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Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius
'A joyful examination of two artists from different centuries and the unlikely parallels in their life and work' Guardian'An ardent fan letter from Hornby that makes you want to reread Great Expectations whilst listening to Sign o'the Times' Vogue_____________________ The essential gift for lovers of Prince, Dickens and everyone in between!In Nick Hornby's completely joyous and original new book two great figures share the stage. Charles Dickens and Prince. Two wildly different artists who caught fire and lit up the world in ways no others could. Where did their magic come from? How did they work so hard and produce so much? How did they manage or give in to the restlessness and intensity of their creativity? How did they use it, and did it kill them?With wit, curiosity and deep admiration Nick Hornby traces their extraordinary lives - from their difficult beginnings to the women they fell for to their limitless energy for work, to their money and the movies - and brilliantly illuminates their very particular kind of genius.'I love this. It's smart and funny and elegantly persuasive' Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, author of Becoming Dickens
98 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 15, 2022
183 people are currently reading
5443 people want to read
About the author
Nick Hornby
137 books10.1k followersNicholas Peter John Hornby is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir Fever Pitch (1992) and novels High Fidelity and About a Boy, all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2018. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Hornby was named the 29th most influential person in British culture. He has received two Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for An Education (2009), and Brooklyn (2015).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 550 reviews
March 6, 2023
"Prince did a lot more than just record, and Dickens did a lot more than simply write novels. But I yoked them together in my mind at that moment because they are two of what I shall describe, for want of a more exact term, as 'My People' - the people I have thought about a lot over the years, the artists who have shaped me, inspired me, and made me think about my own work." -- pages 5-6
Author Hornby, in that signature easygoing and lightly intimate writing style of his, crafts a non-fiction novella that compares the Victorian-era British author nicknamed 'The Inimitable' and the American multi-genre music superstar called 'The Purple One' in Dickens and Prince. This initially may sound like an odd pairing, but Hornby dissects and correlates their sometimes-troubled but interesting personal lives, their respective critically and commercially-acclaimed artistic output, and their continued influence on the English-speaking world to convey a number of commonalities. Admittedly, I know a little bit more about Prince - since he was one of the FM radio / MTV network icons of the 1980's, alongside Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Bruce Springsteen of my American childhood - than any familiarity with Dickens (although I feel as if I have always been conscious of A Christmas Carol through its various multimedia interpretations, and like Shakespeare he is one of a small number of authors to be honored with a name-invoked adjective to describe his writing style in a shorthand manner), but this compact work was a fun and informative examination of two talented and arguably brilliant men whose respective work still continues to inspire and entertain.
Author Hornby, in that signature easygoing and lightly intimate writing style of his, crafts a non-fiction novella that compares the Victorian-era British author nicknamed 'The Inimitable' and the American multi-genre music superstar called 'The Purple One' in Dickens and Prince. This initially may sound like an odd pairing, but Hornby dissects and correlates their sometimes-troubled but interesting personal lives, their respective critically and commercially-acclaimed artistic output, and their continued influence on the English-speaking world to convey a number of commonalities. Admittedly, I know a little bit more about Prince - since he was one of the FM radio / MTV network icons of the 1980's, alongside Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Bruce Springsteen of my American childhood - than any familiarity with Dickens (although I feel as if I have always been conscious of A Christmas Carol through its various multimedia interpretations, and like Shakespeare he is one of a small number of authors to be honored with a name-invoked adjective to describe his writing style in a shorthand manner), but this compact work was a fun and informative examination of two talented and arguably brilliant men whose respective work still continues to inspire and entertain.
December 23, 2022
This is an entertaining enough book essay if you have an interest in learning about one or the other of its subjects. I can’t say I learned anything new about Dickens, though Hornby does delve into some lesser-known facts, such as Dickens’s “sleep-studies.” He knows Prince’s music much better than I do (I’ve seen Prince only once in concert and own just a few of his albums), though I can’t say I learned anything new about him. It was still fun to read.
Even though Hornby tried to ward me off at the pass with his comparison-criteria, whenever he posed a rhetorical question, such as: Have you ever heard of someone so prolific in so many different styles of music? Do you know of anyone else who has music, all kinds, pouring out of his veins? — I had a ready answer. (Paul McCartney)
I’m not supposed to quote from the copy I read, because it was uncorrected-proofs, so I’ll paraphrase, as it’s something I don’t think can be stated enough. After a section about Dickens’s contemporaneous populist appeal and how he’s not viewed as ‘of the people’ any longer, Hornby writes that when anything popular survives, it seems to become the property of the educated elite; the same thing happened to Shakespeare.
Even though Hornby tried to ward me off at the pass with his comparison-criteria, whenever he posed a rhetorical question, such as: Have you ever heard of someone so prolific in so many different styles of music? Do you know of anyone else who has music, all kinds, pouring out of his veins? — I had a ready answer. (Paul McCartney)
I’m not supposed to quote from the copy I read, because it was uncorrected-proofs, so I’ll paraphrase, as it’s something I don’t think can be stated enough. After a section about Dickens’s contemporaneous populist appeal and how he’s not viewed as ‘of the people’ any longer, Hornby writes that when anything popular survives, it seems to become the property of the educated elite; the same thing happened to Shakespeare.
