating anecdotes:

• Why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle blamed his wife's death on Sherlock Holmes

• How Charles Dickens' pet launched Edgar Allan Poe on his way to literary immortality

• The strange connection between Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway

• How Louisa May Alcott's attempt to get Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn banned backfired...and more!

You'll never look at these literary giants the same way again.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Classics, Audiobook, Poetry, Childrens

Audio Cassette

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Published in both Great Britain and the US, Engel is the author of seven books including, A Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain: Literary Lives from Shakespeare's Old England to Frost's New England. His articles have appeared in numerous magazines, including Newsweek. As one of the most sought after and beloved speakers on literature, his mini-lecture series on his favorite literary hero, Charles Dickens, appeared on PBS stations nationwide.

As a professor, Engel has taught courses at Duke University, NC State University, and University of North Carolina. For his scholarship and teaching, he has received North Carolina’s Adult Education Award and the Victorian Society Award of Merit.

Reviews

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biographical essays on various famous British and American writers. Sort of wish my professor of literature at university was as witty as mister Engel.

[Linds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biographical sketches and samplings of the author’s lesser known works.

[David Sweet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book for High School students or as an entry point into these writers. Most of the stories I’d read before and have read the works quoted. A good reminder and anthology for classroom use.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good.
Interesting and informative.
This little book reminds me of a fruitcake with morsels of yumminess here and there.

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gives short biographies of literature's greatest authors and poets, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Poe, the Brontes, the Brownings, Dickens, George Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Hardy, Doyle, D.H. Lawrence, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Frost.

These are actually classroom lectures that have been written out, and the writing style reflects that. It doesn't feel like a normal biography or literary essay. The style is more conversational. I really hated that, because the author tries to be funny and clever and does not succeed. The dad jokes are numerous.

The condescending tone of the author got on my nerves. The writing style is very patronizing, as if the author is the expert last word on all literary opinions and they are going to mansplain it to you.

In the section on the Bronte sisters, the author completely dismisses Anne Bronte as inferior to her sisters, and praises Emily and Charlotte's works. That made me angry. I think Anne Bronte is just as brilliant as her sisters, even if the "experts" don't agree.

I also had issues with the way the author passed judgement on all these historical figures through the lens of his own modern philosophies and morals. I was looking for a book of facts about these literary people from history, but instead I got Engel's opinion about them.

I found out pretty quickly that the author's morality is not at all similar to my own, so it was upsetting to read all about his moral opinions instead of just facts. He is disparaging of Christianity. He seems to think his own philosophy is superior to any other; as if no one else in history is allowed to have any other opinions or beliefs.

I just hated his entire writing style. I'm so disappointed in this book.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I found who knows where in some used book shop. I love it. It's 19 little bios on 19 famous writers. There are the basics of each author - where were they born, how did they fall into writing, etc. But more importantly, each author had a great snippet. During Geoffrey Chaucer's section, Engel discusses the (brief) history of literature up to that point and how Chaucer changed things. He points out that Austen is the first famous women's author and how much pressure that must have been for her.

His style is very light and humerous. I thought it was great. My only drawback, and as you can see, it wasn't enough to lose a star, is that they are 19 lectures/essays that he prepared and so the intro to a few of them are repetitive. For instance, he started out F. Scott Fitzgerald's section with a talk about the four greats of that era - Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Steinbeck. Then, when you read Hemingway's section, the intro is almost verbatim.

For me, it whetted my appetite and makes me want to read or re-read some of their books. I just really enjoyed this.

[Bobbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can only wish that I had taken one of the author’s classes. I picked this up in a delightful used book store in the San Juan Islands in the Northwest. While I have read many, many books, I have read very few biographies of the authors. My favorite author is Jane Austen, yet I have never read her biography. Granted, the sections in this book on each author are not lengthy, but were interesting in that each section told something of the author’s life and how successful they were during that life, why they were considered a great author, their writing style, a little trivia and a little humor. Most people know that Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens, but how many know that the monster Grendel’s (in Chaucer’s “Beowulf”) habit of starting the day by eating a few soldiers from Denmark continues to this day when we have a couple of danish for breakfast. A highly worthy and entertaining read.

[Zahirah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one enjoyable read especially because most of the authors featured are the ones I like or interested in. What's great about this collection is that Engel not only gives a biography on the authors, he also present arguments on why they are considered literary genius. The writing is a bit juvenile at times, too many uses of "unfortunately" for example, but fortunately (haha) the anecdotes shared are very interesting and kept me reading.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Includes lots of good anecdotes and historical facts about these authors, some more well known than other. But I was disappointed in the authors he chose to focus on, with the 4 women out of the 20 being fairly obvious and old fashioned choices — Elizabeth Barrett Browning?

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come

[Nettie Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! A great introduction to all the authors mentioned and brief analyses of some of their major works. Very fun and easy to read while also being informative.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time deciding what rating to give this book and maybe 2 is a bit harsh, but the more I think about it, the more I dislike the things that bothered me about this book.

