Charles Dickens

A celebrity before the days of celebrity, Charles Dickens was a genius and an enigma who created some of the most potent novels in history. Behind the scenes, Dickens was a man unlike any other, with strange beliefs, warring passions and an eclectic lifestyle. In this biography by famous author Jane Smiley, Dickens’ life and works are explored in great depth and with generous helpings of sympathy, interest and wonder. From his secrecy about his troubled childhood to his eventual marriage to a woman whom he would one day repudiate, Smiley gives us a profound insight into the inner workings of the man whose fame seemed to be ever increasing. She shares with her readers his rapturous enjoyment of his notoriety and reveals the ways show more Dickens sought to eradicate society’s social and political ills through his stories. She also sheds light on how he unintentionally captured the personalities and behaviors of both himself and his counterparts in his amazingly fluid and distinctive tales. Smiley reveals all this with a deep sense of understanding and intimate knowledge that mirrors the devotion of his many fans, and even the critics who panned him. Part biography, part literary critique, Charles Dickens: A Life is at once a fascinating study of a man who was ahead of his time and also, tragically, a product of it.

Though I haven’t read Dickens’ work extensively, I do consider him to be one of my favorite authors, and I’m constantly amazed at the unique and sensitive qualities of his writing. I am, in fact, so interested in Dickens and his work that I’m trying to undertake a project where I read all his published work incrementally throughout the new year. It's a vast undertaking, for most of Dickens’ books are very long, but I hope one day to be able to complete this journey through the works of an author whom I find amazing and inimitable. When I was approached to review this book, I did a happy little dance of joy and immediately said yes, for I could think of no better way to get close to this author than to read about his life and work in biographical form. This book was entrancing from the outset, and Smiley’s manipulation of her material was both expert and alluring. I learned so much about Dickens that I felt, as I closed the covers, as if I had gotten an intimate peek into the mind of a man who defies easy description.

As many readers of Dickens will attest, there is no one who writes a story in quite the way this man did. Many other authors manage to imitate him in their rich portrayal of character, but there is truly only one Dickens, and love him or hate him, this cannot be denied. One of the things that was most interesting about this book was discovering that each story he wrote had a good deal of autobiographical material threaded through it, and as Dickens matured as an author and his perceptions of the world changed, his characters also grew more evolved and multifaceted. Many of his characters were archetypes, and many of them were based on the very people he lived with, worked with or associated closely with. I found it interesting that Dickens seemed to have only two or three versions of the women in his tales, and these women were based on the limited and very prejudicial beliefs that he held. Most of his female characters were either based on his wife (who, in later years, he held little esteem for) or took on the virginal and unsullied role of those paramours that Dickens always kept out of public sight. It's stated rather clearly that it's only at the end of his life that Dickens truly began to understand women, and this also was reflected in his work.

Dickens was also very adept at making social statements and addressing pressing public concerns in his work, and used the platform of his novels to share his disgust and sadness at the failure of the system to adequately provide for the lower class. Much of his work has the hallmark of broaching topics of public sanitation, the workhouse, orphanages, and other systems where people fall through the cracks and are forgotten. Though these are topics he includes in his books, these aren’t the subjects of his books, and in his own way Dickens creates a pastiche of narrative, character and drama with an underlying and low level admonishment of the system that so many found themselves at the mercy of. Dickens sought to entertain but also to educate, and in this light, his work takes on a new meaning and portent that most modern readers remain unaware of. Not only was Dickens a very successful author, he was arguably the first celebrity to ever take the stage, with dramatic readings and recitations punctuating his literary work.

The one area where I have a bone to pick with Dickens is in his abysmal treatment of his wife. While it's true she wasn’t his first choice, as time went on and she made the gradual transition from paramour to maternal figure, Dickens seemed to gradually devalue her and make increasingly impractical demands of her. It seems he could only think of women in very limited ways, and her gradual transition from one type of woman to another drew his ire and ill-concealed hatred. It's also worth noting that Dickens’ life was marked by considerable restlessness and a desire for concealment and movement. The fact that he had scores of children and a wife who was more content to stay put was just another annoyance that he seemed to never get over. As an artist, Dickens was sublime, but as an everyday man, he was irascible and demanding, and I doubt I would have wanted to know him personally, though at times he was known to be generous, kind and exciting.

I had the time of my life with this book, getting to know both the very private and illustrious public sides of Dickens’ life. I would recommend this book to readers who are fans of his work or are just curious about the legendary artist who swept the country by storm and created the “domestic drama,” a type of novel that had never been attempted before. It was a pleasure to read this biography because, while it was clear that Smiley much admired and touted Dickens and his work, she was not blinded by his stardom and was able to paint the man behind the words with realism, honesty and impartiality. A very solid biography. Recommended. show less

A slim (207 pgs.) volume that hits some of the highlights of Dickens' life and, more importantly for someone like myself who hasn't actually read much Dickens ("Great Expectations" many years ago), gives a feel for the novels. (And from the viewpoint of one who writes novels). Made me want to read more Dickens...what more can one ask? I've enjoyed all the books I've read in this series (Penguin Lives).