December 15, 2022
Nick Hornby compares and contrasts the lives and careers of two world-famous artists who greatly inspire him: the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and the 20th/21st century recording artist Prince, in an attempt to find out what qualities these two remarkable creators possessed that make them stand apart from their peers, in his short but wonderful book, Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius.
I’ve read a few Dickens books but I wouldn’t call myself a huge fan even though I didn’t dislike any of them - I just don’t find him that easy a writer to pick up and effortlessly lose yourself in - and I’m definitely not a Prince fan. But I am a Nick Hornby fan, particularly his nonfiction, and Dickens and Prince is easily his best book in years.
It’s not the kind of book that compares the two by looking at any uncanny coincidences they share but they did have a lot of similarities. Both had horrible childhoods (terrible parents, poverty), both became successful in their twenties and only became more famous and successful with age, both had weaknesses for women, both had a massive and lasting impact on culture, and both died from overwork (yes, Prince died of a drug overdose, but it was from a prescription pill addiction that originated from a hip injury he got from dancing during his shows for so many years, so… kinda?) at roughly the same age (Dickens at 58, Prince at 57 - two months shy of his 58th birthday).
As compelling as Hornby’s truncated biographies of these creators are, by far the biggest impression this book will leave on you is the insane productivity of both. Dickens wrote over 4 million words during his novel-writing career, not counting letters (of which there are an ever-increasing number of books thousands of pages long collecting them all), journalism or editing.
Prince produced dozens of records during his life (as well as writing songs for other artists) and left behind an estimated 5000-8000 unreleased songs that a dedicated team of archivists are diligently collecting and releasing slowly. One bizarre factoid is that, in addition to seducing them, he recorded an album overnight with some of the women he brought back to his house - that’s how effortless creation was for the guy (and it was just women he slept with, despite his androgynous looks/statements suggesting otherwise)!
It’s amazing how little planning went into both of their work. Ok, I’m sure a lot of Prince’s unreleased stuff, and a number of released songs, aren’t very good, and, similarly, Dickens had his share of forgettable dross (Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, Our Mutual Friend), but they also produced masterpieces via the same creative process of making it up as they went along with minimal-to-no planning.
We’ve all heard of how to achieve mastery in something you need to dedicate yourself to 10,000 hours of practice first, but Hornby suggests that, to become a genius at something, you need 10,000 hours of consumption as well. Dickens read voraciously and went to the theatre constantly while Prince listened to everything and took it all apart to understand how it worked - they were fans of the artforms not just creators working within them. Although, ultimately, there’s no real answer for explaining either artists’ genius - the sum total of their life experiences led them to become the way they were, 10,000 hours of practice/consumption or otherwise.
You could argue that where Hornby’s comparisons come unstuck are that Prince did his most iconic and best-loved work in his 20s while Dickens produced some of his best work in his 20s (Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby) but continued making big hits throughout much of his life - A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield in his 30s, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations in his 40s, and… well, nothing quite as notable in his 50s. Whereas Prince never reached his 1980s heyday (Purple Rain, Sign o’ the Times) afterwards.
But I’m glad Hornby paired the two because the book wouldn’t have worked without one or the other. I was more interested in the Dickens side of things but there’s a lot of enjoyable anecdotes about Prince here and he was every bit the accomplished artist that Dickens was. The two artists’ awe-inspiring lives complement and balance the book nicely - and I liked that the book is designed in purple, of course.
If, like me, you’ve missed Hornby’s Believer columns, where he wrote about what he had been reading recently, and miss his unique insight and enthusiasm for art appreciation, Dickens and Prince is a welcome return to that informative and entertaining style of writing he’s so good at. It takes a particular kind of genius to notice that nobody’s done this kind of book before and that particular genius is Nick Hornby’s own - Dickens and Prince is definitely one of the year’s highlights.
I’ve read a few Dickens books but I wouldn’t call myself a huge fan even though I didn’t dislike any of them - I just don’t find him that easy a writer to pick up and effortlessly lose yourself in - and I’m definitely not a Prince fan. But I am a Nick Hornby fan, particularly his nonfiction, and Dickens and Prince is easily his best book in years.
It’s not the kind of book that compares the two by looking at any uncanny coincidences they share but they did have a lot of similarities. Both had horrible childhoods (terrible parents, poverty), both became successful in their twenties and only became more famous and successful with age, both had weaknesses for women, both had a massive and lasting impact on culture, and both died from overwork (yes, Prince died of a drug overdose, but it was from a prescription pill addiction that originated from a hip injury he got from dancing during his shows for so many years, so… kinda?) at roughly the same age (Dickens at 58, Prince at 57 - two months shy of his 58th birthday).
As compelling as Hornby’s truncated biographies of these creators are, by far the biggest impression this book will leave on you is the insane productivity of both. Dickens wrote over 4 million words during his novel-writing career, not counting letters (of which there are an ever-increasing number of books thousands of pages long collecting them all), journalism or editing.
