The Dickens Boy

By: Thomas Keneally

Narrated by: David Tredinnick

Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1868, Charles Dickens dispatches his youngest child to Australia. Like his brother Alfred before him, 16-year-old Edward is expected to learn to apply himself in what his father considers to be the new land of opportunity.

Posted to a remote sheep station in New South Wales, Edward discovers that Charles Dickens' fame has reached even there, as has the gossip about his father's scandalous liaison with an actress. Amid colonists, ex-convicts, local tribespeople and a handful of eligible young women, Edward strives to be his own man - and keep secret the fact that he's read none of his father's novels.

Conjuring up a life of sheep-droving, horse-racing and cricket tournaments in a community riven with tensions and prejudice, the story of Edward's adventures also affords an intimate portrait of Dickens himself.

This vivacious novel is classic Keneally: historical figures and events re-imagined with verve, humour and compassion.

©2020 Serpentine Publishing Co Pty Ltd (P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Absolutely wonderful!

Brilliant historical fiction! I learned a lot from this book by reading about the historical basis for what happens in this book. It is clearly very well-researched, and the weaving of historical events with the fictional imagination is superbly executed. The characters are well-developed. The two brothers in Australia debate the enigma of Charles Dickens: on one hand his treatment of his wife,, a woman who bore him 10 children (can you imagine how exhausted she must have been!), well-known, is hard to reconcile with the author who shows so much compassion in his writing for the down-trodden. And then we have the problems of colonialism to consider. There are so many admirable aspects to modern day Australia, but its colonialist history is something to contend with. I would be delighted to listen to a sequel to this book and can only wish that Thomas Keneally stays healthy enough (and would want) to write one. He's a brilliant author and I thank him for the hours of pleasure this book brought me. The narrator was also brilliant - I can't know how accurate his various accents are, but they sound convincing enough, and with different voices for the large number of characters, he was most entertaining. A tiny gripe: I thought he paused too much between sentences.