Bibliography: p. 489. Includes index.

76/59-Ιδανικό για μικρά παιδιά . Εύκολα κατανοούν τη ζωή του Χριστού. ( )

A brilliant and comprehensive biography. I think Ms Tomalin conveyed very fair picture of Dickens- his huge energy for work, business and fun ; his passion for walking miles through the streets of London, taking in the grimmest and poorest quarters; his good works, sponsorship of the needy; his many strong friendships. However, one must set this against the way he cast of his wife and became increasingly uninterested in his children (especially if they needed help.
Ms Tomalin provides much circumstantial evidence on his long-term affair with youthful actress Ellen Ternan....the desperate need for secrecy, given his fame...the short-lived illegitimate son, born in France...
A memorable and very human man. ( )

It is easier to forgive a genius for feet of clay than for a heart of stone, I find.

Tomalin's book is about as fair to him as it is possible to be. She delves into great (and sometimes excessive) detail about his life, his comings and goings, friendships, health issues, and passions, and you develop a very good insight into the man behind all of the famous novels. Unfortunately, it is impossible to respect him. He is a misogynist of the worst kind, who pretends to love women--but only if they behave in his very narrowly prescribed ways of Acceptable Womanhood. The temptation is to excuse this because of the time he lived in, but as Tomalin makes very clear, Dickens' treatment of women was bad even for the standards of Victorian England. For a modern reader it is pretty well horrifying.

He is a monster to his wife, and not much better to his children. The children he wanted could do no wrong, and he forgave them time and again for the very crimes and failings that the children he did not want were cast out for. His later sons were all packed off to the colonies as soon as it was reasonably decent to do so, and these never saw their family again, but it seems to have troubled Dickens not at all. I can't imagine the loneliness and pain of growing up the son of the great Charles Dickens, patron saint of Family Values, and knowing he did not love you. Even the children he loved did not think of him as a good man, a good husband, or a good father.

I have the audiobook version, and found it compelling, well written, very well researched, and very thorough. As well, the narrator clearly had a lot of fun with all of the quotations, developing different voices and accents for all of the different people in Dickens' life. If you like audiobooks, it's a good one.

You will finish this book feeling that you know Dickens very well, but you might wish you hadn't. ( )

No one who reads any of Charles Dickens’ works can assume he had an easy childhood. From Oliver Twist to Great Expectations and David Copperfield, London is always lush and vivid with characters that leap off the page. Children are downtrodden waifs, reliant on people that don’t always have their best interests at heart.

Truth be told, I have only finished one of Dickens’ novels, Great Expectations. I also read A Christmas Carol, but that was a novella. This puts me at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding his work, but I know the gist of a great many of his novels. This is mainly because of Dickens’ standing as an author of merit. Some of his books were turned into plays and movies. Remember the one where Oliver Twist is a cat? I do have copies of a lot of his works, but I have not had the time to read them. I have also not heard of Claire Tomalin, but that is neither here nor there.

In any case, Charles Dickens: A Life is a biography of Charles Dickens. It starts with an indelible experience for him being a juror for a poor woman accused of killing her own child. This illustrates his compassion and concern for the masses of poor and uneducated. After that, it dives right into his family history and childhood. Dickens had a difficult life, and experienced both sides of the tracks, so to speak. He had to deal with being the man of the house from the age of 12 and did not fully complete his education since his father was a profligate and a drunk. His mother tried to teach but was haunted by the reputation of her husband. Even with all of that, young Charles was overlooked because of his sister, Fanny. Fanny was a good musician and played for princes and so on, but never went on to international acclaim. Everything turns around when he becomes a famous writer though. However, he got some interesting habits from all of this. For some reason, he enjoyed moving furniture around. This extended to hotels he stayed in. I have stayed in hotels and some motels but would never have thought to do that.

Alongside the text of the book are tons of images and comprehensive maps of London. This is really helpful if you are like me and are confused by British addresses and place names. The book has an extensive index, glossary, and notes. The beginning of the book even has a cast of characters, so to speak, a dramatis personae. Since Dickens was famous in his time, there are many luminaries and others that were well known when he was alive. I don’t know if the author brings anything new to the table on Charles Dickens since I haven’t read any other biography on him, but this was a pretty good attempt I thought. Other than that I have nothing really to add to this. If I can find another biography by Tomalin perhaps I will give it a shot as well. ( )