Product Description
Perhaps Dickens's best-loved work, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, a young man with few prospects for advancement until a mysterious benefactor allows him to escape the Kent marshes for a more promising life in London. Despite his good fortune, Pip is haunted by figures from his past--the escaped convict Magwitch, the time-withered Miss Havisham, and her proud and beautiful ward, Estella--and in time uncovers not just the origins of his great expectations but the mystery of his own heart. A powerful and moving novel, Great Expectations is suffused with Dickens's memories of the past and its grip on the present, and it raises disturbing questions about the extent to which individuals affect each other's lives. This edition reprints the definitive Clarendon text. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's new introduction ranges widely across critical issues raised by the novel: its biographical genesis, ideas of origin and progress and what makes a "gentleman," memory, melodrama, and the book's critical reception. The book includes four appendices and the fullest set of critical notes in any mass-market edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (72)

A Masterpiece
I'm not going to say much about the story, because you probably already know it. I first discovered the book over 40 years ago in high school.

But I really appreciated this edition.As a forward, there is an overview of the book, pointing out things to help you understand them when you read them.It also clarifies some of the points made.It doesn't say anything about Pip suffering from depression, but I think he does, which contributes to his low self-esteem.

Then at the back of the book, there is a section of notes, including the original ending.There are also notes on some of the words used or articles mentioned in the book.

All in all, this was a wonderful read and look forward to reading it again.

Great Expectations
This was a Christmas gift for my oldest granddaughter. I was very pleased with the item and the shipping. She was delighted to receive the book. I will shop first at Amazon for everything I am wanting to purchase.

Classy!
I am an English Major, so I have a soft spot for anything written by Dickens.I bought this for a friends graduation (get it...Great Expectations...)and I am jealous of her now.This edition comes hard bound with an old style canvas-like covering.As far as I've seen, it is a reliable and true-to-original edition (Penguin is usually good for this).There is critical material in the back of the book so non-critical or casual readers can do some in-depth thinking into the piece after reading it.I love this edition, and I want one for myself!

Great production but no index
A great reading but the sixteen discs are not labeled as to chapters on the disc nor are there any liner notes.You must play the disc and wait for the chapter to be mentioned during the reading. I do not see why they would have left these necessary conveniences out.Very inconvenient.

Great Expectations
Read this book in high school many years ago and probably did not understand the story fully. Just reread it and I absolutely loved the story. The depth of the characters is amazing. You feel like you have know them all of your life. Much more enjoyable now than at the high school level. ... Read more

Product Description
A Christmas Carol[note 1] is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman and Hall and first released on 19 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visitations of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (254)

You May Be Surprised
This is a review of the September 2010 paperback edition from ACTA Publications with an introduction by John Shea.
Though few have read the book, most people are familiar with A Christmas Carol, the Charles Dickens classic about Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. Author and Publisher Gregory Augustine Pierce numbers it among his favorites. Thus, when he was visiting a bed and breakfast, he was delighted to find a beautifully rendered edition that was in the public domain. That meant he didn't need permission to reproduce the version he had discovered. He called on friends and favorite artists to work on the book design, illustrations, and cover. Theologian John Shea agreed to write the introduction. The final touch was applied by the publisher's office manager who, Pierce says, "found a red ribbon, put it on A Christmas Carol, and it was complete," a beautiful Christmas gift.

Shea suggests that those approaching the book as a "must-read yawn," will be surprised at the connections to be drawn between Scrooge and ourselves, and the pull to consider our own past, present, and future. He characterizes the unconverted Scrooge as smoldering with anger, rationalizing against helping the needy, and choosing isolation over communion. Scrooge's conversion, Shea explains, is a result of "the unyielding work of grace, the theological atmosphere that envelopes the Christmas season."

The ghosts show Scrooge the opportunities he has missed, the isolation of his current life, and the promise of an un-mourned death. But conversion is still possible for Scrooge and for us, Shea writes, citing the end of A Christmas Carol. In the final paragraph, Dickens reveals that Scrooge had learned how to keep Christmas well and expresses the following hope: "May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!"

The Christmas Carol with Timless Wisdom
I was impressed at so many reviews of this historic book, but I had to recognize that the book I am reporting for your review is truly the story of the Christmas Carol, but it is sprinkled with timeless godly wisdom, and this is unique.
Life issues always have an opening for our Lord to sprinkle His Wisdom into and on us for us all to learn and to grow spiritually.
Do I bleieve that Charles Dickens, when he wrote this book so many years ago, thought of a man named Scrooge who would change to love the Lord?I don't know.He did change his life habits. But we all know that that is not all that is needed to end up in Heaven.Call on Jesus!Read and listen to God's Wisdom as the story deveops and ends.

I love this story.
I have always loved this story and enjoy the old english language which some reviewers did not like. However, almost everyone is familiar with the story and should be able to follow it.

Kindle Classic
Another free book that I enjoyed reading, even though I've seen 5-6 different film versions of the story. Dickens was a master and I feel a little silly even reviewing this classic tale. I will comment that the text was error free as far as I noticed. I do not jump around when I read a book so navigation was not an issue. Again, it was FREE! how can I not rate it a 5?

The worst book ever!
I know this is a classic amd you are supposed to admire the great writimg skills of Charles Dickens but this book is tortureous. He uses unnecessary comparrisons and words that nobody understands. I understand Dickens is a great writer and it show. Everybody knows this story you do not need to torture yourself ny reading this though. It is boring and hard to understand . Just watch one of the movies. ... Read more

Product Description
As uplifting as the tale of Scrooge itself, this is the story of how one writer and one book revived the signal holiday of the Western world.

Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist.

The book immediately caused a sensation. And it breathed new life into a holiday that had fallen into disfavor, undermined by lingering Puritanism and the cold modernity of the Industrial Revolution. It was a harsh and dreary age, in desperate need of spiritual renewal, ready to embrace a book that ended with blessings for one and all.

With warmth, wit, and an infusion of Christmas cheer, Les Standiford whisks us back to Victorian England, its most beloved storyteller, and the birth of the Christmas we know best. The Man Who Invented Christmas is a rich and satisfying read for Scrooges and sentimentalists alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Misleading title and subtitle
The book is a very quick read, seems like it would be a good holiday gift for someone interested in history/literature.Funny subtitle though, since the author shows that due to financial arrangements Dickens made with the printers, the book really did not "rescue" his career.And as the author shows, Dickens did not "invent Christmas at all.

Spirit of Influence
This book was not quite what I expected. I guess I was thinking this would be a somewhat sociological account of the affect of "A Christmas Carol" on the celebration of the Christmas holiday.
While it does this to some extent it is primarily a history of Dickens and how this masterpiece came to be.
It is flawed in spots as to it's literary references, but that is forgivable for it does well, for its length, in telling us the times Dickens lived when he wrote this beloved book. It is a short work, but and efficient one.
Anyway any book that mentions Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House can't be all bad!!!

Wonderful addition to Dicken's Christmas Carol
For readers who appreciate Dickens' classic book, this is a wonderful addition that will help you appreciate the book even more.I have read The Christmas Carol all but two years since 1973 so it has obviously become a Christmas tradition for me.I never fail to appreciate the genius in what Dickens created, the fact that he created a masterpiece that will help anyone appreciate that a life can change and the wonderful season of Christmas seems particularly able to initiate such change."The Man Who Invented Christmas" brings the reader more depth in understanding and appreciating Dickens' work.A new classic about an old classic.I highly recommend it!

Interesting Read
The literary history of Charles Dickens's books and influence on the holiday seasons. The book discusses Dickens role in the publishing of all his books, and how his holiday ghost tale, A Christmas Carol, effected many in Europe and America. This is a worthwhile read if you like Dickens.

Most interesting was this book's depictions of how the world of publishing worked in Dickens's day and the impact his stories had on people. It was unusual to discover that Dickens may have been the first commercial author to see others write "fan fiction" about his stories: there were apparently many different versions of his works in America before the real books appeared in the U.S.

Fascinating and easy to finish
This book is a perfect holiday read, what I like best about it was that it was packed with interesting narrative but I could finish it. It's not very long. It's like going to a lecture with a great professor. Great book for the Dickens or Christmas fan. ... Read more

Product Description
With the delectable wit, unforgettable characters, and challenging themes that have won her a Pulitzer Prize and national bestseller status, Jane Smiley naturally finds a kindred spirit in the author of classics such as Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. As "his novels shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels," Smiley's Charles Dickens is at once a sensitive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life.

Smiley evokes Dickens as he might have seemed to his contemporaries: convivial, astute, boundlessly energetic-and lionized. As she makes clear, Dickens not only led the action-packed life of a prolific writer, editor, and family man but, balancing the artistic and the commercial in his work, he also consciously sustained his status as one of the first modern "celebrities."

Charles Dickens offers brilliant interpretations of almost all the major works, an exploration of his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes, and a reflection on how his richly varied lower-class cameos sprang from an experience and passion more personal than his public knew. Jane Smiley's own "demon narrative intelligence" (The Boston Globe) touches, too, on controversial details that include Dickens's obsession with money and squabbles with publishers, his unhappy marriage, and the rumors of an affair.