Overall, this book seems written as sort of a good primer on authors for high schoolers. I did learn a few things in this book, but as an avid reader, I knew most of what was told to us already. It’s also very informally written, which bothered me a bit. If you’re writing a biography of someone, don’t randomly switch verb tenses (ex: “then so-and-so sits down and says” vs “they sat down and said”). This is purely a personal bias—while filled with anecdotes, I’m not a fan of reading something that sounds like someone’s dialogue was transcribed directly. There were also typos—he writes “Allen” a few times instead of “Allan” in Poe’s chapter. So the combined conversational attitude plus misspellings came across, to me, like these were (again) just re-typed transcriptions of the author’s lecture notes from the college classes he teaches.

In addition to the outdated and racist terms used instead of “Native American” and “Inuit,” I noticed that the author included only 6 female authors but 13 men. And one chapter puts two of the women together (Charlotte and Emily Bronte**, who—yes—were sisters, but still) and Emily Barrett Browning is paired with her husband. None of the men share second billing to other men, however. He could have just as easily added Virginia Woolf, Mary Shelley, Agatha Christie, or Harper Lee.

**There is a third Bronte, obviously, but the author has decided that Anne wasn’t as good as her sisters and therefore hardly mentions her or her books.

(That’s another a thing I disliked—the author wrote his personal preferences as fact on many occasions. If you’re going to adopt an informal tone in your book, fine, but don’t act as if everyone automatically believes the same things you do about these authors.)

—Speaking of excluded authors and poets, where are the people of color? The entirety of this book focuses on white authors! Where was Maya Angelou? Langston Hughes? Ralph Ellison?

In the end, I’d recommend this book maybe to a high schooler or college freshman who has to pick an author to write about but can’t decide who. It’s a good, brief overview of their lives that will hopefully lead them to seek out more informative texts (and hopefully a wider variety of racial backgrounds).

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book.
Covers the interesting life stories of these 3 authors.
Also, includes excepts from their lesser known writings.

Interesting Facts:

Shakespeare
- Wrote 37 plays
- Dropped out of school at age 14
- Invented the following phrases:

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
"Left high and dry."
"Piece of cake."
"Tongue tied."
"Refuse to budge an inch."
"In a pickle."
"Slept not one wink."
"The long and short of it."
"Through thick and thin."
+many more.

Charles Dickens
- Had 15 major works
- Invented the paperback book
- Invented 'procrastinated suspense' (aka only releasing parts of the story at a time to keep readers coming back..)
- Earned $68 Million as a writer (the most ever!)

Mark Twain
- Could have become rich selling cocaine, but decided to become a river boat captain.
- His river boat captain days lasted less than a month, because the Civil War broke out..
- The name Mark Twain is a river boat term used when they boat is in 12ft (aka 2 fathoms) of water and they can anchor the ship.
- Wrote the first book that used American dialect

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosemary Carter recommended this book, a collection of bios by Elliot Engel, an articulate and knowlegeable English professor. Covering 19 of the greatest English writing authors from Chaucer to Frost, Dr. Engel spins delightful anecdotes, based on his college lectures, insightful and most importantly, the very human lives of these revered writers.
While far from a Dickensian scholar, I took an entire semester of Dickens yet learned more from this book than I did as a student (like the little known reason Poe chose a raven based on a luncheon meeting with Dickens or how The Pickwick Papers evolved from a drunken illustrator's images and a near bankrupt publisher).
Delightful, captivating, and edifying, ADODAATOT is a casual, non-academic perepective of the serendipitous lives of great authors.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book! Learned so much about these authors and other tid bits...things I never learned in high school. Highly recommend this book. Might even suggest it as a book club book.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read about 19 authors and their backgrounds that thrust them into the literary world. I want to read more of the classics now.

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The coolest way to build my book list and inspire my dream of being a writer. A well done introduction to classic writers as real people.

[Tom Weissmuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The professor writes as well as his subjects, all giants of literature. He knows them well and shares his insight. You will enjoy this book.

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recall my beloved high school English teacher lending me cassette tapes of Elliott Engel's lectures long after I had graduated (we remained good friends). I thought he was an amazing teacher. I'm delighted that Audible Audio now has a few collections of his lectures, each combined with select readings from the works of the featured literary artists.

The lectures target an audience that is probably high school or college freshman, but they are enjoyable for anyone of any age who loves the classics. They aren't designed to be critical studies. They are designed to be entertaining but informative. Does Engel come off as sensational? Yes. He loves the element of suspense and uses it throughout his lectures, a mechanism to keep students attentive if not interested.

Some readers may question if all the information Engel presents is completely factual. I have never read anything that challenges his findings. Others will get impatient with his overuse of superlatives (ie., William Shakespeare is the greatest writer in ANY language). Still, Engel's presentation and choice of stories to tell are so delightful and worth the time to listen.