Prince produced dozens of records during his life (as well as writing songs for other artists) and left behind an estimated 5000-8000 unreleased songs that a dedicated team of archivists are diligently collecting and releasing slowly. One bizarre factoid is that, in addition to seducing them, he recorded an album overnight with some of the women he brought back to his house - that’s how effortless creation was for the guy (and it was just women he slept with, despite his androgynous looks/statements suggesting otherwise)!
It’s amazing how little planning went into both of their work. Ok, I’m sure a lot of Prince’s unreleased stuff, and a number of released songs, aren’t very good, and, similarly, Dickens had his share of forgettable dross (Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, Our Mutual Friend), but they also produced masterpieces via the same creative process of making it up as they went along with minimal-to-no planning.
We’ve all heard of how to achieve mastery in something you need to dedicate yourself to 10,000 hours of practice first, but Hornby suggests that, to become a genius at something, you need 10,000 hours of consumption as well. Dickens read voraciously and went to the theatre constantly while Prince listened to everything and took it all apart to understand how it worked - they were fans of the artforms not just creators working within them. Although, ultimately, there’s no real answer for explaining either artists’ genius - the sum total of their life experiences led them to become the way they were, 10,000 hours of practice/consumption or otherwise.
You could argue that where Hornby’s comparisons come unstuck are that Prince did his most iconic and best-loved work in his 20s while Dickens produced some of his best work in his 20s (Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby) but continued making big hits throughout much of his life - A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield in his 30s, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations in his 40s, and… well, nothing quite as notable in his 50s. Whereas Prince never reached his 1980s heyday (Purple Rain, Sign o’ the Times) afterwards.
But I’m glad Hornby paired the two because the book wouldn’t have worked without one or the other. I was more interested in the Dickens side of things but there’s a lot of enjoyable anecdotes about Prince here and he was every bit the accomplished artist that Dickens was. The two artists’ awe-inspiring lives complement and balance the book nicely - and I liked that the book is designed in purple, of course.
If, like me, you’ve missed Hornby’s Believer columns, where he wrote about what he had been reading recently, and miss his unique insight and enthusiasm for art appreciation, Dickens and Prince is a welcome return to that informative and entertaining style of writing he’s so good at. It takes a particular kind of genius to notice that nobody’s done this kind of book before and that particular genius is Nick Hornby’s own - Dickens and Prince is definitely one of the year’s highlights.
November 20, 2022
If you made a Venn Diagram of Nick Hornby, Charles Dickens, and Prince Rogers Nelson, there would be a picture of me in the intersecting circle. Or so, I thought when I first heard about this book (really a long essay). I like Charle Dickens, and I like Nick Hornby, but I LOVE Prince. There is not a single word, thought, or idea in this long essay about Prince that I have not read, heard or thought about. I found myself being nitpicky and wanting to hyper-correct the Prince sections.
The concept is exceptionally interesting. I enjoyed the new information that I learned about Dickens. However, Hornby rambled about himself too much and included way too much filler about people who were not Prince or Dickens.
The thesis about the particular kind of genius (which is essentially a workaholic) that connected Dickens and Prince was tenuous at best. Worked well in some categories and was a big stretch in others.
What can I say, I didn't completely hate it. For someone who knows a little about Prince and Dickens, I think this would be fascinating read. Overall, not terrible; not great.
The concept is exceptionally interesting. I enjoyed the new information that I learned about Dickens. However, Hornby rambled about himself too much and included way too much filler about people who were not Prince or Dickens.
The thesis about the particular kind of genius (which is essentially a workaholic) that connected Dickens and Prince was tenuous at best. Worked well in some categories and was a big stretch in others.
What can I say, I didn't completely hate it. For someone who knows a little about Prince and Dickens, I think this would be fascinating read. Overall, not terrible; not great.
September 20, 2023
I don't listen to Prince regularly. I don't read Dickens. What I do though, is read Nick Hornby's writings. I thought this book provides an interesting insight into the two artists whose respective works have inspired Hornby in one way or another. Some might say comparing Prince and Dickens doesn't make sense, but hey, admiration and influence are subjective. Overall, this was an entertaining read written in the usual Hornby's reflexive and humorous style, and I learned quite a bit about both artists.
Many thanks for the ARC I received in a Goodreads giveaway. Publication date: November 15, 2022.
Many thanks for the ARC I received in a Goodreads giveaway. Publication date: November 15, 2022.
March 22, 2023
This was a real joy. I read it as a palate cleanser after finishing a super intense book and before starting a very different read. What a great choice. I learned a ton about Prince and Dickens, but more importantly got to think a lot about true creativity and stunning productivity. There are some fun parallels between these two very odd geniuses who each changed art and culture in their time and ever after.
December 13, 2024
This was an interesting extended essay on the similarities between Charles Dickens and Prince - two people you would most likely never compare. It turns out they had similar struggles in their childhood, held similar work ethics, and shared a similar creative style. They were also both a huge inspiration to Nick Hornby.
If you're a fan of either Dickens or Prince - or are curious about what made them so prolific and successful - this is a great quick read. It made me want to read some classic Dickens and drag out some old Prince tunes. Maybe even at the same time.
Four purple stars!
If you're a fan of either Dickens or Prince - or are curious about what made them so prolific and successful - this is a great quick read. It made me want to read some classic Dickens and drag out some old Prince tunes. Maybe even at the same time.
