Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: the father of ten children, a tireless walker and traveler, a supporter of liberal social causes, but most of all a great novelist. He was the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination. Including the Artful Dodger, Mr Pickwick, Pip, and David Copperfield.
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 and literary heights. He did this entirely through his own efforts. When he died, the world mourned.
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.
Claire Tomalin, author of Whitbread Book of the Year Samuel Pepys, paints an unforgettable portrait of Dickens, capturing brilliantly the complex character of this great genius. Charles Dickens: A Life is the examination of Dickens we deserve.