[Susan Roden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather liked reading this book - actually a series of lectures by a university professor.
In a conversational tone, he tells about the early life of the authors reviewed, and how their life related to what they wrote. How the inprint of their parents and early life experiences shaped the stories told by these tellers.
It was interesting to me how I found I liked some authors more after reading of their lives, and others, I disliked much more. How some of the writers had such fragile egos, they couldn't tolerate any of their peers getting more attention than they got.
Did it make me like their writings any more or less? Hard to say. Maybe it is like your children, you think you know them and shape their early life, they they turn out to have minds of their own. They end up independent from you. Which is really what you want, isn't it?
So to the works by the authors discussed, end up standing on their own, whether you like the person who wrote the narrative or not.
In my humble opinion.

[Robin Helweg-Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chattily, glibly written, it is full of fascinating tidbits about the dozen chosen writers, moderated by Engel's sloppy handling of facts. His introduction to Chaucer includes this on the second page:
"Rome conquered England in 55 B.C. and remained there until A.D. 476. They were there for five hundred years".
A true historian would write:
"Although Julius Caesar invaded Britain in both 55 and 54 B.C., he was repulsed each time. Claudius began the conquest of Britain in 43 A.D., and the Roman occupation lasted until 410 A.D. They were there for over 350 years."
Note that the name England didn't apply until the subsequent barbarian invasions brought the Angles (and Saxons and Jutes) to colonize the south and east of Britain.
So the gist of what Engel has to say is correct, but sometimes he mangles his facts, misnames events and people, and exaggerates his stories. Make allowance for that, and you have an entertaining read.

[Eugene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was fun! Author Engel presents short (20-25 pages) essays on 21 writers, from Geoffrey Chaucer to Robert Frost, all of whom you’ll recognize and most of whom you’ll have read, presented in a folksy chatty manner and largely a sort of “trivia game” of their personal lives and origins. You’ll learn a lot you DIDN’T know about said writers!
Really, my biggest quibble is the professor’s need to occasionally show his “literary criticism” chops and give us the sort of high-brow malarkey that makes me cringe when folks reverently discuss “lit-tra-chure,” for example: in discussing Frost’s “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening,” Engel compares it to Shakespeare’s line “to be, or not to be,” and posits that it may be a contemplation of suicide. Really, I’ve read this poem countless times, and never considered it to be about a guy thinking about killing himself...
But beyond the stuffy academician interludes it is a charming little read. If you see a copy, grab it.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so good!! I love reading about the lives of people I'm interested in but I'm often put off by the dullness, dry writing, and unnecessary long length of biographies. There's none of that here!

The sections about different authors are short enough that they never drag on, and there is always interesting information that I found myself reading aloud to my husband ha. Some of the authors' covered in this book are favorites of mine, some I like well enough, and some I don't care for at all, but I still enjoyed every section.

Highly recommend! Definitely pick up the physical book instead of the audiobook though, unless you can find the exact recording, not the different volumes with the obnoxious excerpts included.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating and funny book about the lives of several literary giants. It contains little known facts (at least by me) about various authors and how their lives are intertwined with their writings. I gives a true insight in the men and women studied and I felt it did a great job of explaining how the writer writes.
My favorites were Dickens, Doyle, Shakespeare and Twain. There were many unknowns explained and I kept on thinking "oh, I didn't know that!"
I might go back and read it again so I can take notes - even though I'm not an English major anymore!

[Jacqueline Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating insights and explanations into why these authors are their works are considered classics. While that description may sound a bit academic, in reading this I only regretted that I never had Engel as my professor.

Highly recommend to anyone who's ever wondered why one author's works would be revered above and beyond others; as well as the personal experiences that may have driven and influenced these authors' careers.

[Bill Philibin · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2.25 Stars)

This book was written in six main segments. Three authors, first a section that gives interesting facts about that author, followed by a selection of their work. I absolutely loved the information and wish the whole book was just that. I've already read most of the works showcased, and I don't like reading a portion of a book without it being the complete piece.

So, for me... I would have enjoyed the book more if it was just about the authors.

[Courtney Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. I read 2 chapters and could hardly get to the authors’ lives through Engel’s commentary. Very opinionated commentary as well. I started with Jane Austen and half the chapter is a rant on why women weren’t authors prior to her time.
Maybe someone else is more interested in Engel’s thoughts than I am but I was here for the authors, not Engel’s opinions.

[Raoul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always enjoy listening to Professor Engel. Occasionally he comes to the Transylvania County Library to give his talks, which are always enjoyable. This particular book is a great primer on the life and works of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Twain. Great as an introduction to either or all of these authors.

[Lisa Wenzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun combination of the history of each one of these authors and what their contribution to literature means. Lectures on their biographies are mixed together chapter to chapter with excerpts from their works. Really fun!

[Deanna Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good bio tidbits but are fogged by the author's assumptions about how a specific author "must have felt" and distributes it as fact. A good half-step up from a Wikipedia-level read about these famous authors' lives.