Synopses & Reviews
For fans of the soon-to-be-released film about Charles Dickens starring Ralph Fiennes, a brilliantly insightful biography from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley
With delectable wit and characteristic sensitivity, Jane Smiley presents a fresh, illuminating take on the life of Charles Dickens. Smiley finds a kindred spirit in the author of such classics as Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol, who was not only a prolific writer but also one of the first modern "celebrities." She offers interpretations of many of Dickens's major works, exploring his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes. A perceptive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life, this biography is perfect for fans of The Invisible Woman, the Charles Dickens biopic starring Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, and Kristin Scott Thomas, which hits theaters in February 2014.
Synopsis
A brilliantly insightfulbiography from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley
With delectable wit and characteristic sensitivity, Jane Smiley presents a fresh, illuminating take on the life of Charles Dickens. Smiley finds a kindred spirit in the author of such classics asGreat ExpectationsandA Christmas Carol, who was not only a prolific writer but also one of the first modern "celebrities." She offers interpretations of many of Dickens's major works, exploring his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes. Smiley's biograph is a perceptive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life."
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's ten works of fiction include The Age of Grief, The Greenlanders, Ordinary Love and Good Will, Moo, A Thousand Acres (which won the Pulitzer Prize), and most recently the bestselling Horse Heaven.