Becoming Dickens

Becoming Dickens PDF Author: Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674072235
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This provocative biography tells the story of how an ambitious young Londoner became England’s greatest novelist. Focused on the 1830s, it portrays a restless, uncertain Dickens who could not decide on a career path. Through twists and turns, the author traces a double transformation: in reinventing himself Dickens reinvented the form of the novel.

Becoming Dickens

Becoming Dickens PDF Author: Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674072235
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This provocative biography tells the story of how an ambitious young Londoner became England’s greatest novelist. Focused on the 1830s, it portrays a restless, uncertain Dickens who could not decide on a career path. Through twists and turns, the author traces a double transformation: in reinventing himself Dickens reinvented the form of the novel.

The Friendly Dickens

The Friendly Dickens PDF Author: Norrie Epstein
Publisher: Viking Adult
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
You might have read him in class, but the Victorians read Charles Dickens like we watch Melrose Place, and The Friendly Dickens will show you why. It is the ultimate pop reference to the Dickensian world of shrouded sex and ostentatious death, a book that will have you running in delight to dust off your Dickens.Norrie Epstein--whose The Friendly Shakespeare was called by The New York Times "spirited, informative and provocative"--opens up Dickens's life and times in all its squalor and glory, including his rise to greatness and occasional lapses from grace. She considers his works, major and minor, in decided lively fashion, not just reading, but reading between the lines:* Was Oliver Twist's Fagin a pederast?* What made A Christmas Carol's Tiny Tim so darn tiny?* How many of Dickens's child characters met an untimely end? (Hint: plenty.)Full of humor, skepticism, and expert opinions, with eye- catching illustrations, plenty of quotes, and sidebars on nearly every page, you will quickly become a Dickens authority--even if you've never read a word.

Inventing Scrooge

Inventing Scrooge PDF Author: Carlo DeVito
Publisher: Cider Mill Press
ISBN: 1604337796
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Inventing Scrooge uncovers the real-life inspirations from Charles Dickens’ own world that led to the fascinating creation of his most beloved tale: A Christmas Carol. When Charles Dickens created the story that would become A Christmas Carol, little did he know that his “ghostly little book” would reinvent the way we celebrate Christmas. From a graveyard in Edinburgh to the Marshalsea Prison in London to his schoolboy years in Chatham and even his lifelong fascination with dance, so much of Dickens’ past and present are woven into the characters and themes of A Christmas Carol. And by understanding the story behind the story, readers will come to embrace the holiday classic all the more. To this day, we look to the Christmas season as a time of warmth and celebration among family, friends, and strangers alike. And every year at Christmastime, not only do our lives get better for all the festivity, but we get better, as people. Just like Ebenezer Scrooge.

A Boy Called Dickens

A Boy Called Dickens PDF Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
ISBN: 0375987401
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
For years Dickens kept the story of his own childhood a secret. Yet it is a story worth telling. For it helps us remember how much we all might lose when a child's dreams don't come true . . . As a child, Dickens was forced to live on his own and work long hours in a rat-infested blacking factory. Readers will be drawn into the winding streets of London, where they will learn how Dickens got the inspiration for many of his characters. The 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth was February 7, 2012, and this tale of his little-known boyhood is the perfect way to introduce kids to the great author. This Booklist Best Children's Book of the Year is historical fiction at its ingenious best.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens PDF Author: Claire Tomalin
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141036931
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 633

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Book Description
Chronicles the life of the nineteenth-century literary master from the challenges he faced as the imprisoned son of a profligate father, his rise to one of England's foremost novelists, and the personal demons that challenged his relationships.

The Christmas Carol

The Christmas Carol PDF Author: Charles Dickens
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557892902
Category : Christmas stories
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description


Dear Mr. Dickens

Dear Mr. Dickens PDF Author: Nancy Churnin
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN: 0807515299
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
2021 National Jewish Book Award Winner - Children's Picture Book 2022 Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor for Picture Books Chicago Public Library Best Informational Books for Younger Readers 2021 The Best Jewish Children's Books of 2021, Tablet Magazine A Junior Library Guild Selection March 2022 The Best Children's Books of the Year 2022, Bank Street College 2022 First Place—Children's Book Nonfiction, Press Women of Texas 2022 First Place—Children's Book Nonfiction, National Federation of Press Women Eliza Davis believed in speaking up for what was right. Even if it meant telling Charles Dickens he was wrong. In Eliza Davis's day, Charles Dickens was the most celebrated living writer in England. But some of his books reflected a prejudice that was all too common at the time: prejudice against Jewish people. Eliza was Jewish, and her heart hurt to see a Jewish character in Oliver Twist portrayed as ugly and selfish. She wanted to speak out about how unfair that was, even if it meant speaking out against the great man himself. So she wrote a letter to Charles Dickens. What happened next is history.

Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London

Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London PDF Author: Andrea Warren
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547395744
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
The motivations behind Dickens' novels and the poverty-stricken world of 19th century London.

The Mystery of Charles Dickens

The Mystery of Charles Dickens PDF Author: A.N. Wilson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062954962
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography A lively and insightful biographical celebration of the imaginative genius of Charles Dickens, published in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his death. Charles Dickens was a superb public performer, a great orator and one of the most famous of the Eminent Victorians. Slight of build, with a frenzied, hyper-energetic personality, Dickens looked much older than his fifty-eight years when he died—an occasion marked by a crowded funeral at Westminster Abbey, despite his waking wishes for a small affair. Experiencing the worst and best of life during the Victorian Age, Dickens was not merely the conduit through whom some of the most beloved characters in literature came into the world. He was one of them. Filled with the twists, pathos, and unusual characters that sprang from this novelist’s extraordinary imagination, The Mystery of Charles Dickens looks back from the legendary writer’s death to recall the key events in his life. In doing so, he seeks to understand Dickens’ creative genius and enduring popularity. Following his life from cradle to grave, it becomes clear that Dickens’s fiction drew from his life—a fact he acknowledged. Like Oliver Twist, Dickens suffered a wretched childhood, then grew up to become not only a respectable gentleman but an artist of prodigious popularity. Dickens knew firsthand the poverty and pain his characters endured, including the scandal of a failed marriage. Going beyond standard narrative biography, A. N. Wilson brilliantly revisits the wellspring of Dickens’s vast and wild imagination, to reveal at long last why his novels captured the hearts of nineteenth century readers—and why they continue to resonate today. The Mystery of Charles Dickens is illustrated with 30 black-and-white images.

Becoming Tom Thumb

Becoming Tom Thumb PDF Author: Eric D. Lehman
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 0819573329
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
An “evocative and entertaining” biography of the nineteenth century circus performer who became a global phenomenon (Neil Harris, author of Humbug). When P. T. Barnum met twenty-five-inch-tall Charles Stratton at a Bridgeport, Connecticut hotel in 1843, one of the most important partnerships in entertainment history was born. With Barnum’s promotional skills and the miniature Stratton’s comedic talents, they charmed a Who’s Who of the nineteenth century, from Queen Victoria to Charles Dickens to Abraham Lincoln. Adored worldwide as “General Tom Thumb,” Stratton played to sold-out shows for almost forty years. From his days as a precocious child star to his tragic early death, Becoming Tom Thumb tells the full story of this iconic figure for the first time. It details his triumphs on the New York stage, his epic celebrity wedding, and his around-the-world tour, drawing on newly available primary sources and interviews. From the mansions of Paris to the deserts of Australia, Stratton’s unique brand of Yankee comedy not only earned him the accolades of millions of fans, it helped move little people out of the side show and into the limelight.