Here is a fresh look at the dazzling personality of a verbal magician and the fascinating times behind the classics we read in school and continue to enjoy today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A Brief Biography
At just over two hundred pages, it is obvious that Penguin Lives' biography of Charles Dickens (written by Jane Smiley) is not going to be a complete biography.What Smiley set out to do was portray the Dickens that his contemporaries might have known, as well as offer interpretations of his novels and other writings.All in all, "Charles Dickens" is a good introductory look at this writer who claimed a definitive place in the history of the novel.

As the author of some truly weighty and well-respected and well-loved tomes, Dickens has garnered a position in English literature on par with that of Shakespeare.Elements of his life story are well known, such as being taken out of school to work in a factory when he was thirteen, and his struggle to become a success despite the financial follies of his father and siblings.Dickens, while creating vivid lives for his characters (many drawn from real life acquaintances), built a strange life for himself that caused some controversy in his day.When he finally divorced his wife, after she bore him ten children, his relationship with the actress Ellen Ternan was a cause of unwelcome speculation.Despite whispers of scandal and ailing health, Dickens continued to write and perform pieces of his writing until his death.His connection with his audience is one that can never be equalled in today's society.

Jane Smiley does an admirable job highlighting the necessaries of Dickens' life.She does not dwell on his youth or too much of his family troubles, but focuses much time on his wife and unsatisfying marriage, and perhaps too much time on Ellen Ternan at the end.(Mentions of their relationship seem redundant, especially since little is still known about its nature.)I believe Smiley succeeded in her task of depicting the man that his contemporaries would have known and opened up the familiar and unfamiliar works to readers.

Easy Steps for Little Feet
Smiley is a true scholar of Dickens, but this chatty, elementary book is a piece of condescension (or a greedy publisher), and was not immediately useful for my paper.

Terrific Overview
This lively book provides an overview of the literary achievements and personal life of Charles Dickens. For those Amazon.com customers who, like me, don't know how to approach this writer's vast achievements, I provide this advice from Smiley, who is an intelligent, charming, and enthusiastic biographer: "But a newcomer to Dickens can do no better than to begin with a novel-my suggestions are David Copperfield, to be followed by Great Expectations, Dombey and Son, A Tale of Two Cities, and Our Mutual Friend, in that order, light, dark, light, dark, light, a wonderful chiaroscuro of Dickens's most characteristic and accessible work." Bravo for Jane and her fun and concise treatment of an enormous subject!

A succinct yet superb short biography of Charles Dickens
Jane Smiley is a leading contemporary novelist whose insight into the difficult arcane world of writing for profit is helpful in reviewing our greatest English novelist.As self-described Charles Dickens was the "inimitable." Dickens draws a broad stoke as his thousands of characters lie, cheat,[borrow], love, live and [end life] on the canvas of humanity.
As one who has read all the standard biographies of the 19th behemoth of literature that was Dickens I can highly recommend this excellent book.
Smiley provides a sketch of Dickens life including warts and all.Her dissection of the affair the middle aged author engaged in with actress Ellen Ternan was well done in looking at what may have motivated Dickens to break with his wife Catherine and thumb his nose at Victorian respectability.
Dickens is a mixture of good and bad with the humanity and essential goodness of the man on display.
This little book in the excellent Penguin Viking Biography series could be well used in an introductory course on Dickens, the nineteenth century English novel or on the art of literary biography.
Smiley made me smile and laugh as I explored the mind of a genius with this gifted biographer.It is the best biography I have so far read in this series.

Possibly the best of the Penguin Lives
I've read about half the books in the Penguin series and I'd rate this at the top (other favorites are the bios of Leonardo da Vinci and James Joyce).It's only 207 pages long but there is no sense that anything important was left out.I hadn't realized that Dickens was such an astounding character--Ms. Smiley brings him to life with precise detail, through knowledge, and insights that DESERVE to be called insights.She's obviously an excellent writer herself and every page radiates her professionalism. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: English fiction; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Chuzzlewit is an excellent example of Dickens' Humor & Satire
I love reading Dickens novels for many reasons - a big one being his sublimely eloquent satire. Martin Chuzzlewit is particularly heavy on the satire. In an era when people were first starting to read fictional novels for pleasure, it is very apparent where 'British Humor' was first personified. The contradictions which Mr. Pecksniff embodies are some of the funniest things that I have ever read. As with all great authors, there are important life lessons as well. Another nice thing about this novel, as compared to other Dickens novels, is that ultimately everyone gets what they deserve. I did not come away with the same feelings of loss and sacrifice that many of his other novels so poignantly portray.

truly incredible satire: challenging and hillarious
It is a story including a multitude of wonderfully designed, and seemingly living and breathing characters. It is a satire on human selfishness and where it will lead those who give into it. And much like Dicken's brighter books, though filled with darkness and sadness, there's always hope and expectation in the end. Good, for Dickens, always seem to prevail: much like it does in this life, even with its casualties.

The magical universe of Dickens
My late father, Frank O'Driscoll (1927-1994), had a wonderful, inherited collection of old, dusty volumes of classic English literature, a home library with which I grew up and from which I developed a love for reading and discovery. Almost all of Dickens' novels formed part of this personal library. Yet I came to Dickens later in life.

As a child, his formal, florid, Victorian prose seemed to me to be a little offputting. Yet I loved television and stage musical adaptations of such classics as 'Oliver Twist' and 'A Christmas Carol', both of which were produced as school musicals at my secondary school in the 1970s and in which I took part. I think the images and characters created by Dickens are part of the collective cultural consciousness, on a par with the contemporary impact of Harry Potter, for example. Dickens' novels have proved, over the decades, to be a fecund territory for screen adaptations. But it is only in the last few years that I have finally begun to read his novels in earnest, and have thus far enjoyed such treasures as 'The Pickwick Papers', 'The Old Curiosity Shop', 'David Copperfield', 'Nicholas Nickleby', 'Dombey and Son', 'A Tale of Two Cities', 'Great Expectations' and, of course, 'Martin Chuzzlewit'.

With each long novel, Dickens creates a fantastic, varied universe of characters, plots and sub-plots. All of human life is paraded in each novel, and his works rival Shakespeare in their beautiful use of language, their engrossing plots and their studies of human nature, with characters ranging from the most virtuous to the basest and most despicable.

However, one difficulty I have with Dickens is that so many of his characters seem caricatural. In 'Martin Chuzzlewit', some characters have no redeeming features and are completely egotistical and malicious, e.g. Jonas Chuzzlewit and Mr Pecksniff. In contrast, other characters are almost completely virtuous and less believable in consequence of their perfection, e.g. Tom and Ruth Pinch and Martin Tapley.

On the other hand, the eponymous hero, Martin Chuzzlewit (Junior) does trace a personal journey from selfishness to greater kindness and consideration for others.

Just as the characters are very diverse, so too are the themes and tones of this and other novels by Charles Dickens. There is much humour in the form of irony, satire and hyperbole, much sadness and much stinging social criticism. Dickens' novels speak on different levels to different readers, and fulfil multiple purposes, from entertainment to social commentary. The latter is often intended to bring about change, e.g. Dickens paints a witheringly denunciatory portrait of the Chancery legal system of the 19th century in Britain in 'Bleak House', and of the savagery and corruption of the so-called schools such as Dotheboys Hall, Yorkshire, in 'Nicholas Nickleby'. Much of his criticism in 'Chuzzlewit' is reserved for Americans; Dickens had travelled throughout the USA, and was displeased by some aspects of its society and people at that time. Chuzzlewit and Tapley thus serve as reflectors for Dickens' animosity towards the USA, as they journey to the States and encounter hypocrisy and underhand business dealings which leave them penniless and in broken health.

Like all of Dickens' novels, 'Chuzzlewit' is long and involved, with frequent changes of scene and complex sub-plots which gradually merge into each other and resolve themselves. The language is engaging, but it does require concentration. Effort on the part of the reader reaps its own rewards. Airport or beach fiction this is not.

My father once said of Dickens that each of his novels could be read and reread, at least twice; one could firstly enjoy the plot, and later savour the delicious prose.

Book sales and continuing adaptations of his novels testify to the fact that Dickens' literature has stood the test of time. And deservedly so, on the evidence of 'Martin Chuzzlewit' alone.

Marvellous
Whilst Martin Chuzzlewit may not be one of Dickens' best books, it is nonetheless wonderfully enjoyable. The humour overflows, the characterisation is marvellous - the book is replete with great characthers from the humble and gentle Tom Pinch, the obnoxiously pompous and hypocritical Pecksniff, old Martin Chuzzlewit himself, Tigg the waster become fradulent financier, Mark Tapley, the man of indomitable spirits always seeking the worst possible conditions in life so that he can gain some credit & Jonas Chuzzlewit, nastiness personified. I suppose one might say that Martin Chuzzlewit junior is probably the least charactherful but his escapade in America his hilarious with the locals being painted in a very satirical light. The plot sprawled a bit but the last 100 pages were great with real tension as to the outcome. And, the penultiate scene where old Martin Chuzzlewit gathers the clan together is like something out of a Mozart opera. I also particularly enjoyed the nature scenes. So. enjoy and read one of Dicken's lesser masterpieces, but a masterpiece nonetheless.