Four purple stars!
December 23, 2022
I love that the Guardian describes this newest release from Nick Hornby as a “heartfelt exercise in hero worship,” because that’s EXACTLY what I found it to be as well—an in-depth look at a famed Victorian novelist and a famed modern-day musician who, on the surface, have nothing in common … until you dig deeper, as Hornby has done in this short little tome.
The reality is that while it may be a stretch to make connections between this pair, it is a hell of a good time (if you are into literature, history, and musicology) to spend a few hours learning more about the lives of both these men—how (again, quoting the Guardian here) their “deprived childhoods fuelled their ambition, their precocious fame … their shrewd management of later setbacks in their careers.”
I also was grateful to learn that, in all his exhaustive research, Hornby found that, with the exception of Sinead O’Connor’s account of a hellish night she spent with him, Prince was overall an ally to women. Evidence of this (of which there is plenty) made me feel better about still being a Prince fan, because shew…it’s a dwindling list of artists we can still admire full-stop, is it not?
I normally wouldn’t give away a book’s ending, but this one resonated with me so much as a creative, that I’m going to include it here so I can come back to it myself every now and then:
“What matters to me is that Prince and Dickens tell me every day, ‘Not good enough, not quick enough, not enough … more, more, more…think quicker, be more ambitious, be more imaginative.’ And whatever you do for a living, that’s something you need to hear every now and again.
“Were they happy? Probably not. Were they crazy? Probably. That, too, is beyond the scope of this book. This book is about work, and nobody worked harder than these two, or at a higher standard, while connecting to so many people for so long. That’s why I have photos of them both on my office wall. They will stay there for as long as I need them, which will be for the rest of my life.”
The reality is that while it may be a stretch to make connections between this pair, it is a hell of a good time (if you are into literature, history, and musicology) to spend a few hours learning more about the lives of both these men—how (again, quoting the Guardian here) their “deprived childhoods fuelled their ambition, their precocious fame … their shrewd management of later setbacks in their careers.”
I also was grateful to learn that, in all his exhaustive research, Hornby found that, with the exception of Sinead O’Connor’s account of a hellish night she spent with him, Prince was overall an ally to women. Evidence of this (of which there is plenty) made me feel better about still being a Prince fan, because shew…it’s a dwindling list of artists we can still admire full-stop, is it not?
I normally wouldn’t give away a book’s ending, but this one resonated with me so much as a creative, that I’m going to include it here so I can come back to it myself every now and then:
“What matters to me is that Prince and Dickens tell me every day, ‘Not good enough, not quick enough, not enough … more, more, more…think quicker, be more ambitious, be more imaginative.’ And whatever you do for a living, that’s something you need to hear every now and again.
“Were they happy? Probably not. Were they crazy? Probably. That, too, is beyond the scope of this book. This book is about work, and nobody worked harder than these two, or at a higher standard, while connecting to so many people for so long. That’s why I have photos of them both on my office wall. They will stay there for as long as I need them, which will be for the rest of my life.”
December 25, 2025
Ain’t no way in hell I’m giving this anything less than a 5. So many brilliant connections and considerations in this little book. As a fan of THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE, I think I love Hornby’s writings on books and writers more than anything else.
January 20, 2025
3.0⭐️ (2.5 Rounded up for Goodreads)
A sweet little homage for the eclectic niche of Charles Dickens and Prince Rogers Nelson fans out there. Unfortunately there just wasn’t a whole lot of substance to the information within, most fans will already be aware of the history that’s covered.
While I didn’t learn much of anything new, it’s still a fun audiobook to listen to. I do enjoy a proper British accent! Certainly made polishing the floors a far less tedious task on a snowy Sunday in the mitten.
A sweet little homage for the eclectic niche of Charles Dickens and Prince Rogers Nelson fans out there. Unfortunately there just wasn’t a whole lot of substance to the information within, most fans will already be aware of the history that’s covered.
While I didn’t learn much of anything new, it’s still a fun audiobook to listen to. I do enjoy a proper British accent! Certainly made polishing the floors a far less tedious task on a snowy Sunday in the mitten.
April 20, 2025
The back cover blurb claims this is "smart and funny"; the dust jacket flap promises "humor and wit" — unfortunately I was unable to detect anything amusing. Was it just me?
I enjoyed the segments about Dickens, but felt the Prince sections were an awkward fit. Putting these two creatives together felt forced to me — yes sure, there are some overlaps (a prodigious output, both dying at roughly the same age), but Dickens has been a cultural force for at least 170 years, and I wonder how the next 100 years will treat the artist formerly known as Prince?
This is a quirky book, and I was curious what Hornby would come up with (full confession — I am not familiar with this writer). It's a short book, what used to be known as an essay, so was mostly painless. To fully enjoy this unusual essay, you'd have to be obsessed with the minutia of Prince's career, which I found rather boring.
If only I could have found some wit.
I enjoyed the segments about Dickens, but felt the Prince sections were an awkward fit. Putting these two creatives together felt forced to me — yes sure, there are some overlaps (a prodigious output, both dying at roughly the same age), but Dickens has been a cultural force for at least 170 years, and I wonder how the next 100 years will treat the artist formerly known as Prince?
