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The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens

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The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens by Pete Orford offers an insightful exploration into the life of the celebrated author, Charles Dickens. The book delves into Dickens's journey from his early hardships to his rise as a literary giant, highlighting his creative genius and personal challenges. Rich with context and detail, it paints an engaging portrait of the man behind the enduring works.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$4999
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If you have a fascination with classic literature and the personal lives of its creators, this biography offers an engaging exploration of Charles Dickens, one of the literary giants. This book may appeal to you if you enjoy delving into the intriguing life events, challenges, and triumphs that shaped Dickens's impressive body of work.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

An accessible and reliable introduction to the life and works of Charles Dickens, offering a unique combination of academic biography and literary analysis.

The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens explores the relationship between Dickens’ lived experience and his works, discussing themes within and key influences on literary classics such as Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby, and Great Expectations. An excellent introduction to the world of Dickens scholarship, this easily accessible volume provides the necessary background about the author’s life while encouraging readers to critically analyze Dickens’ works.

Organised thematically by chapter, the book opens with a brief overview of Dickens’ life and a chronology of major works. Subsequent chapters focus on key aspects of Dickens’ life, concluding with case studies of selected texts that demonstrate the similarities between events in Dickens’ own life and the literature he was writing at the time. Throughout the book, readers are provided with an informative portrait of Dickens’ early family life, personal relationships, professional networks, social circles, travels abroad, charitable works, financial issues, dealings with publishers, and much more.

  • Incorporates the latest discussions in Dickens research alongside documents and materials from Dickens’ time
  • Discusses the afterlife of Dickens in film, theatre, and television, including A Christmas Carol, Dickens’ most adapted story
  • Features archival material from the Charles Dickens Museum and discussion of Dickens’ roles as a journalist, editor, and professional reader
  • Includes short case studies at the end of each chapter to demonstrate the ways Dickens’ life informed his work

The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens is an ideal introductory textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in English Literature and Victorian Literature courses, as well as a valuable resource for Dickens scholars and enthusiasts.

Series: The Life of the Author

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  • The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens
    An accessible and reliable introduction to the life and works of Charles Dickens, offering a unique combination of academic biography and literary analysis. The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens explores the relationship between Dickens’ lived experience and his works, discussing themes within and key influences on literary classics such as Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield,...
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  • The Life of the Author: John Milton
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  • The Life of the Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
    Explores how generations of biographers shaped, reinvented, and fabricated the life of Geoffrey Chaucer Very little is known with certainty about Geoffrey Chaucer’s life, yet he has long been enshrined as the “Father of English Poetry.” Over six centuries, biographers have sought to craft a version of Chaucer that meets the needs of their own time, culture, and readers. In...
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  • The Life of the Author: John Donne
    A revealing and original discussion of John Donne's work John Donne's voice can seem deceptively modern, yet his work demands contextual reading within early modern culture. The Life of the Author: John Donne presents Donne’s life and work as closely integrated, offering searching analysis of poetry and prose without reducing them to autobiography. Written by Emeritus Professor Tom Cain, a...
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  • The Life of the Author: Alexander Pope
    Offers a reader-friendly guide to reading, understanding, and appreciating Pope today Alexander Pope’s words echo across centuries, woven into the fabric of everyday English. Phrases such as “to err is human” and “hope springs eternal” have long since left the pages of his poetry to become part of common speech. But behind these familiar lines was a writer whose sharp...
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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781119697459

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 06 July 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Wiley-Blackwell

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 425g

Pages: 288

About the Author

PETE ORFORD is the Course Director of the MA in Charles Dickens Studies run by the University of Buckingham and the Charles Dickens Museum in London. He is the author of The Mystery of Edwin Drood: Charles Dickens’ Unfinished Novel & Our Endless Attempts to End It, and the editor of Pictures from Italy for the Oxford Dickens. He has contributed several articles and chapters to significant works including The Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens and The Blackwell Companion to Charles Dickens.

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