Martin Chuzzlewit
To send an abridged recorded book without notifying the customer (see your web site; no mention that I could find) about the abridgement is not the sort of business practice I've come to expect from Amazon. I sent it back, of course, hence a waste of time and money not to mention trust. ... Read more

Product Description
The most comfortable of all the hotels of which I had any experience in the United States, and they were not a few, is Barnum's, in that city: where the English traveller will find curtains to his bed, for the first and probably the last time in America (this is a disinterested remark, for I never use them); and where he will be likely to have enough water for washing himself, which is not at all a common case. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Quite entertaining
There's a tradition in British literature of the travel writer. He doesn't write books in the sense of a travelogue: instead he travels somewhere, and either he writes while he's traveling, or after, about his travels, what he sees, who he meets, and so forth. He usually has some comments on the society he has visited, and the book usually has a faint air of comedy to it.

American Notes is such a book, written by Charles Dickens, of Oliver Twist fame. Dickens traveled to the States in 1842, visiting Boston, New York City, St. Louis, and parts of Canada, and observing various things about our society. He appears to have been very interested in various public institutions, so much of the book is devoted to prisons, orphanages, and institutions that house those with serious disabilities, such as a girl who's blind, deaf, and dumb all at once.

The author is repulsed by the institution of slavery (can't say I blame him, but it wasn't that common a reaction in the 19th century) and so while he initially intended to travel as far south as Charleston, South Carolina, in point of fact he only makes it as far as Richmond, Virginia. He visits the high points in Washington D.C., actually gets to meet the President, and wanders the country, even at one point venturing out to see a "prairie". He travels on various conveyances, mostly railroads, wagons, and riverboats, stays in various hotels, and takes his meals in various places. Apparently his wife was his traveling companion, and at one point he mentions his wife having brought a maid with him (the rich were *very* different in those days) but he says little about either, instead focusing on the people they meet.

I consider this to have been an interesting book, if a bit over-written at times. When he wants to discuss the blind-deaf-dumb girl in the institution in Boston, for instance, I think he spends too much time on her and how her situation was resolved (as much as it was). If he's critical of American society, he's also fairly objective in his discussion of it. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

Mr. Charles Dickens tours a young America in 1842
Charles Dickens left London for America in the cold January of 1842. He left behind several children and such bestsellers as "Pickwick Papers"; "Oliver Twist:, "The Old Curiosity Shop" and "Nicholas Nickleby."
He and his wife Catherine Hogarth Dickens would journey to the land of their Yankee cousins for six months. This long journey resulted in a short account of the famed novelist's time in the United States.
The passage from Liverpool took 18 days with storms and heavy rain to propel the Britishers forward to the land of the free and home of the brave! Dickens visited several cities. He had good and bad things to say about America. Dickens:
a. Visited Boston and New York insane asylums and homes for the indigent.
He also visited prisons. Dickens was a liberal social reformer and thought the treatment of the insane could be improved. He did not think much of American penology believing the prisoners should be worked harder.
b. From the East the Dickens party traveled West. They passed through Louisville, Cincinnati and Sandusky. Dickens complained about pigs in the streets of these burgeoning cities. He thought Americans bold and brassy with an inordinate patriotism manifestly condescending to foreigners.
c. Dickens traveled to St.Louis complaining of the isolated life found in log cabins and the hot temperatures of North America.
d. Dickens disliked the partisan American press; he thought Americans were ruled by mobocracy and often used guns and fisticuffs when they were not necessary!
e. The travel in stage and by train was difficult in this era in the new American nation. Dickens often comments on how miserable he was!
f. Dickens saves his greatest wrath for the abominable practice of chattel slavery in the American South. In his journey to Virginia he comments on how run down the farms and homes were. Like the earlier English visiotr Fanny Trollope he is to be commended for his hatred of slavery which was the curse of American life in the antebellum period.
g. Dickens also hated the American propensity to spit tobacco juice everwhere in sight including the floor of the US House of Representatives and in the Senate Chamber!
Dickens also toured Canada which at that time was ruled by Great Britain. He is much less critical of Canadians!
Dickens is critical in many pages of the book. The book was not liked in America and little read in England. Dickens also was appalled at the lack of copyright law protecting him and English authors from the pirating of their literary efforts. Dickens would write his next novel "Martin Chuzzlewit" in which the hero travels to America only to be greatly disillusioned by this experience.
Dickens returned to America late in life amending some of his earlier harsh views about the 1842 visit. Slavery had been then been abolished.
It should not be forgotten that Dickens was also very critical of society in Great Britain! This greatest of Victorian novelists was a man who believed society needed to improve in education, care for the poorgiving people more equitable justice and a higher standard of living. Dickens failed to realize on his 1842 tour that America would take time to grow as a nation and society. Some of his pointed observations, though, such as our love for elections, guns and military titles still stand!
American Notes is dry reading in many places. It is valuable for how a famous author saw America when he and the United States were both young.

Not a Dickens novel
I had eagerly looked forward to reading this work. I had expected that Dickens would provide a rich Pickwick Papers-like cast of American characters. Instead Dickens writes of conditions, of scenery, of things but not really of people, not in the way anyway he writes about them in his novels. This made the book disappointing on the 'experiential level'.
In terms of American vs.British conditions he does have interesting things to say. He strongly opposes Slavery and so will not travel to the slave - states. He notes a uniformity in American social opinion and condemns this, and a certain lack of manners. But he also see that in terms of democratic principles the United States is ahead of Britain.This is surprisingly a quite humorless work, again lacking one of Dickens defining virtues as a writer.

Not What I Had Hoped For
Perhaps because I have read so much of Dickens' fiction and enjoyed it so thoroughly, I had certain expectations that simply cannot be met in a work of non fiction.
To be sure, Dickens' account of America in the 1800s is interesting and his penultimate chapter railing against the institution of slavery is fantastic, but the book seemed a bit verbose (not a surprise, I suppose) and contradictory at times. He makes many observations worth knowing about in relation to Transatlantic studies, but truth be told, certain ideas begin to become repititious fairly early on.
While I feel Dickens' observations are/were valid, I think Fanny Trollope's "Domestic Manners of the Americans" is a much more enthralling read-- an account imbued with wicked humor and wit. In fact, Dickens was very much influenced by Trollope's account of America.
Without question, Dickens is the King of Victorian literature and I am a HUGE fan, but if you want his best...go for broke with "Dombey and Son," "Bleak House," or "David Copperfield."

Disappointing
I must regretfully confess that this book, so promising in its circumstances, amounts to a profound bore. The opportunity to see a distinct American epoch through the eyes of a Charles Dickens is one that I lusted after. Yet, as Goldman and Whitley's introduction to the Penguin edition rightly observes, the book is "extremely disappointing in its omissions and pervasive flatness." That "flatness" ought to have concerned me upon first reading the title. "American Notes for General Circulation" is hardly an inviting description of what's inside. Not one to judge a book by its cover, though, I dismissed this minor oversight and dove in. However, while Whitley and Goldman go on to suggest that "American Notes" is somehow "fascinating as a record of the ways in which the foremost creative writer of his day responded to the most exciting social experiment of his time," that "fascination" is merely superficial and fails to last beyond the book's mildly humorous opening scenes of a sea journey to Boston.

The book's problems are its redundancy and timidity. Dickens seems to be exclusively interested in reporting on every hospital and prison in America, which he does for at least the first third of the book. While some of his descriptions and observations in this portion of the narrative reveal the character of one of literary history's most compassionate figures, this too grows stale as Dickens fails to overcome his peculiar infatuation and look beyond. Even when he does move on, in DC, Cincinatti and elsewhere, some of the most controversial issues of his day -- slavery, Native American negotiations with the US government -- are mentioned only fleetingly as Dickens turns increasingly inward and elaborates for many pages on the most forgettable and mundane experiences common to any journey or vacation, whether it be a cruise through the Caribbean in 2004 or a trip on a riverboat up the Mississippi in 19th-century America, a river that meets with Dickens's intense disdain.

Some of Dickens's observations on the functions and implications of the American democratic system as well as generalizations on themannerisms of Americans go far to show how little has changed since Dickens came to Boston in 1842, but rarely rise to the lyrical intensity or vivid portraits one would expect from a powerhouse such as Charles Dickens. The letters included in this edition demonstrate just how much Dickens held back in the writing of the book, which leads me to wonder just why people like Washington Irving found it so objectionable as to never speak to Dickens again. Surely the book offers some less-than-flattering ruminations on the people and corruption surrounding him, but had Dickens's book reflected the more aggressive tone of his letters, "American Notes" may have been as much of a classic today as it might have been an unconscionable offence to Irving or the American journalists who panned it at the time.