This is a quirky book, and I was curious what Hornby would come up with (full confession — I am not familiar with this writer). It's a short book, what used to be known as an essay, so was mostly painless. To fully enjoy this unusual essay, you'd have to be obsessed with the minutia of Prince's career, which I found rather boring.
If only I could have found some wit.
December 2, 2022
this feels like a book i’d try to bs my way through in an english class. do i buy the premise? honestly, no. did i learn about dickens and prince? sure, yeah. i’m gonna go listen to kiss now
August 26, 2022
Only Nick Hornby. This is fun and silly and serious about work. And it takes swipes at Henry James and a few other pretentious gits. Thanks, Nick!
I read this as an ARC.
I read this as an ARC.
February 7, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining comparison of two prolific geniuses.
March 16, 2024
Although I'm still not fully persuaded on the similarities between Dickens and Prince, this was an entertaining enough read and I did learn tidbits about both "geniuses" that I didn't know before.
Read
November 10, 2024Now that was a weird little book sort of comparing Dickens and Prince: their difficult childhoods, their prolific creative outputs, their penchant for lovely women, and their untimely deaths. I can't really put a star rating on it cause I'm no Dickens scholar... I've never even read any of his books. However, I sure appreciated the reference to obscure Prince tunes for my on-going YouTube playlist. Long live the funk!
January 9, 2023
I read this in two sittings, but as entertaining as it is, in the end I was slightly disappointed. It's like bumping into Hornby at the bar and having him talk to you about why he likes Prince and Dickens so much. While that sounds like a fun evening, I'm not sure how rewarding it is as a book.
That said, it was never anything but enjoyable. His takes on the work of both men are interesting, driven by the confidence and bravado that inspires someone to occasionally take the other side--as in, say, a good bar debate. Hornby's most valuable insight is one I have had before, but one that is always worth being reminded of: these two giants left behind so much great stuff because they were talented, yes, but more importantly they did the work. "Prince and Dickens tell me, every day," he writes at the end, to "[t]hink quicker, be more ambitious, be more imaginative."
That said, it was never anything but enjoyable. His takes on the work of both men are interesting, driven by the confidence and bravado that inspires someone to occasionally take the other side--as in, say, a good bar debate. Hornby's most valuable insight is one I have had before, but one that is always worth being reminded of: these two giants left behind so much great stuff because they were talented, yes, but more importantly they did the work. "Prince and Dickens tell me, every day," he writes at the end, to "[t]hink quicker, be more ambitious, be more imaginative."
November 20, 2022
I come to this as a big Prince fan and as someone who didn't know too much about Dickens's personal life. This was a fun, quirky, little book. Hornby basically is fanboying over two of his idols and draws comparisons between them - their tremendous creative output, their women trouble, their business woes, etc. I wasn't really convinced that they have a ton in common, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this exploration of two interesting creative geniuses. Hornby is a very entertaining writer and this won't take you long to read.
November 15, 2023
This was, ultimately, okay to bad, but it really has a 'never meet your idols' energy to it because it turns out that Nick Hornby is... kind of lame? Like, I don't think he really gets Prince and, if I knew or cared about Dickens' work, I get the sense I'd think he doesn't really get him either.
How can a man with a last name my phone is desperate to change to the word horny be such a prudish dweeb? Absolutely wild that someone who has made his money on stories about lackluster men successfully woo-ing beautiful, interesting women completely out of their league is apparently, like, anti-horny.
Also, he seems to thinks both Prince and Dickens only cared about money and owning their own work and not being exploited because they'd been poor in their youth instead of how artists should own their own work? And be compensated for it? And not be exploited? Like, what kind of a bootlicking nerd-ass loser do you have to be to express, out loud with your whole chest, 'I'm so glad someone with a head for business is around to buy my work and do something with it so I can stick to writing'?
And it wasn't even funny?
ETA: I did appreciate the very brief but chill bit about Prince and gender!
How can a man with a last name my phone is desperate to change to the word horny be such a prudish dweeb? Absolutely wild that someone who has made his money on stories about lackluster men successfully woo-ing beautiful, interesting women completely out of their league is apparently, like, anti-horny.
Also, he seems to thinks both Prince and Dickens only cared about money and owning their own work and not being exploited because they'd been poor in their youth instead of how artists should own their own work? And be compensated for it? And not be exploited? Like, what kind of a bootlicking nerd-ass loser do you have to be to express, out loud with your whole chest, 'I'm so glad someone with a head for business is around to buy my work and do something with it so I can stick to writing'?
And it wasn't even funny?
ETA: I did appreciate the very brief but chill bit about Prince and gender!
January 26, 2023
Our power went out this morning, and because I’m restricted to telework because of health right now (and so I can’t work if there’s no power!), I devoured this on the couch waiting for the lights and internet to come back and it was entirely delightful. Also then I downloaded a Kindle Unlimited version of Great Expectations, which I have never read and I plan to read before the end of 2023.
April 4, 2023
Fun and interesting book, but I was unable to see that much of a link between Charles Dickens and Prince.
