Charles Dickens" is the acclaimed definitive biography by bestselling author Claire Tomalin. Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: a demonicly hardworking journalist the father of ten children a tireless walker & traveller a supporter of liberal social causes but most of all a great novelist
- the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination: the Artful Dodger Mr Pickwick Pip David Copperfield Little Nell Lady Dedlock & many more. At the age of twelve he was sent to work in a blacking factory by his affectionate but feckless parents. From these unpromising beginnings he rose to scale all the social & literary heights entirely through his own efforts. When he died the world mourned & he was buried
- against his wishes
- in Westminster Abbey. Yet the brilliance concealed a divided character: a republican he disliked America; sentimental about the family in his writings he took up passionately with a young actress; usually generous he cut off his impecunious children. From the award-winning author of " Samuel Pepys" " 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" & "A Christmas Carol" this book is invaluable reading. " By far the most humane & imaginatively sympathetic account yet for the general reader". (Amanda Craig " New Statesman"). Claire Tomalin is the award-winning author of eight highly acclaimed biographies including: " The Life & Death of Mary Wollstonecraft"; " Shelley & His World"; " Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life"; " The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan & Charles Dickens"; " Mrs Jordan's Profession"; " Jane Austen: A Life"; " Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self"; " Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man" & most recently " Charles Dickens: A Life". A former literary editor of the " New Statesman" & the " Sunday Times" she is married to the playwright & novelist Michael Frayn."