Unfortunately, the book is incapable of engenering much more than the relatively tame emotional response it received upon its release, and if its sales were impressive (which they were), this was due chiefly to the author's name and not to anything that is said between the front and back cover. Whitley and Goldman make the excellent point that some of Dickens's high-profile American friends -- Longfellow, for one -- may have influenced his impressions to such an extent that they diluted the final product. This is a case in which Dickens's fame hindered the sincerity of his work. For a more entertaining and memorable reading experience, try Parkman's "Oregon Trail," Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley" or Least-Heat Moon's "Blue Highways". For a great travel-read from a time and place far beyond 19th or 20th-century America, try Marco Polo's truly "fascinating" "Travels". ... Read more

Product Description
51 books by Charles Dickens, including all of his classics and short story collections, in one volume with active table of contents:

American Notes for General Circulation
Bardell v. Pickwick
Barnaby Rudge
The Battle of Life
Bleak House
A Child's History of England
The Chimes
A Christmas Carol
The Cricket on the Hearth
David Copperfield
Doctor Marigold
Dombey and Son
George Silverman's Explanation
Going into Society
Great Expectations
Hard Times
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargin
Holiday Romance
A House to Let
The Lamplighter
The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
Little Dorrit
Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit
Master Humphrey's Clock
A Message from the Sea
Miscellaneous Papers
Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy
Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings
Mudfog and Other Sketches
Mugby Junction
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby
No Thoroughfare
The Old Curiosity Shop
Oliver Twist
Our Mutual Friend
The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
The Pickwick Papers
Pictures from Italy
Reprinted Pieces
Sketches of Young Couples
Sketches of Young Gentlemen
Somebody's Luggage
Some Christmas Stories
Sunday Under Three Heads
A Tale of Two Cities
Three Ghost Stories
To be Read at Dusk
Tom Tiddler's Ground
The Uncommercial Traveller
The Wreck of the Golden Mary

... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

don't buy, unless you want to read them in alphabetical order
There's no index or table of contents for the books in this collection, and the books appear in alphabetical order according to title, so if you want to read Dickens in chronological order or you're most interested in reading Bleak House or Great Expectations, but you don't really care about some of the others...well, you're going to have a rough time of it.

It's great to be able to get the complete Dickens for this price, but if you can't find the particular book you want to read, what good is it to you?

Don't buy!

This is a lifetime of reading
After all of this downloaded to my Kindle, it looks like I will be reading good material for the rest of my life

Complete Dickens...
May not be every single thing ever written by Charles Dickens, but it seems close enough. All the major works are here, and the table of contents works for me. I wouldn't rate this anything but 5 stars.

The Complete Charles Dickens Collection (51 books)
The Complete Charles Dickens Collections (51 books) is a deal! I purchased this for my Kindle DX for only $1!It will keep me in books for a long time! Being written over 100 years ago, the reading is not as fast or smooth as we are used to, but it is very enjoyable. It's nice to read a few "classics" mixed into the modern novels that we read today.It's a "must have" for readers of all sorts and for only $1, what do you have to loose? ... Read more

Product Description
This special abridged edition takes the reader into the fascinating life of one of the world's greatest writers--Dickens' penurious and painful childhood, the triumphant reception of his first novel and other significant eventsin Dickens' life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

There is evidently no middle ground
There is evidently no middle ground about this book, people absolutely love it, or despise it.The oddity about this reaction to this very odd and in my opinion very great, biography of Dickens is that I can sympathise with a lot of what the 2 (so far) negative reviewers say.The most honest criticism cannot be disputedat all: in books as in theaters and concert halls a loud snore says more than a thousand of the most carefully considered words.If it doesn't work for you it doesn't work for you because Horace is right about matters of taste.

The fascinating fact is that one of the 2 people who have written negative reviews seems to intend to finish it. For him the immense tome (and how can Amazon have shrunk the paperback to a bit over 200 pages?) has to have something to recommend continuing. For myself it feels like a very long and very good novel.I've read both Edgar Johnson'sand Acroyd's work twice, as well as all of Dickens's novels once.Acroyd replaced Johnson on my shelf.Johnson would be the better introduction for people who have only read one or two of the novels and for anyone in need of scholarly apparatus. For someone who downright loves Dickens I have to say that my initial reaction on finishing Acroyd was a sense of loss because I would never again be able to read it for the first time .

It is a unique biography in my experience, and as a truly great effort to understand a man in the context of his times stands directly next to the finest 20th century academic biography I have read: Peter Brown's Saint Augustine.

Garrick's Review
This is an outstanding biography.Extremely well researched and written by a devoted author who is expert on the subject, culture, country, region and local environs.I have read many other of Peter's books and have come to consider his work quite excellent.

My experience with biographies of great men such as Charles Dickens is that you need the space of at least 1,000 pages.The approach here is far from being too academic.I savored every colorful chapter. The bibliography and chapter notes have me continuing my friendship with CD.

While I read this book very late, I am glad that I read it.
This is a book I should have read when it first came out in 1990, but did not buy it until the paperback edition came out.And then it sat on my bookshelf with my Oxford illustrated Dickens.Why didn't I get to it earlier?My best guess is that not only is reading all of Dickens a big chunk, this book is almost 1,100 pages long.I had so much else I wanted to read that getting into that much material as carefully as I wanted to read it caused me to put it off.Now that I have read the book and begun my perusal of all of Dickens rather than just that books with which I was already familiar show me what a mistake I have made. So, I urge you to not put off treating yourself to this biography or diving deeply into the writings of Charles Dickens.

Why do I like this biography?I think there are several basic approaches to telling the story of a life.Two that I do not like are the mere chronology of events from beginning to end and the other extreme that assimilates the author into the intellectual fashions of the present and does nothing to help us see the life and work in the context of the times in which it was created.This latter type is most often seen in academic biographies where English departments have become political advocacy and indoctrination programs and no longer deal with our language and its history in a serious or thoughtful way.Its easier to simply dismiss everyone who doesn't share your political philosophy and pretend that your being "right" also means you are of superior intellect and learning.For me, this is like travelling to a foreign land and then judging it against your own culture and finding its differences to be deficiencies.

This biography is of the kind I appreciate most.Ackroyd not only helps us see the life of Charles Dickens and how the author used his own life and times to create his art, but also the times, social settings, and evolving culture in which Dickens lived and worked.For me this has the benefit of travelling to a foreign land and by coming to appreciate its culture for what it is and how the people there express their lives in that culture you learn to see your own life and home culture with new depth.Our intellectual shorthand calls Dickens a Victorian, and of course he was in his maturity.However, his early life which formed much of what he was, was pre-Victorian.The London of his maturity was quite different than the London of his childhood and it is that earlier London that he used in most of his writing.I also found Ackroyd's discussion of the Charles' early family life and his relationship with his parents to be most helpful in seeing more deeply into Dickens' novels and the way he lived his life.

Ackroyd also provides seven little interludes that help us see his perspective on this biography.He admits his likely faults and where he might be pushing his ideas a bit too far.Still, I think this work is a fine accomplishment.As Ackroyd notes many times and as his friends noted, Dickens was an odd man.His friends loved him and if their relationship with him was broken off, more than a few grieved at the loss for the rest of their lives.On the other hand, he was so driven by his inner needs, his burning energy, his need to work hard, and to work out his life and world through his art that he was very hard on those around him.Not least his wife, Catherine.After she bore him ten children and suffered horribly from what we know as post-partum depression after each birth, he eventually separated from her.Yes, he set her up so she lived well, but she was terribly harmed by being pushed away.And he was, too.But he didn't see it that way.His relationship with Ellen Ternan is discussed in this book at length and Ackroyd takes the position that it was not sexual, but of the same deeply emotional attachment of similar nature to the one he had with Mary Hogarth (his wife's younger sister) who died at seventeen.But some have disagreed with this book's conclusions on this subject.I am willing to go along with the author, but for me the serious issue is less whom he took up with than those whom he abandoned.But that is my own view of life.Dickens was one of those driven men whose inner need to accomplish and work more deprive his family of a supportive father as his children grew.Frankly, Dickens was disappointed in most of his sons and was quite open about his favorites among his daughters.Very few of them had lives that worked out well.Of course, his presence was such a powerful force that the descendants to this day live in part to protect and perpetuate his legacy.

I also appreciated learning the way each of his works of fiction began, the way he worked through them, and how the public received them.Among the many things I did not know before reading this book I found Dickens' lifelong devotion to theater and the theatrical surprising to me and also quite helpful in understanding his work.Ackroyd also shows us how his works were constantly dramatized with or without Dickens' support and involvement.We also get a better sense of what melodrama meant in the context of that culture rather than our own perceptions of it.Ackroyd also guides us through the layers of artistic culture and how Dickens' popularity with the masses in some ways denied him acceptance in the more elite artistic circles.Still, Dickens knew what he was aiming for and his success was so great that these exclusive circles could hardly deny him.I also enjoyed learning how his works were serialized.While there were several different ways, in most cases the monthly installments were little books containing only that work and some advertisements (to increase profitability).While a few of his works were serialized in publications, particularly in Household Words and All the Year Round, most were handled as independent monthly serials.Oliver Twist and his Christmas books were issued as single volume publications, but that was not his usual way of publishing his works.As she worked his copyrights, he did print his works as bound novels and often revised them when issuing them in these editions.

