Biography charles dickens claire tomalin
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The stages of Dickens's life and the experiences that shaped him and his writing are done so well. From these unpromising beginnings, he rose to scale all the social and literary heights, entirely through his own efforts. His work was seen as sentimentalist populist tripe, but it sold like hotcakes. Dickens could also hold massive grudges.
He went out of his way to try to help prostitutes find better lives, even funding a shelter in London that provided them with a safe place to live and new opportunities. He got crazy ideas in his head — like the belief that he was a top-notch hypnotist who could cure people with his mind. He played Charles, Prince of Wales in the film The Queen, and his TV appearances include The State Within, Inspector Morse and the title role in Ashenden.
In the Summer of 1857 the 45 year old Dickens met, literally on the stage, an 18 year old young woman for whom he would leave his wife and with whom he would pursue a secret affair until his death 13 years later. He grew up in poverty, with a father who was always fleeing from creditors and spent time in prison, so Dickens knew what he was talking about.
Ellen Ternan, Dickens’s mistress, hidden in plain sight from his adoring readers. At any given time, he was working on a novel, editing a magazine, doing charity work, overseeing a huge family, writing articles for newspapers, and keeping a grueling travel schedule. Late in his marriage, he dumped his wife after she gave birth to a slew of their children, publicly shamed her for being stupid, fat and ugly, and started a tortured love affair with a much younger actress.
Tomalin’s look at this imperfect genius was a wonderful story in its own right, whether or not you were forced to read Great Expectations in high school like I was.
The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Charles Dickens: A Life, the major new biography from the highly acclaimed Claire Tomalin, published for the 200th anniversary of his birth.
Claire Tomalin’s masterful biography opens with: ‘This is the story of someone who – almost – wasn’t there; who vanished into thin air’. He's a prolific reader of audiobooks, the most notable of which are The Horse and his Boy, Oliver Twist and Attention All Shipping.
Tomalin is the most empathetic of biographers
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
The finest and most disinterested of biographers
Hilary Mantel, New York Review of Books
A biographer who goes from strength to strength
Melvyn Bragg, Guardian
Tomalin is one of our greatest biographers
Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times
About Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin was literary editor of the New Statesman then the Sunday Times before leaving to become a full-time writer.
He became a beloved figure in England, France and beyond for his compassion and his understanding of the common person. A Charles Dickens you probably never knew existed because that was his plan.
(Peter, Museum Room Steward and Education Volunteer)
Claire Tomalin's biography of Charles Dickens is compelling and brilliant, and the portrait provided of him is lively, sympathetic but never one-sided, and as such keeps the reader engaged and discovering.
The deep research and knowledge behind the writing is apparent, as is the author's own ability as a story-teller herself.
It was well worth my time. In the highly acclaimed Charles Dickens: A Life, she presents a full-scale biography of our greatest novelist. The facts of their relationship only began to surface in 1928, 50 years after his death. He made giant sums of money and lost them in ill-advised business ventures.
At the same time, Dickens was a true sentimentalist who felt sympathy for the poor, the destitute, and the powerless of the 1800s.