Charles Dickens: A Life

From my study window, I can see the top of the square, pinnacled tower of St Luke's Church, Chelsea. In this church, in , Charles Dickens.
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His correspondence with authors shows that he had specific and very strong views about how pieces should be written and what effect they should have. His views were both aesthetic and political-to make a piece more lively and interesting was also to take a stand against the mechanical dreariness that Dickens felt was overwhelming English life. He was always in favor of imagination and "fancy," always opposed to dullness and the ponderousness that was a mask for social cruelty. His success in depicting the variety of lower-class English life was no accident-he was both interested in the lower orders and eager to show them to themselves and to the middle and upper classes.

The first ten parts of Oliver Twist were written at the same time Dickens was writing the last ten parts of Pickwick. Each section of Oliver Twist ran to about eight thousand words, and each section of Pickwick ran to about twice that or a bit more, so Dickens was writing ninety pages a month of these novels, while also working on other essays, articles, speeches, and plays.

Evidence is that he would write the dark, ironic chapters of Oliver Twist first, then the light, comic chapters of Pickwick. The death of Mary Hogarth caused him to miss the June number of both novels and, some critics say, to soften the harshness of Oliver Twist; but in spite of his profound mourning, he never stinted his activities.


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All through and that is, while writing, editing, getting married, moving house, and having children Mary, called Mamie, was born on March 6, -Dickens was also writing plays and promoting or overseeing their production. He wrote four dramatic works during this period: And though all of them went into production, and three of them had performances, only The Strange Gentleman ran for more than a handful of performances, and Dickens reluctantly, perhaps gave up playwriting for the time being. While not lasting works of art, the plays are testament both to Dickens's creative energy and to his surpassing love of the theater, which would emerge in later life in several potent ways.

Along with A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist is probably the best known of Dickens's narratives, certainly because, like many of Dickens's own works and like many other nineteenth-century novels, it was reworked for the stage, where the simple and vivid story of the workhouse child who falls among thieves and then is rescued and restored to his own wealthy grandfather made a dramatic and cohesive play. The arc of the narrative is fairy tale-like, but the details of Oliver's companions and surroundings came directly from Dickens's immediate world.

The New Poor Law, under which members of families were parted from one another according to gender, with the feeding regulations that Oliver so memorably flouts when he asks Mr. Bumble the beadle for more, had been in effect for some three years and was widely opposed by more liberal and radical elements of English society, of which Dickens counted himself one. The area of London where Fagin and his gang of thieves lived was very close to where Dickens lived while he was doing much of the writing, and Dickens, with his lifelong love of walking, was intimately familiar with it as with most of London and, indeed, all of the places where he lived.

Dickens's outrage at the primitive conditions that the poor of London had to live in was genuine, both on their behalf and as what we might term an "ecological understanding" that there could be no real separation between the rich and the poor, the healthy and the diseased, the dirty and the clean, the educated and the ignorant. Images of the flow of all things abound in his fiction from beginning to end, and in some sense he was always striving in his work to include more and more, to make each novel bigger and broader and also more particular, and to make the links between all things less linear and more netlike, to reproduce on the page the simultaneity and comprehensiveness of the way his mind and world around him joined.

Like The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist was related in form to other works that were popular at the time, in this case narratives of the lives of real orphans; but, according to Ackroyd, it was the first English novel to take a child as its protagonist. In some sense, Oliver Twist turned the world upside down and offered a new view of things to Dickens's readers-life at the bottom of Victorian society, as seen through the eyes of a child.

The form allowed the author to approach at a distance issues of his own childhood that he was not yet ready to address, among them feelings of victimization and abandonment. As a narrator, the author was openly satirical. Early in the novel, for example, when Oliver is apprenticed to the undertaker Sowerberry, he incurs the ire of Mr. Bumble the beadle by defending the honor of his unknown mother.

Bumble declares that Oliver's spirit must come from too rich a diet. The narrator comments, "The liberality of Mrs. Sowerberry to Oliver had consisted in a profuse bestowal upon him of all the dirty odds and ends which nobody else would eat, so there was a great deal of meekness and self-devotion in her voluntarily remaining under Mr.