Terrible confession: I hate Dickens. At least, I think I do; I'm not sure I've ever read him, other than A Christmas Carol, and to be honest, I'm not even sure I've read it.  (I've certainly seen enough adaptations to think I have!)  Of all the Victorian authors in the world, he appeals to me the least. I know, I'm a godless heathen for saying so. I hope to rectify this someday and read something of his, but other books jostle to the top of the list.

All this is to say I know little about Dickens. But as with the Edna O'Brien bio on Joyce, I love writers on writers. Where O'Brien's take was boisterous, rowdy, emulating Joyce's style, Smiley's is a more traditional biography, although not entirely chronologically. She hits on the show more themes of Dickens life -- family, social critique, celebrity -- and offers background for readers about his works.

I enjoyed this read -- it was quick, very easy to get in to, and enlightening without being overwhelming. As with most biographies, learning more about authors is a mixed bag for me: I love reading about other lives, and I especially enjoy learning about the creative process, but I do hate learning less savory details about historical figures I might like. In this, Smiley is remarkably (maddeningly, I found) even-handed, acknowledging Dickens' wife's depression while still honoring Dickens' unhappiness with his wife. As with the Joyce biography, I was more interested in the women of Dickens' life, but this slender volume is not the place for it.

As a starting place for anyone interested in Charles Dickens and his works, I highly recommend this book. Smiley suggests her own reading order for anyone starting with Dickens, and provides brief context and commentary on his major works to springboard the curious reader into their own Dickens studies. show less

There are some ridiculously exhaustive biographies of Dickens that mirror his novels, door-stoppers filled with every detail of his life. This is not one of them. Rather it is an overview of the life of Dickens. It's beautifully written and says all there is probably to say that is important and interesting. Some day I might read one of those longer biographies, but I'd rather put my time into the novels. This biography satisfies my curiosity about who Dickens was, the context of his time and the meaning of his novels.

An excellent short biography of Dickens. I'm having a Dickens moment right now and am reading a few of his novels, so I was looking for a little context, but didn't want to invest the time to read Ackroyd's or another full length investigation. Just what the doctor ordered as they say. Maybe a little more supposition and psychology than I was expecting, but Smiley is a novelist so bringing some of that to the table is to be expected I suppose. Very good!!

Charles Dickens pode ser considerado a primeira celebridade do mundo moderno. Ao contrário de muitos grandes autores que o precedeu, alcançou a grande fama em vida, sendo um escritor de bastante sucesso e referenciado ainda jovem. Aos 25 anos já tinha publicado 3 livros e algumas peças de teatro e já era considerado o maior escritor da Inglaterra. Um caso raro de talento precoce para a literatura.

Esse é o perfil que a escritora Jane Smiley explora em sua curta biografia de Dickens. Confesso que sou meio avesso à biografias, mas estou começando a mudar minha opinião. Depois de ler sobre a vida de Yitzhak Rabin, tive a sorte de ler esta bonita obra de Smiley. A escritora conseguiu com bastante clareza expor a trajetória de show more Dickens, o primeiro homem a se ver administrando uma carreira de sucesso, com reconhecimento e procurando, ao mesmo tempo, preservar sua privacidade.

Ela é especialmente feliz ao relacionar acontecimentos da vida do escritor com seus inúmeros e inesquecíveis personagens, mostrando que um grande artista busca a experiência do mundo real para transpor para sua arte. Dickens conseguiu este feito com extrema maestria.

Uma obra digna de seu personagem. show less

Chances are sometime in your life you've been introduced to Charles Dickens, weather it be from reading his novels or seeing his characters come to life on film and stage. One of his popular holiday books, A Christmas Carol is well known. I know I've watched on television quite a few film versions from the classic 1939 movie to The Muppets and to the 2009 remake. A Christmas Carol was the first novel I read by Charles Dickens. My seventh grade teacher tortured us with the complexity of Dickens. I say tortured because my young mind couldn't yet fathom the complexities of his novels. I didn't learn to appreciate Dickens until later in life. In fact I've even read a few of his novels for pleasure. That's right no grade was involved. But show more who is the man behind these novels? What inspired him? What drove him?
Charles Dickens: A Life by Pulitzer Prize winner, Jane Smiley is an interesting portrait of the man behind the novels. Instead of writing about Dickens from birth to death, Smiley concentrates on what influenced Dickens at the time of his writing. Charles Dickens was an eccentric character. He was a bit flamboyant, charismatic, very intelligent and socially conscious. He was also peculiar. His life and writing was influenced by many things that happened in his childhood, his personal views on marriage, and his social responsibilities. He was a hard working man. Always on the go. Charles Dickens was a rock star of the literary world. People loved and hated him. Jane Smiley brings out the intricacies of Charles Dickens life. She introduces a more private side of Dickens and how his choices influenced his novels.
I've read a few biographies about Charles Dickens but I really enjoyed this book. Jane Smiley did a fantastic job of showing different sides of the mysterious Dickens through his literary masterpieces. Charles Dickens: A Life is full of valuable information that will have you not only understanding the man behind the public figure but also his novels. I think this is definitely a book any Dickens fan would love to read. show less