December 30, 2022
When I see a book by Nick Hornby, I imediately pick it up. His name is as close to a guarantee that I will like a book, then almost any other factor. Still, I was skeptical. A book about Prince and Dickens as twin souls across a hundred plus years seemed almost gimmicky. And yet, as I read the book, I found more and more evidence that people of genius and incredible output do have more similarities and differences.
I loved Hornby’s discursive delves into both artists, comparing, and sometimes contrasting who they were, where they came from, and the people whose lives they impacted. There’s similar upbringing, their relationships to, and with women, their reactions to superstardom and the perception that they were not being paid what they were worth. All of it really does seem like these two creative people are intertwined in some profound way.
Most interesting is that while I like both Dickens and Prince, I’m not what you would call a giant fan of either. This book made me think that I should become one. It also made me think that I should write a book similar to this about two similar men in the same fields as Prince and Dickens, who have inspired me endlessly, and who are similar enough to base a book on. We’ll see where the future lies.
I loved Hornby’s discursive delves into both artists, comparing, and sometimes contrasting who they were, where they came from, and the people whose lives they impacted. There’s similar upbringing, their relationships to, and with women, their reactions to superstardom and the perception that they were not being paid what they were worth. All of it really does seem like these two creative people are intertwined in some profound way.
Most interesting is that while I like both Dickens and Prince, I’m not what you would call a giant fan of either. This book made me think that I should become one. It also made me think that I should write a book similar to this about two similar men in the same fields as Prince and Dickens, who have inspired me endlessly, and who are similar enough to base a book on. We’ll see where the future lies.
November 11, 2022
Hmmm, this one was kind of weird for me. I requested an advance reader copy from Riverhead publishing because I was intrigued by the concept of comparing the similarities between Prince and Dickens. In the end, I didn't really get the comparisons but I did enjoy the different facts that Hornby shared about both of them. I'm always fascinated by Prince in particular since he is from my home state and lived such an unusual life. It was an easy read (I finished it in a few hours) and I found it interesting but not amazing. If you're a fan of either Prince or Dickens, I think you may like this one.
April 28, 2024
I was familiar with Prince's story because I happened to read a graphic novel about it a short time ago. Dickens', on the other hand, was mostly unknown to me. Fortunately lately then I was trying to fill in some gaps and read several of his books that I had missed, but certainly not all of them. From Hornby's words what I gather is that perhaps, one dies of too much talent, or maybe I misunderstood and one dies of too much sex, I don't know. All kidding aside, I'm just envious.
La storia di Prince la conoscevo, perché mi era capitato di leggere una graphic novel a riguardo poco tempo fa. Quella di Dickens invece mi era per lo piú ignota. Per fortuna ultimamente poi stavo cercando di colmare qualche lacuna e ho letto parecchi libri suoi che mi mancavano, ma non certo tutti. Dalle parole di Hornby quello che si evince é che forse, di troppo talento di muore, o forse ho capito male e si muore di troppo sesso, non saprei. A parte gli scherzi, sono solo invidiosa.
La storia di Prince la conoscevo, perché mi era capitato di leggere una graphic novel a riguardo poco tempo fa. Quella di Dickens invece mi era per lo piú ignota. Per fortuna ultimamente poi stavo cercando di colmare qualche lacuna e ho letto parecchi libri suoi che mi mancavano, ma non certo tutti. Dalle parole di Hornby quello che si evince é che forse, di troppo talento di muore, o forse ho capito male e si muore di troppo sesso, non saprei. A parte gli scherzi, sono solo invidiosa.
May 1, 2023
Hornby wrote an essay comparing two artists who probably don’t get put together often. He successfully makes his points about things they have in common. They were both hard-working, driven, succeeded relatively quickly, probably obsessed with their work. Both had difficulties with the business end of things, were sure they were being financially taken advantage of and so on. Both most likely worked themselves to death, though in Dickens' case he lived to a respectable age for the times.
Hornby clearly has a lot of knowledge, respect, and admiration for his subjects and writes in a humorous, conversational style. Even if you’re only a fan of one of the two, you might still find this engaging.
Hornby clearly has a lot of knowledge, respect, and admiration for his subjects and writes in a humorous, conversational style. Even if you’re only a fan of one of the two, you might still find this engaging.
September 1, 2022
I'll read anything Nick Hornby writes, but this was definitely fascinating. I would never have thought to compare Dickens and Prince! Between this and the books in which he wrote about what he was reading, he'll make a Dickens fan of me yet. Maybe, as he mentions, I was made to read Dickens too early. I'll have to try again. I would have liked more illustrations. (I was reading an advance copy that I won - maybe there are more illustrations in the final version?)
January 7, 2023
I came for Dickens but stayed for Prince. "Dickens and Prince" is an extended essay that is overflowing with enthusiasm and worship for two very different artists, modesty about his own role, and a paen to the genius that emerges from a combination of protean talent and relentless obsessive drive. I listened to the Audible version which is 2.5 hours (at 1.3X).
I'm a huge Dickens fan and have enjoyed the movie versions of Nick Hornby's books (have not read the books themselves). I know the most famous Prince songs and once saw him in a truly stunning concert, a late night jam session in the East Room of the White House, at one point joined by Stevie Wonder. But beyond that I knew absolutely nothing about Prince and was not particularly intrigued.