Of which, to do her justice, she was wholly innocent in thought, word, and deed. Bumble, fixing his eyes upon [his wife]. Bumble to himself, 'she can stand anything. It is an eye I never knew to fail with paupers. If it fails with her, my power is gone. In fact, Oliver's journey offers Dickens the perfect opportunity to experiment, in the rather tight confines of a simple plot, with a diversity of character voices, almost all of them extreme-Oliver is extremely young and innocent, Mr.

Bumble is extremely pompous, Mr. Brownlow is extremely benevolent, Bill Sikes is extremely cruel, Fagin is extremely cunning-and with variety in the narrative voice. Every novelist seeks, both consciously and unconsciously, to extend his range of expression. Dickens was especially energetic in seeking out dramatic incidents and unusual characters and new material; he also possessed a constitutional restlessness that brought him into contact with a range of classes and individuals almost uniquely broad.

In his twenties, he was not unlike other youthful authors. Even though he was a genius, he had artistic ambitions that he was not yet technically equipped to fulfill, and he used his first three books to write his way toward fulfilling them. The Sketches expressed the plenitude of his interests but did not unify them. Pickwick gave voice to his very rich and ready comic sensibility but suffered from a certain bland digressiveness.

Oliver Twist allowed him access to a wide variety of strong emotions, both through and about his characters and their world, but was too vividly colored and suffered from a lack of the very naturalness that the other books had possessed. Nevertheless, between December 1, , when his first piece ran in the Monthly Magazine, and November 9, , when Oliver Twist was published in three volumes, Charles Dickens had become the most important literary figure of his day, the first Victorian novelist. Victoria herself was only newly crowned as of January Even Elizabeth Gaskell, close in age to Dickens, hadn't begun to write.

In a very real sense, he was in the process of creating the literary age that the others would be part of.

Charles Dickens, A Life by Claire Tomalin

He was so popular and so dominant a figure as both author and editor that the others would have to create their literary sensibilities more or less in reference to his. This excerpt, or any parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. Would you like to tell us about a lower price?

If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Learn more about Amazon Prime. Smiley's biograph is a perceptive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life. Read more Read less. Add both to Cart Add both to List. One of these items ships sooner than the other.

Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin: review

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The Battle Of Life By Charles Dickens

This volume follows Arthurian leylines in geographies of myth, history, gender, and culture. Little Dorrit Modern Library Classics. A Life From Beginning to End. Do you want to learn about Charles Dickens? But don't have the time or patience for a page book? You don't want to miss this! Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review.

Read reviews that mention jane smiley charles dickens ellen ternan mutual friend dickens until later in life penguin lives christmas carol dombey and son nineteenth century oliver twist actress ellen ten children lives series great expectations life and works major works little book smiley brings dickens from his books dickens novels. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. This is a short and easy to read book, and as much literary criticism than a full length biography. In the process we get a lot less about Dickens' dismal childhood and a lot more about the breakup of his marriage.

I must admit that I do not always agree with Smiley on her ranking of the novels - I like Bleak House much better than she did and was less enthusiastic about Our Mutual Friend, which she loved. But that is the fun of this type of work, especially with this type of author, and Smiley always makes her points intelligently and respectfully, noting when she is a minority opinion as with Bleak House. It is good than the more obscure novels get their due amount of time.

For me, this approach often worked quite well. I am not nearly as interested in Dickens' financial dealings with his publishers than I am with Oliver Twist. One person found this helpful. This is a book that could be a text in a literary criticism class. I'm nearly finished with it after reading Little Dorritt, one of Dickens' novels. I had decided to spend some time reading and re-reading Dickens' books.

I read some of them when I was a child. And of course, everyone knows The Christmas Carol.

Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin – review

This book by Jane Smiley is so excellent - it makes me think that Dickens should be studied in English literature courses in college, rather than some of those by Bronte, etc. One doesn't have to be a college student to get a great deal from this book as it is written in very accessible language. Smiley discusses Dickens' personality, his life, his ideas, his criticism of English society, and several of his books.

