Charles Dickens

by Elizabeth James

Few literature enthusiasts can be entirely unaware of the colourful and turbulent life of Charles Dickens, and the role it had to play in helping to shape some of his most famous and vibrant scenes and characters. Elizabeth James takes the reader through the triumphs and disasters, the highs and lows of the life of from the impoverished beginnings in London and his father's imprisonment in the Marshalsea, through to the fame and eventual fortune he achieved in his authorial and editorial careers. In this lively, lavishly illustrated and well-written book, the reader is presented with the many facets of this most fascinating of literary denizens.

Genres: Biography

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

Reviews

[Carol Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short biography with many illustrations.

Here are some gleanings:

[CD writing about traveling alone in a stagecoach as a child - underlining is mine]
"I consumed my sandwiches in solitude and dreariness, and it rained hard all the way, and I thought life sloppier than I had expected to find it."

This list of authors who published their first novels in 1847 or 1848 interested me:
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë
Mrs Gaskell
Charles Kingsley
Anthony Trollope

I can't help myself: reading about Dickens' bursts of loud laughter, wild exuberance, and manic episodes makes me speculate if today he would be considered bipolar. His life, particularly his relationship with his family, is covered with a patina of sadness.