The Dickens parts of the books were very familiar, most of them coming from the excellent Claire Tomalin biography Charles Dickens. But they were still enjoyable, one professional craftsman admiring another.
But the Prince parts blew me away, mostly because of my own previous ignorance. Learning about how young he started, how sure of himself he was, performing all the instruments and backup vocals on his first five albums, his prolific recording and performing career, and the perhaps thousands of unreleased songs he left behind in his vault. All of this is presumably just as familiar to Prince fans as the Dickens parts were to me but also the way in which Hornby expresses his enthusiasm and appreciation is infectiously exciting.
The book alternates between the two, going through their youth, their twenties, thematic issues (e.g., women) and their deaths. There are a surprising number of parallels but Hornby does not push them in any sort of forced of awkward way. Instead his book is ultimately a meditation on what he sees as the most important parallel between them: "This book is about work. And nobody ever worked harder than these two or at a higher standard while connecting with so many people for so long."
I'm a huge Dickens fan and have enjoyed the movie versions of Nick Hornby's books (have not read the books themselves). I know the most famous Prince songs and once saw him in a truly stunning concert, a late night jam session in the East Room of the White House, at one point joined by Stevie Wonder. But beyond that I knew absolutely nothing about Prince and was not particularly intrigued.
The Dickens parts of the books were very familiar, most of them coming from the excellent Claire Tomalin biography Charles Dickens. But they were still enjoyable, one professional craftsman admiring another.
But the Prince parts blew me away, mostly because of my own previous ignorance. Learning about how young he started, how sure of himself he was, performing all the instruments and backup vocals on his first five albums, his prolific recording and performing career, and the perhaps thousands of unreleased songs he left behind in his vault. All of this is presumably just as familiar to Prince fans as the Dickens parts were to me but also the way in which Hornby expresses his enthusiasm and appreciation is infectiously exciting.
The book alternates between the two, going through their youth, their twenties, thematic issues (e.g., women) and their deaths. There are a surprising number of parallels but Hornby does not push them in any sort of forced of awkward way. Instead his book is ultimately a meditation on what he sees as the most important parallel between them: "This book is about work. And nobody ever worked harder than these two or at a higher standard while connecting with so many people for so long."
July 12, 2024
HARDBACK EDITION...Will never read your crappy little Kindles so naaaah!
4.5 Stars!
“But I wasn’t abandoned by my mother, and I wasn’t sent to work in a blacking factory when I was a kid.”
I have to say that although I’ve bought many Prince albums back in the day (easily into double figures) and have heard most of his output including almost all the newer stuff too, I’ve still only read the one Dickens book, which is pretty shocking, but there are just so many other books out there, but hopefully I’ll get stuck into “Hard Times” before the end of the year.
There can’t be too many books out there which make you want to listen to Prince whilst reading Dickens, but I appear to have found one of them. Hornby examines and makes comparisons with the lives of Charles Dickens and Prince with many rewarding results. Both artists were clearly hugely talented and immensely prolific throughout their professional careers and both remain incredibly popular throughout much of the world today.
Reading this reminded me how much I have missed Hornby’s writing about music and books. He does it so well and seems to have a natural way with it, also his self-awareness and approach to the trappings of commercial success and temporary literary fame are also really interesting. I’m glad to have stumbled across this - it definitely gave me a renewed appreciation for Prince.
Not only does this book work, but it works really well. Hornby proves to be incredibly affable and perceptive. He’s really good at examining the perils hidden within the huge success that both artists experienced in their lifetimes and how latent issues from poverty ridden or abusive childhoods can develop and impact their egos and shape their behaviour in adulthood.
“If you start looking around to see who’s doing better than you, you are going to cause trouble for yourself, because even when you’re king or queen of the world, soon enough someone else will be. The least attractive older artists are those who can’t stop whining about how they’re not being marketed properly, or about how everything new is awful.”
December 31, 2022
I give this one four stars just for the out-of-the-box premise, which hit Nick Hornby one day when he was contemplating how productive and creative Prince was as an artist. Hornby asked himself, other than Prince, "Who else ever produced this much? Who else ever worked that way? It was supposed to be a rhetorical question, but then I realized there was an answer: Dickens. Dickens did. Dickens worked that way." And he takes it from there, outlining parallels in the way the two artists' respective genius worked and in how their lives unspooled, from their youth when their greatness burst upon the world, to their tumultuous love lives and financial issues, especially involving legal control of their work, to the fact that they both left the world too soon. It was a fun read because of all that but also because of Hornby's unmitigated admiration for both of his subjects. He's no slouch himself as an artist. It's nice to know people like that can be true fanboys too.
January 24, 2023
This book has no heart.
When I discovered this book I was in the middle of a personal Prince rediscovery. I had recently gone back to my favorite songs and putting together playlists. I read Morris Day's infinitely better assessment of Prince's output and drive, On Time: A Princely Life in Funk. I even bought tickets to the Prince interactive museum in Chicago (which sadly I could not get to before it closed because that was the week that every plane in the country seemed to be grounded). In short, I was becoming a fan all over again. And that led me to this.