I recommend that schools study more of Dickens' work and use this book as a guide. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Good, brief biography of Dickens with emphasis on his life-long development as a novelist, written by a fine novelist. Smiley's continual comments about the nature of the novel were fascinating for me. This lively book provides an overview of the literary achievements and personal life of Charles Dickens. Terrific companion to reading Dickens. All the biography you will even need, insightful and thought provoking analysis of the novels. It's like being in the best book club anywhere.

Heavy going, but insightful on several works e. This is a great little book on the life of Charles Dickens. For anyone who wants a glimpse into his life, this is a great little book, and a fairly short, easy read. It was interesting learning about him. See all 30 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published on March 7, Published on January 10, A Rochester Top Contributor: Published on August 14, Published on April 22, Published on April 15, Published on January 4, Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers.

Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Set up a giveaway. Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Leon Edel, biographer of Henry James, defined a biographer as "a novelist, on oath". It's a valid aphorism and worth bearing in mind, particularly when dealing with a writer as famous and as shrouded with legend and anecdote as Dickens. One of the reasons why it's so intriguing to learn how much money he made is that it strips away some mythic veils — Dickens was a great artist, but he was also a very human being.

Tomalin's biography — always scrupulous about what we can know, what we can deduce and what is mere speculation — paints a portrait of a complex and exacting man. He was at once vivacious and charming, charismatic and altruistic and possessed of superabundant energies — "Dickens kept going," Tomalin notes, "by taking on too much" for example, in he was writing Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby simultaneously.

But he was also, equally — to an almost schizoid degree — tormented, imperious, vindictive and implacable, once wronged. These matters are particularly focused when it comes to the story of Dickens's marriage and his long affair with the young actress Nelly Ternan. Dickens, aged 45, fell for Ellen Ternan when she was It was simply — like Pip's love for Estella in Great Expectations — because she was "irresistible", he claimed. Dickens had long been unhappy in his marriage — a union that had produced 10 children by this time — and his infatuation with Nelly brought out the worst in him.

He publicly separated from Catherine, humiliating her in the cruellest manner, and, after a form of courtship with Nelly — who did not yield to his importuning immediately — set her up as his mistress in a series of houses on the outskirts of London. This was done in the greatest secrecy, and it's something of a miracle that we know about this side of Dickens's life at all. However, by the time he had succeeded in finally establishing this new menage to his satisfaction, Dickens was ageing and ailing.

Perhaps the strain of living this lie in Victorian England provoked undue stress — we must never forget how internationally famous he was — but by his early 50s Dickens was prematurely aged, suffering from terrible gout he could often hardly walk , piles, neuralgia and, later, the effects of a minor stroke. George Eliot described him in as "dreadfully shattered".

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He had been an enthusiastic cigar smoker since the age of 15 and the late photographs show a raddled, smoker's face with grizzled beard and deep lines. Probably the worst thing he could do as his health gave way was to embark on a punishing series of tours giving public readings from his novels. He was so weak he sometimes had to be helped on and off the stage, but he fed off the adoration of the thousands of his readers who turned out to hear him at home and in America. The work remains and endures — and Tomalin analyses the novels with great acuity — but what is so valuable about this biography is the palpable sense of the man himself that emerges.

Tomalin doesn't hesitate to condemn Dickens when his behaviour demands it, yet she writes throughout with great sympathy and unrivalled knowledge in the most limpid and stylish prose. She has the gift of being able to set a scene and a time with compelling vividness.

This is a superb biography of a great writer — and is a beautifully produced book, it should be said, with copious illustrations. Like Dickens, they were complicated and often extremely difficult and demanding individuals. The more we learn about them as people — paradoxically — the greater their art resonates with us. Celebrations will honour novelist born in with film, debates, drama and exhibitions around the world.

On the eve of her eagerly awaited life of Dickens, the grande dame of literary biography talks to Rachel Cooke about seeing the world through the eyes of her subjects — and why the one remarkable life she is reluctant to write is her own. From his time at his first house, 48 Doughty Street,Charles Dickens was fascinated with interior decoration. Topics Charles Dickens Charles Dickens at Claire Tomalin Biography books reviews.