Dickens was also an astute and hard driving business man.He valued his copyrights and worked them.Part of his hard feelings about America was the way his works were printed and sold here without any payments to him.Dickens was also very hard with his publishers at home.He would extract the lions share of the value of his work, which makes sense, and leave the publishers with enough to make them happy.However, when a publisher tried to push back that was often the end of their relationship.Dickens would not accept any slight or indignity; real or perceived.

While I knew that Dickens did do public readings of his works, I had no idea how extensive they were and how big a role they played in his later career.Nor did I realize how many of his works he developed for this type of public performance.Ackroyd does a fine job in showing us how carefully and even tentatively he developed the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes for public reading.Many of his family and friends told him not to do it because of the shock it would give his audiences.Once he did it and the shock was profound but popular, they urged him to stop because of the terrible physical and emotional strain it put on him in his frail condition.His children and friends believed that the strain of these readings shortened his life considerably.

The latter years of Dickens life are, frankly, sad.He only lived to be 58.How much of his health decline was caused by actual illness that he treated with medications such as laudanum and how much was caused by the treatments I do not know.But many of his friends and associates died by their late fifties, as well.

I think this is a very successful biography and provides wonderful information and insights for us, its readers.I not only recommend this biography to you, but encourage you to treat yourself to a more patient and deep reading of Dickens, who was, I believe, one of the great English writers.When we dismiss him, we cheat ourselves and blind ourselves to all his strengths, his wonderful humor, and indelible characters.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

REVIEW OF PETER ACKROYD'S DICKENS BY JOHN CHUCKMAN
There are some oddities in the style of Mr. Ackroyd, and his book contains some, what might be called, experimental chapters, fantasies or dreams or prose poems on subjects the author associates with Dickens. Ordinarily, I would find these things a bit off-putting.

But Mr. Ackroyd succeeds in giving us an overwhelmingly animated and penetrating portrait of the great Victorian author. This huge book - and no smaller effort could capture Dickens' spirit - crackles with energy, the very kind of driving energy so characteristic of Dickens himself.

Dickens was a strange man with immense drives and desires going off in many directions and personal habits that might well at times be regarded as unbalanced. He was not the sentimental, storytelling Victorian father figure he is sometimes regarded, although he could be quite sentimental about family and friends and his storytelling ability had few equals.

He behaved at times as a petty tyrant and was highly opinionated, always a man of immense curiosity, a traveler, a political activist, a generous man, a workaholic, a man eager for every possible shred of success and acclaim, a talented actor and mimic, aman seemingly possessed at times, as when carrying on conversations with himself, imitating his own characters in a mirror or going for walks as long as twenty miles alone or living with the ghosts of his fractured childhood.

A whirlwind of experience and desires helped make this naturally talented man such a great novelist. There are similarities to the titanic storm that was Beethoven. In both cases, the young man in his first blush of success could be truly charming while the aging figure could be quite unsettling.

The book contains many interesting anecdotes and details of Dickens' England, as well as Dickens' America since he made two journeys to America, a place he both hated and was fascinated by.

Highly recommended to all lovers of good biography, all students of English literature, and all students of English history.

Stupendous . . .
. . . but no adjective, or string of adjectives, can do Ackroyd's massive, majestic biography justice.Dickens is, with Victoria, the archetypical Victorian, and he is here fully realized, in all his contradictory dimensions: the best-known and best-loved writer of his day, but perpetually insecure and ashamed of his "ungentlemanly" background; wealthy yet financially ever insecure and working feverishly for material advancement; outgoing and flamboyantly dramatic, yet profoundly interior and haunted by irrepressible demons; the great celebrator of hearth and home who sired 10 children but who abandoned his wife of 22 years for a curious relationship with an actress more than half his age; the man who toasted Shakespeare's birthday as the anniversary also of the Bard's gallery of immortal characters, who saw himself as a similar progenitor but who would "write" his friends, compulsively objectifying them, family, and acquaintances into manipulable, construed, understandable "characters" - indeed, the most capacious literary imagination since Shakespeare but a jittery control addict for whom everything, and everybody, had to be in its right place.

Ackroyd has read every word Dickens wrote - the novels, stories, journalism, letters, inscriptions - and apparently, and more astonishingly, everything ever written ABOUT Dickens - by his circle of literary and profession friends, rivals, reviewers and critics, acquaintances, memoirists who encountered him but once, otherwise unknown British, Scottish, Continental, or American diarists who happened to note a Dickens "sighting" whether or not words were exchanged.All these gleanings Ackroyd shapes convincingly into cumulative aspects of character, incidents that inform Dickens's work, information about the author's public bearing, mannerisms, speech, likes, dislikes, behavior in almost every imaginable range of situations - "in short" - to call on Micawber - a full portrait.And with remarkable efficiency and literary felicity, Ackroyd situates Dickens within his rapidly changing era, as long-distance horse-drawn coaches give way to rail travel, as the stench and filth of pre-Reform London yields to reformist impulses of every stripe, as the Empire advances and London is transformed into a great capital of monuments and squares and Imperial architecture. (And, as with his engrossing biography of Thomas More, Ackroyd introduces London as a major character and influence on his subject, a conceit Ackroyd, himself the author of a knowing, loving "biography" of London, pulls off beautifully.)

Most important for devotees of Charles Dickens - and if you're searching for a 1200 page (scandalously) out-of-print biography, you are surely that - Ackroyd demonstrates convincingly how the work reflects the life, the personality, the influences, the environment, and all the contradictions of Dickens the man. Ackroyd carefully walks the line between reading too much into the life from the work, but draws careful correspondences between the tensions of the life and their realizations in fiction.The chapters devoted to Dickens in the throes, or ecstasies, of creation - for so does his creative moods and energies vary - are among the book's most compelling passages.Scarcely ever has the sinews of literary creativity been laid so believably bare, by a biographer who is himself a prolific, and highly imaginative, writer.The most powerful impression one draws from Ackroyd's matchless story is the extent to which a protean Dickens embodied to a great degree all his mightiest creations, the dark and the bright, and not merely the plainly autobiographical Nickeby, Pip, and David Copperfield.

When I finally closed Ackroyd's Dickens, I was nearly inconsolable at the loss of someone I felt I had come to know so well.A brilliant life, radiantly told, and a book that deserves to be - and, I pray, will soon be - back in print. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Really mediocre
This is not only the most boring biography of Dickens I have ever read; it is one of the most boring biographies of anyone I have ever read. It is basically 600+ pages about Dickens' career as a writer and editor, focused on the mind-numbing details of which chapters of which books he wrote when, with some attempt to link fictional characters to events in Dickens own life. It contains virtually no literally analysis or exploration of his politics or who he was as a person. Yes, it is well researched, well written, and copiously documented, but I would not recommend this to anyone.

The best overall treatment of the Charles Dickens phenomenon since Edgar Johnson's two-volume effort in the 1950s
Charles Dickens is one of those towering figures who needs a new biography every few years. He was a many-sided man, a kind of living literary institution in his own right. Scholars are still having a hard time pinning him down as the 200th anniversary of his birth looms in 2012.

British Dickens expert Michael Slater has produced a massively researched and closely reasoned appraisal of Dickens that presents him through the lens of his own words --- not only his 16 magnificent novels but the flood of short stories, magazine pieces, journalism, letters and speeches that poured unceasingly from his quill pen.

First of all, the book is a marvel of scholarly research. Slater has examined almost everything Dickens wrote and exposed connections that reflect Dickens's use and reuse of ideas, experiences and images in different settings throughout his whole body of work. It will be a revelation to those who know Dickens only through the novels. Slater has gone out of his way to relate those novels to lesser-known pieces and to plead the case for the centrality of those shorter pieces to any adequate assessment of the man and his life.

At the same time, the book takes full notice of all the central themes of the Dickens story: his passionate advocacy of relief for the poor, his disdain for most of the political institutions of his day, his concept of literature as a great and noble calling that requires hard work of anyone who wants to practice it, his colorful and turbulent personal life, and his passion for travel, or rather for what Slater calls "socially investigative sightseeing" --- visits to prisons, poorhouses and asylums that were not in the tourist guidebooks.

Dickens's concern for the poor led him to aim what he called "sledgehammer blows" at politicians or fatuous clergymen who ignored the problems he saw festering in the streets of London during the long nighttime walks he loved to take. It is no accident that in his novels very few if any lawyers or clergymen come off favorably.

Dickens was a control freak whose zeal for having things his way extended to criticism of the facial expressions in the illustrations for his books. In describing his famous involvement in elaborate amateur theatrical productions, Slater says again and again that Dickens was not happy unless he could control every detail of the show: casting, scenery, costumes, lighting, stage direction --- in short, the whole affair. Slater demonstrates that he was an obsessive organizer, a "born master of ceremonies."