When I first picked it up, I didn't make the connection between this Nick Hornby and the one who wrote High Fidelity. I LOVE High Fidelity. That book could only have been written by someone who loves music as much as I love music, by someone who is as genuinely pretentious about music as I am about music. When I made the connection I was set to be enthralled, because Nick Hornby is a moving and sentimental sort, and I can lose myself in his writing.
I did not lose myself in this. With the number of times that he references Sign O' the Times, that must be his favorite Prince album. A good one, to be sure. But while Hornby refers to both Prince and Dickens as "his people," it is clear that he is far closer to Dickens in his heart than to Prince. And what would one expect from an English writer? This book is a serviceable comparison of Dickens and Prince. It looks at their amazing outputs and their level of genius and consistency over the decades. But it reads like a book report on an assigned topic than a passion project. Hornby often loses himself in discussing Dickensian topics, and the man's personal life, and the level of his genius. But when it comes to Prince there are a lot of "I looked this up in..." and "according to this website..." and "I even Googled to find out..." which are probably meant to come off as pithy winks to the reader but really make already flat writing fall even harder.
The worst part for me came when Hornby compared Dickens and Prince both feeling financially slighted by their respective industries and wanting more money for their work. He acknowledges that many might be confused how a famous multimillionaire would write "Slave" on his cheek to protest the infamous Warner Bros. contract. I can't decide if the disconnect here is because Hornby is white or because he's not American. Many of us in America understood why the black man felt that he was being repressed and underpaid by those who literally owned his music, and was willing to fight the fight that black artists have been fighting for decades. That specific answer might have been outside the scope of this book, but if you're going to bring the controversy, you might as well briefly say something about why Prince felt so strongly about it. It's not the only time that Hornby neglects to remember that at the end of the day Prince is a black man and that contributes to why he felt the way he did about some things, but it is the most glaring.
Did I learn a lot from reading this? Yes. Could it have been much better? Also yes. Hornby may be a fan of music but it is clear that he may not have the same interest in the musicians behind them. At least not the American ones. And perhaps someone should have told him that before he wrote an entire book comparing one to what seems to be his favorite author. His connections to Dickens feel very personal, the end result of a writer who has compared himself to his favorite writer for years. But writing about Prince feels like a student reading his report in front of the class, trying to say what the teacher expects him to say, and I didn't connect with any of that part.
When I discovered this book I was in the middle of a personal Prince rediscovery. I had recently gone back to my favorite songs and putting together playlists. I read Morris Day's infinitely better assessment of Prince's output and drive, On Time: A Princely Life in Funk. I even bought tickets to the Prince interactive museum in Chicago (which sadly I could not get to before it closed because that was the week that every plane in the country seemed to be grounded). In short, I was becoming a fan all over again. And that led me to this.
When I first picked it up, I didn't make the connection between this Nick Hornby and the one who wrote High Fidelity. I LOVE High Fidelity. That book could only have been written by someone who loves music as much as I love music, by someone who is as genuinely pretentious about music as I am about music. When I made the connection I was set to be enthralled, because Nick Hornby is a moving and sentimental sort, and I can lose myself in his writing.
I did not lose myself in this. With the number of times that he references Sign O' the Times, that must be his favorite Prince album. A good one, to be sure. But while Hornby refers to both Prince and Dickens as "his people," it is clear that he is far closer to Dickens in his heart than to Prince. And what would one expect from an English writer? This book is a serviceable comparison of Dickens and Prince. It looks at their amazing outputs and their level of genius and consistency over the decades. But it reads like a book report on an assigned topic than a passion project. Hornby often loses himself in discussing Dickensian topics, and the man's personal life, and the level of his genius. But when it comes to Prince there are a lot of "I looked this up in..." and "according to this website..." and "I even Googled to find out..." which are probably meant to come off as pithy winks to the reader but really make already flat writing fall even harder.
The worst part for me came when Hornby compared Dickens and Prince both feeling financially slighted by their respective industries and wanting more money for their work. He acknowledges that many might be confused how a famous multimillionaire would write "Slave" on his cheek to protest the infamous Warner Bros. contract. I can't decide if the disconnect here is because Hornby is white or because he's not American. Many of us in America understood why the black man felt that he was being repressed and underpaid by those who literally owned his music, and was willing to fight the fight that black artists have been fighting for decades. That specific answer might have been outside the scope of this book, but if you're going to bring the controversy, you might as well briefly say something about why Prince felt so strongly about it. It's not the only time that Hornby neglects to remember that at the end of the day Prince is a black man and that contributes to why he felt the way he did about some things, but it is the most glaring.
Did I learn a lot from reading this? Yes. Could it have been much better? Also yes. Hornby may be a fan of music but it is clear that he may not have the same interest in the musicians behind them. At least not the American ones. And perhaps someone should have told him that before he wrote an entire book comparing one to what seems to be his favorite author. His connections to Dickens feel very personal, the end result of a writer who has compared himself to his favorite writer for years. But writing about Prince feels like a student reading his report in front of the class, trying to say what the teacher expects him to say, and I didn't connect with any of that part.
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