Charles Dickens: A Life

CHARLES DICKENS was a phenomenon. Perhaps the greatest novelist in the English language, the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination, Sam Weller, Mr Pickwick, the Artful Dodger, David Copperfield, Little Nell, Lady Dedlock, Mrs Gamp, Pip, Miss Havisham and many more. He was also a demonically hard-working journalist, father of ten children, indefatigable walker and traveller, and tireless in his support of liberal social causes. At the age of twelve he was sent by his affectionate but feckless parents to work in a blacking factory. By the time of his death in 1870 he drew adoring crowds to his public appearances, had met princes and Presidents on both sides of the Atlantic, and had amassed a fortune. He was truly 'the inimitable', as he jokingly described himself. When he died, the world mourned, and he was buried - against his wishes - in Westminster Abbey. The energy and brilliance concealed a complex and divided character. A republican, he took strongly against America when he visited the country; sentimental about the family in his writings, he cast his wife into outer darkness after taking up with a young actress; often generous with his time and money, he cut off his more impecunious children and siblings; loyal to his friends in the theatre, he treated his publishers appallingly.