Another major theme is Dickens's enormous capacity for work. He would be grinding out a major novel, editing a magazine, organizing a play production, and supervising the operation of a famous home for wayward girls --- all pretty much at the same time. In his early years, the writing of two novels would be going on at the same time --- he would finish up the last serial installments of one while getting started on the next and at the same time carrying on a volume of correspondence that he compared to that of "a secretary of state." Even his leisure hours were, in Slater's word, "strenuous."

Slater generally reserves his own critical judgments for the novels and stories. He is, however, candid (and critical) on Dickens's separation from his wife and on his late-in-life affair with actress Ellen Ternan. One major theme that he pretty much neglects is Dickens's shameful campaign to isolate his nine children from their mother after the separation. He concludes that no one can know for certain if Dickens and Ternan were sexually involved, and on the literary front he resists the temptation to offer a theory on how the unfinished THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD would conclude if its author had lived to tell us.

This book is the best overall treatment of the Charles Dickens phenomenon since Edgar Johnson's two-volume effort in the 1950s. Slater has taken full advantage of new Dickens material that has come to light since Johnson's day and produced a masterpiece.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn (Robertfinn@aol.com)

Charles Dickens: A complex mixture of genius, compassion andhypocrisy who is a literary marvel
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) the Victorian literary genius has been blessed by many outstanding biographers. These authors include his friend John Forster and such modern biographers as Fred Kaplan and Peter Acyroyd. Now a new excellent Dickens biography has been added to the lister. Dr. Michael Slater, emeritus professor of Victorian Literature at the University of London has produced a massive biography of Boz which stretches to 623 small print pages. The book is well illustrated with period drawings and photographs and is an excellent work for 21st century readers who may or may not be familiar with the king of the three decker and periodical Victorian novel.
What sets this biography apart from the rest?
1. Slater focuses on brief but cogent exegesis of the major novels and fictional work done by Dickens from his Sketches by Boz to his final unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Slater does a great job of explaining the major themes of such classics as Oliver Twist; Barnaby Rudge; Nicholas Nickleby; Dombey and Sons; David Copperfield; Bleak House; Little Dorrit; Martin Chuzzelwit; Great Expectations; Our Mutual Friend; A Tale of Two Cities and Dickens first smasheroo bestseller "Pickwick Papers."
2. Slater also reviews Dickens career as an editorial genius of his periodicals "Household Words" and "All the Year Round" as well as "Master Humphrey's Clock" which he edited in his young adulthood. Slater introduces us to many fictional short pieces Dickens wrote for these journals.
3. Slater discusses in details the Christmas books produced by Dickens from "A Christmas Carol" of 1843 to such further stories as The Chimes, The Battle of Life, The Cricket on the Hearth and The Bells.
4. Dickens as a professional writer is the chief focus of this book but Slater provides all the biographical information a curious modern reader would wish to know about Boz. We learn of Dickens concerns for social justice, reform of the legal and judicial system and his concern for the elderly, ingnorant and poor masses. We also learn of his separation from his wife Catherine in 1858 and his long affair with actress Ellen "Nelly" Ternan which continued until his early death in 1870.
Dickens was a complex blend of kindness and cruelty; hypocrisy and geniune concern for the downtrodden. He treated his wife in a horrible manner by divorcing her; was a so-so father to his ten children and could be rude and vindictive. He could also be kind reaching out to help friends in need. Dickens was a huge blast of energetic restlessness; he walked several miles each day and night; knew London better than anyone else in the Victorian age and was a liberal in politics and religion (he left the Church of England to become a Unitarian).
Dickens had to serve in a degrading position in a blacking factory; was denied higher education and did not care for his mother. Dickens did love his feckless Micawberish father John. Charles Dickens was a born actor producing many amateur theatricals throughout his life. His grinding speaking tours in the United Kingdom and United States wore him down and probably greatly contributed to his early demise.
Charles Dickens remains this reviewer's favorite novelist. Take him for what he was worth Mr. Dickens was a writer of genius burdened with human faults. Michael Slater has written a powerful study of Dickens which deserves to be widely read.

a fascinating study
Any general reader in search of a single volume covering the life and work of Charles Dickens needs to look no further than this publication. Michael Slater has written a grandiose account that considers the author from several different perspectives. Both his public and his private personae are examined in detail, revealing his social consciousness as well as things that irritated him such as female emancipation. Slater goes on to describe the interaction that provided the genesis for Dickens's work before focusing in a comprehensive manner on its evolution. The stories, essays and sketches are examined in the context of their influence on the more substantial works, the novels. Charles Dickens: A Life Defined in Writing is an intelligent portrait of a man in his element; affable yet businesslike, energetic, considerate, unbelievably imaginative and, most of all, obsessively dedicated to the profession of writing.

DICKENS WITHOUT COLOR OR ENERGY
CHARLES DICKENS,by MICHAEL SLATER,Reviewed and Skewered by Zybysko.
One must be fair to a work of great depth by a true expert immersed in his subject,but at the same time,that depth and expertise mandates meeting high standards. On that basis, this is an excruciatingly confusing, lifeless and pedestrian plod through the vividly colorful life of the one of the greatest novelists in the English language. Dickens, a great stylist and a stupendous creator of immortal characters is here reduced to a sad sack, immersed in endless petty disputes with publishers and plagiarists,afflicted by a terrible marriage,a disappointing flock of children,hangers-on,and the class distinctions of early and mid Victorian England.Perhaps the greatest failure of this enormous book is the author's entirely incorrect assumption of thorough familiarity with the theme and plot of the novels,and the distressing absence ofany literary criticism of the works. This is an amazing defect given the huge volume of Dickensian studies over more than a century.t
To give a simple comparison, the introductions to the Penguin paperback Dickens editionsare almost universally elegant in both style and trenchant substance.There can be no doubt that the author is a real expert on Dickens life and work,which compounds the mystery of his inability to convey the two essentials of any biography of any very well-known serious novelist, which are how coherent plot and the characterization of major and minor characters are handled, or mishandled,to explain why any given worklargely succeeds or fails.
The two major and correct criticisms of Charles Dickens' novels are his maudlin and excessive sentimentality and long detours from a clean plot line.The latter is explained by the peculiar method of publication in serial parts in cheap editions, in an era when hardbound books were available only to the very wealthy and through nonpublic and fee based lending libraries, andby stuffing irrelevancies into an otherwise connected narrative.By way of fair comparison the recent short pop volume by Norrie Epstein is not presented as either scholarly or complete,nor aspbiography or literary criticism, yet succeeds as both,in a clear and interesting way.Her wonderful explanation of the four Pickwickians,whose life is a child's dream of snacking,odd encounters with the opposite gender,and interesting travels,just one long school vacation,and her excellent survey of the deep black terrifying midnights of oppressed children,ill fatedPoor Smike,Tom the street sweeper, and Little Nell,the cruelest
baby sufferingsofOliver Twist, David Copperfield,and the high comedy ofminor characters like Aunt Betsy Trotwood, Mr Pecksniff,Captain Cuttle,Mrs Gamp,Mrs. Nickleby, Mr Mantalini, and Wilkins McCawber are clearly outlined in such a way as to whet the reader's wish to read the novels in which they appear. Mr Slater is a great Dickens expert, yet seems to assume scholarly familiarity and good recall of the plots and characters of all the Dickens major novels, as he dispenses with any handholds for those new to the wonders of a novelist who wrote the bulk of his important long fiction about150 years ago, yet seems as fresh today as the day the paperback serial hit the London streets.This is a fatal error that is not balanced by any analysis of style .Instead we buy pages on end devoted to minute details of day to day and year to year non-events, and the dreary business of writing and publishing.This is a common failing of all sorts of biographies today,where the mereaccumulation , molecule by molecule, of every event, without any filtration of the perhaps meaningful from the utterly meaningless.One of the main virtues of human memory is our ability to forget,and even to willfully mistake or inaccurately recall,the infinite mass of detail of any life. Nor are these glaring defects excused by the economics of justifying a hefty retail sales price per book by sheer number of pages, rather than putting the whole elephant on the stove and boiling down and condensing the hidden flavors by reduction , not by putting more insipid dishwater into the pot. The last fair question is why this book is needed, given the six more or less modern long form Dickens biographies, each of which deals in a modern way with the Ellen Ternan question, the odd and repellent relation of Dickens to very young women in his wife's family, and to his probably manic-depressive,semi-educated, money haunted, and quarrelsome nature.How one man could father so many children,give hundreds ofstage performances on rock star type concert tours, edit a magazine,do other journalism,keep two novels in process at once,engage in far travels, watch his money,battle copyright piracy,and still produce at a high levelvery long and complicated fiction for a long time is a mystery yet unexplained.The impact of the "blacking warehouse" incident, which was actually short and not really extraordinarily punishing,was already explored at length 100 years ago.The explanation is the commonplace of psychology, that events are not remembered or weighted according to actual significance, but reaction of younger and stupider personalities, unable at the time go get perspective, and then freezing the event as first misperceived. This author raises no new questions nor supplies any new answers not already in the canon.As more trenchant critics long ago brilliantly observed, Dickens is not of mere historical interest, nor a boringly long, often discursive manipulator of his readers emotions,but a supreme stylist,a past master of immediate depiction of his characters dress,manner of speech,open and secret intentions,reaction to life events, and often, the weather itself. Martin Amis hit thevery center of the bulls-eye with his critique of the current sad state of the English and American novel,which is airless,all internalized, and "lacks weather". This book, in those terms, "lacks weather".First get the Norrie Epstein volume and read the introductions to Pickwick, Bleak House, and Copperfield in the Penguins.Then the other long standard bios will do, as this does not. Once again a great expert has just published his notes, not created by synthesis and analysis, a valuableaddition to knowledge.Slater is not much of a stylist and utilizes the currentMid Atlantic choice of wording,thereby leachingout some color that would have giventhe bite of strong old British Tea to a work.How peculiar that the London of today, populated by large numbers of personsof Pakistani, Commonwealth Africa and Caribbean origins,not itspoor Midlands and Irish immigrants and Native Cockneys of 100 years ago, now descends to writes its books in bland Mid-Atlantic diction. When will these writers learn how to construct a paragraph with a topic sentence as a road map for the reader, and then meander down the path and on the detour back to the highway to fill out that theme?(Probably never, due to lazy thinking and the ever present immersion in mere bulk of detail piled on detail.) Lastly much of the blame must fall on the editors who failed here, as they so often do,to just cut, and to re-shape,and force deeper and more meaningful material out of a nonfiction author, who is immersed in minutiae and cannot see, nor convey "the weather".Are they simply afraid of authors? And a flosk in der pisk if not a poche in der tuches to the academic friends who provide jacket endorsements,high praise where such is not deserved, a kind of Gresham's Law of nonfiction publishing today. ZYBYSKO NOV 2 09 ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

