Charles Dickens

A Life

De: Claire Tomalin

Narrado por: Alex Jennings

When Charles Dickens died in 1870, The Times of London successfully campaigned for his burial in Westminster Abbey, the final resting place of England's kings and heroes. Thousands flocked to mourn the best recognized and loved man of 19th-century England. His books had made them laugh, shown them the squalor and greed of English life, and also the power of personal virtue and the strength of ordinary people. In his last years Dickens drew adoring crowds to his public appearances, had met presidents and princes, and had amassed a fortune.

Like a hero from his novels, Dickens trod a hard path to greatness. Born into a modest middle-class family, his young life was overturned when his profligate father was sent to debtors' prison and Dickens was forced into harsh and humiliating factory work. Yet through these early setbacks he developed his remarkable eye for all that was absurd, tragic, and redemptive in London life. He set out to succeed, and with extraordinary speed and energy made himself into the greatest English novelist of the century.

Years later Dickens's daughter wrote to the author George Bernard Shaw, "If you could make the public understand that my father was not a joyous, jocose gentleman walking about the world with a plum pudding and a bowl of punch, you would greatly oblige me." Seen as the public champion of household harmony, Dickens tore his own life apart, betraying, deceiving, and breaking with friends and family while he pursued an obsessive love affair.

Charles Dickens: A Life gives full measure to Dickens's heroic stature - his huge virtues both as a writer and as a human being - while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye. Renowned literary biographer Claire Tomalin crafts a story worthy of Dickens's own pen, a comedy that turns to tragedy as the very qualities that made him great - his indomitable energy, boldness, imagination, and showmanship - finally destroyed him. The man who emerges is one of extraordinary contradictions, whose vices and virtues were intertwined as surely as his life and his art.

©2011 Claire Tomalin (P)2012 Tantor

Broad overview

I liked that they used alot of different people's stories about Charles to create a broad view of his life..

A Deep and Shallow man

I am amazed at the talent of this man, but saddened by his human frailty.

Such a worthwhile read.

I learned a lot from this biography. So much material to get through but this book is perfectly researched and beautifully presented. Performance was exceptional.

A Life

I found this to be a very good book. Mr Dickens lived such a storied life,the tabloids today would have eaten him up. Narration was very good.

What The Dickens?

The author seemed to have forgotten the use of adverbs replacing them with adjectives. Many details about Dickens, his characters, locations in London & England, his novel’s story lines & his friends or acquaintances. As an Audible book I often forgot who a person or character was when talked about later in the book. There was no way to look back and rediscover the person or character. If you have not read all of Dickens’ works, the author’s details of each can be tedious to listen to. Mostly my impression was a this is bleak tale.

Very comprehensive book about Charles Dickens

This book is a phenomenal accomplishment of research and compilation. I cannot imagine that anything important about Charles Dickens' life remains unsaid. There is almost too much detail here, but one finishes this book with a very good understanding of the author, the place of each book in his life, and the dynamics of his authorship. You may be surprised that some of his best books are given short shrift, but then, this is about Dickens and not just his books. Very interesting read!

The surprises!

The Charles Dickens you never knew. Amazing narrative. He was a complex genius. And human.

Geniuses, don’t make good partners…

Geniuses don’t make good parents, usually. This wonderful biography shows the day today workings of an obsessed personality. If you listen to: stealing fire… That’s the kind of brain that Charles dickens was gifted with. And the fact that he knew how fired up his own brain was, and what it needed to calm down… Walking 12 miles a day, makes this biography, very much worth reading/listening to. His need for love and admiration made him the workhorse that he was. His sense of entitlement, and his ignoring of the middle class, morality, and hypocrisy that he saw all around him… Allowed him to pursue passionate friendships… If you were to relate him to a DSM diagnostic evaluation, head cold out as a narcissist. But all artists are complete narcissists. as his daughter said of him after he died: he wasn’t a good man, but he was wonderful! And he had a large beating heart that changed the way English people saw their own society… With all its prejudice, privilege, and pathology. This biography is very well done!

Great biography

Awesome book and truly insightful. Any admirer of Charles Dickens will enjoy this. The performance is excellent.

Highly recommend

I enjoyed this biography immensely. I recommend it unreservedly.
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