Charles Dickens - by Jane Smiley (Paperback)

About the Book

With delectable wit and characteristic sensitivity, Smiley presents a fresh, illuminating take on the life of Charles Dickens. She offers interpretations of many of Dickens' major works, exploring his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes. "Charles Dickens" is at once a perceptive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life.

Book Synopsis

With the delectable wit, unforgettable characters, and challenging themes that 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.

This biographical deep dive offers brilliant interpretations of almost all the major works, an exploration of Dickens's 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. 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.

Charles Dickens 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.

About the Author

Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Last Hundred Years Trilogy, A Dangerous Business, and Lucky. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. She lives in Northern California.