unexpected pleasure
What an unexpected pleasure. Simply delightful. The language itself is so intricate, ironic, and more than clever, he is intriguing. Yes, Dickens has an eye for description of character and location and this comes out to a certain extent in the adaptations; but what is so different here is his prose style: the creations of mood, dynamics in speech and so cleverly interlinked around the law in Chancery Lane. The bad side? I'm never sure whether some of his girls are drawn as well, especially characters such as Esther - in this Dickens reminds me of Shakespeare's Desdamona - not quite believable.

Great book...
...especially if you are litigator (because Dickens mercilessly skewers the legal system of old England, which hasn't changed much over the years, and which is the source of our "skewerable" legal system in the U.S. Though, you will enjoy it even without that background.Bitingly satirical, mysterious, visual, evocative, funny and yes, bleak at times.Read it -- it's free, but you'll feel like you should have paid something for the pleasure. ... Read more

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American Notes was written soon after Dickens had returned from his, first visit to America. That visit had, of course, been a great epoch in his life; but how much of an epoch men did not truly realise until, some time after, in the middle of a quiet story about Salisbury and a ridiculous architect, his feelings flamed out and flared up to the stars in Martin Chuzzlewit.

In 1844, Charles Dickens took a break from novel writing to travel through Italy for almost a year and Pictures from Italy is an illuminating account of his experiences there. He presents the country like a magic-lantern show, as vivid images ceaselessly appear before his - and his readers? - eyes. Italy?s most famous sights are all to be found here - St Peter?s in Rome, Naples with Vesuvius smouldering in the background, the fairytale buildings and canals of Venice - but Dickens?s chronicle is not simply that of a tourist. Avoiding preconceptions and stereotypes, he portrays a nation of great contrasts: between grandiose buildings and squalid poverty, and between past and present, as he observes everyday life beside ancient monuments. Combining thrilling travelogue with piercing social commentary, Pictures from Italy is a revealing depiction of an exciting and disquieting journey.

A Child's History of England is a book by Charles Dickens. It first appeared in serial form in Household Words, running from January 25, 1851 to December 10, 1853 and was first published in three volume book form in 1852, 1853, and 1854. Dickens dedicated the book to "My own dear children, whom I hope it may help, bye and bye, to read with interest larger and better books on the same subject". The history covered the period between 50 BC and 1689, ending with a chapter summarising events from then until the ascension of Queen Victoria.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosop ... Read more

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Grandes Esperanzas es considerada como una de las más grandes y sofisticadas novelas, así como también una de las más populares, habiendo sido adaptada a obras teatrales y cinematográficas en más de 250 ocasiones.

La novela está escrita en un estilo semi-autobiográfico y narra la historia del huérfano Pip, quien describe su vida desde su niñez hasta su madurez tratando de convertirse en un hombre de nobleza a lo largo de su vida. La historia puede también ser considerada como una semi-autobiografía de Dickens, al igual que muchas de sus obras, en la cual mezcla sus experiencias de vidas con su entorno social.

La trama de la historia toma lugar desde la víspera de navidad de 1812, cuando el protagonista tiene solo siete años de edad, hasta el invierno de 1840.

Philip Pirrip, mejor conocido como "Pip", un niño que vive con su hermana y su cuñado después de la muerte de sus padres, conoce a un viejo convicto que había escapado de un barco-prisión mientras visitaba la tumba de sus progenitores. El viejo le pide al niño colaboración, asustándolo y amenazándolo, para que éste le consiga comida y un instrumento para que pueda liberarse de sus grilletes. Pip decide ayudarlo a escondidas de su rigurosa hermana, quien acostumbra a castigarlo con una vara de madera, robando una torta y una lima para el convicto.
Después de dos años, Pip es mandado a la casa de la Señorita Havisham, una mujer de avanzada edad, para que pueda jugar a las cartas con ella y entretenerla. Allí el joven Pip conoce a Estella, de quien cae perdidamente enamorado. El deseo de la anciana es vengarse de todos los hombres ya que ella fue plantada el día de su boda. ... Read more

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Oliver Twist's famous cry of the heart--"Please, sir, I want some more"--has resounded with generations of readers of all ages. The author poured his own youthful experience of Victorian London's unspeakable squalor into this realistic depiction of a spirited young innocent's unwilling but inevitable recruitment into a scabrous gang of thieves. Masterminded by the loathsome Fagin, the underworld crew features some of Dickens' most memorable characters, including the vicious Bill Sikes, gentle Nancy, and the juvenile pickpocket known as the Artful Dodger.
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Customer Reviews (23)

Riveting but Problematic
We all know Oliver Twist somehow, either from pop allusions or musicals or BBC productions, but actually reading Oliver Twist and experiencing the story firsthand definitely gave me a special appreciation for Dickens' sentence structure, imagery, and portrayals of Victorian London, plus I get to claim obnoxious bragging rights (and I'll start off being a little haughty right now: Oliver never actually says "please, sir, may I have some more?" he says "please sir, I want some more." Now you, too, can make people look stupid when they misquote the novel! We all win here.)

So anyway, I enjoyed Oliver Twist immensely and I had difficulty setting it aside to go to bed at night. The suspense and action and twists of fate in every chapter kept me completely enmeshed in the novel. Like, seriously addicted in the evenings. German television's paltry offerings drove me to Dickens, but now I understand how literate people before the mid twentieth century stayed entertained. The text was originally published as serials in a monthly paper so Dickens relied on soap opera suspense techniques to keep readers interested. And his writing has this certain inexplicable, charming quality.

That said, both Dickens and Oliver Twist are a little problematic for me. Modernity and the passing years have rendered Dickens a trifle trite and he has become kind of like the Thomas Kincade of literature. He's just oozing sentimentality. And he's safe. Sure, there'll be whores and murders, and drinki'n and thievi'n, but in the end everything is always alright. The good guy always comes out ahead. And your protagonist remains a saint. A sweet, tender-hearted saint who somehow never sours on life. You're not exactly taking any chances with Dickens.

For modern readers, sometimes Dickens feels hopelessly outdated. Fagin's absolutely black and white portrayal as an evil Jew street gang leader is appallingly anti-semitic. But, as usual in my head, nothing is ever clear and I'm stuck between admiring Dickens' handiwork in creating such a chilling villain in appearance, deed, and speech and loathing the way he characterizes Fagin as first and foremost a Jew. In fact, most of the time he's simply called the Jew by our narrator and various characters. Can we still like the crafting of a character who is this outdated and wrong? Can we overlook the anti-Semitism? I tend to with, for example, Merchant of Venice, because Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock is a least a bit more nuanced and sympathetic, but there's nothing redeeming about Fagin. No easy answers on this one, though I don't think we can overlook the positive political impact Dickens' body of work had on the Victorian social code and the political movements and laws they inspired. Dickens is, after all, the guy who practically began the whole notion of Victorian charity and inspired child labor laws.

Two of the important characters of this work, providing some comic relief and relatively sophisticated satire are The Beadle, Mr. Bumble, leader of the orphanage and workhouse, and his eventual wife, a manager of the workhouse for the poor. These two, through their dysfunctional marriage and misguided ideals of public service, satirize the banally evil and officious bourgeois who are only concerned with status, title, and their own material comforts. Nancy, one of the female members of Fagin's gang of thieves, is also subtle and well-written and she may actually be one of the only truly round characters in the work.

A Prince and a Pauper
Dickens' famous story of a young orphan's struggle to survive on the streets of London is rightly one of his most remembered.

Two outstanding characters have been contributed to literature - Fagin and Jack Dawkins the Artful Dodger.

Dickens writes Fagin as a puppet master, controlling the orphaned children as pickpockets and the adults like Bill Sikes as thieves. His subterfuge of a penniless pauper with a kindly approach are at odds with the moments he steals gazing at his hidden stash of jewels and his barking moments of brutality. Though his name is Fagin, Dickens refers to him more often than not as "the Jew", a label quite jarring in today's culture. Fagin is sinister though and many see him as a devil like character. His many schemes, plans, and selfishness all contribute to the image.

The Artful Dodger is a whirling dervish of charisma and charm, teaching Oliver the tricks of the trade and leading the cohorts of youngsters as the ultimate example they should all be aspiring to. Dickens chooses to have the Dodger answer for his crimes as he is finally caught and sent to jail. Tantalisingly, Dickens implies that the Dodger will be deported to Australia though we never see Dodger again after he is led away back to jail. Maybe he was thinking of writing a sequel with him as a grown up character?

Oliver is by no means a great character but a likeable one. His tribulations put us on his side early on and his base survival has us enthralled and rooting for him throughout. Bill Sikes isn't also that great a character. A one dimensional thug and bully, his character is indeed menacing and ugly but unfortunately never goes further.

Nancy meanwhile is another triumph of characterisation. Dickens shows her kind side, her deceitful side, her desperate life, and ultimately her sacrifice. She longs to stay with her boyfriend Bill Sikes despite his brutality and maintains a cheerful and optimistic disposition throughout the miserable drama. Her life and desires are complex and is one of Dickens' most enduring creations.

The overall story of Oliver Twist, of his rise to grace through typically fantastical and novelistic conceits, are but a sideline to the true nature of the book - Dickens' concern and portrayal of society's inhuman treatment of the poor. The book remains important and memorable for this reason. This is probably one of Dickens' most accessible books, a great book and a true classic.

My favorite Charles Dickens book!
This is the first Dickens book I ever read, from when I was nine and reading it from an abridged children's version. Even now when I'm older and wiser, it is still my favorite. (The only thing I didn't like about it from when I was nine was the scary picture of Fagin when he was captured.) The names are great and the exaggerations make it funny. "Mr. Bumble" just makes me laugh, and "Fagin" gives the impression of fangs. Speaking of Fagin, as a Jew, I was upset the first time I read the unabridged version because of Dickens' apparent anti-Semitism in referring to Fagin more as "the Jew" than by his actual name. However I realized that 18th and 19th century England were very anti-Semitic, along with being anti a lot of things besides that, such as the Irish, the Africans, and others. By the day's standards, Dickens was probably quite moderate in his racial feelings and attitude. All in all, this is my favorite Dickens book, and the next one down is Nicholas Nickleby.

The master of irony at his best
Oliver Twist is perhaps the most culturally prevalent of Mr. Dickens' novels. Everyone has heard the famous line: "Please sir, can I have some more?" What a lot of people don't realize is that Oliver Twist was actually Dickens' attempt at a social critique of the prevailing prejudices against the poor and downtrodden in Victorian England, and the appalling work and living conditions that they were subjected to as a result of the Poor Law of 1834. In this capacity Dickens was very successful; his novel helped draw attention to the problem and precipitated a wave of compassion toward the poor. However, his success in improving the image of one marginalized group was perhaps marred by the slandering of a second marginalized population: the Jews. Dickens' anti-semitism is very apparent in the character of the Jew Fagin who is repeatedly likened to a demon, and who is characterized by a jumble of derogatory Jewish stereotypes. By contrast, Oliver is hardly characterized at all except to be described as a kind of nebulous blob of pure goodness who is tried by hardship at every turn-- thereby winning our sympathy.

Like many of Dickens' novels, Twist's plot hangs on the convergence of coincidence. Though the seeming acts of fate that drive the story are clearly contrived, it is done in such a self-aware manner that the reader can't help but overlook the ridiculousness of the plot twists. My favorite part of Dickens' story-telling in this novel is the bitingly sarcastic manner in which it is written. The narrative is dry and exceptionally witty, and I frequently found myself laughing out loud at the masterful use of irony that turns what could be rather dark and depressing parts of the novel into dark comedy. The manner of narration makes up for the rather stereotypical good vs evil, villains-get-their-just-deserts plot formulation. I really enjoyed reading Oliver Twist, and I would definitely recommend it for a first time Dickens reader, with the one qualification that it does reflect the prevailing prejudices and racism of the time, and should thus be taken with a large grain of salt.

Glad I revisited this classic as an adult!!
I remember reading this in school, but at a young age I just didn't appreciate it.I recently downloaded this on to my Kindle and LOVED it!Sad and heart-breaking throughout, but a classic treasure nonetheless!! ... Read more

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It is impossible to overstate the importance of British novelist CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) not only to literature in the English language, but to Western civilization on the whole. He is arguably the first fiction writer to have become an international celebrity. He popularized episodic fiction and the cliffhanger, which had a profound influence on the development of film and television. He is entirely responsible for the popular image of Victorian London that still lingers today, and his characters-from Oliver Twist to Ebenezer Scrooge, from Miss Havisham to Uriah Heep-have become not merely iconic, but mythic.But it was his stirring portraits of ordinary people-not the upper classes or the aristocracy-and his fervent cries for social, moral, and legal justice for the working poor, and in particular for poor children, in the grim early decades of the Industrial Revolution that powerfully impacted social concerns well into the 20th century.Without Charles Dickens, we may never have seen the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Upton Sinclair, or even Bob Dylan.Here, in 30 beautiful volumes-complete with all the original illustrations-is every published word written by one of the most important writers ever. The essential collector's set will delight anyone who cherishes English literature...and who takes pleasure in constantly rediscovering its joys.This volume contains Great Expectations, which was originally serialized in Dickens's own periodical All the Year Round in 1860-61. The story of the orphan Pip from childhood through changes of fortune and romance, it remains a favorite of Dickens fans to this day. ... Read more

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Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944), who often published under the pen-name of 'Q', was one of the giants of early twentieth-century literature and literary criticism. A novelist and poet who was also a Professor of English, he helped to form the literary tastes of generations of literary students and scholars who came after him. The freshness, enthusiasm and intellectual insight of his work is still evident in his writings nearly a century on. Cambridge University Press is delighted to reissue some of his key texts in this new edition. A collection of essays on Victorian writers of fiction: Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Benjamin Disraeli, Elizabeth Gaskell and - perhaps most surprisingly - Anthony Trollope, whom Quiller-Couch sees as 'one of our greatest English novelists'. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Bleak House, Dickens's most daring experiment in the narration of a complex plot, challenges the reader to make connections--between the fashionable and the outcast, the beautiful and the ugly, the powerful and the victims. Nowhere in Dickens's later novels is his attack on an uncaring society more imaginatively embodied, but nowhere either is the mixture of comedy and angry satire more deftly managed. ... Read more

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Remarkable, sumptuous artwork by top children's book illustrator, artist Christian Birmingham, enhances the faithful abridgement of this Dickens classic.Our other Christmas classics illustrated by Christian Birmingham, A Christmas Treasury, and The Night Before Christmas.With 35 full-color and black-and-white illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A Must-Have for Youngsters
This beautifully illustrated edition of the all time favorite Dickens story is perfect for children to read at the Christmas season. If the kids or grandkids in your life are too young to read, they will still certainly enjoy being read to and looking at the wonderful pictures. While shorter than the original, it maintains the complete gist of the story in the words we all love.

Nice "adapted" version
This version was "dumbed down" a bit for younger kids, but sticks fairly closely to the original language.I read it to my 5-year old at Christmas and it was probably a bit too old for him. I'd say this version would be good to read to about a 7 year old or for a 9 or 10 year old to read on his or her own.Illustrations were not that impressive.

Great for kids!
This edition keeps all the music of Charles Dickens' language but the illustrations make it more accessible for kids.That said, the language is still very challenging so expect to do a lot of explaining.The exposure to classic literature is well worth the effort tho!

A Christmas Carol : A young reader's edition.
I just really love Charles Dickens old tale. And this young readers edition is perfect, the drawings are beautiful. This is the story of the old miser Scrooge, who on Christmas Eve are visited by the gost of Christmas past, present and yet to come. And so he finally discovers the real meaning of Christmas.

A Christmas Carol
There is something for everyone in this book.It contains the story of a mean man who receives redemption.Ebeneezer is able to change only with the intervention of three ghostly visitors.They come to him and show his past, present, and future.Throughout the journey, the reader has a chance to see possible mistakes that Scrooge made and how he has suffered from it.This is not only a Christmas classic, but a human nature classic. ... Read more