The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens - by Pete Orford (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Organized 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, theater, 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.

From the Back Cover

Combining academic biography and literary analysis, The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens explores the relationship between Dickens' lived experience and his works. This accessible introduction to Dickens scholarship discusses the themes within and key influences on A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Bleak House, and other literary classics.

Organized thematically, the book provides the necessary background about the author's life while encouraging readers to critically analyze Dickens' works and afterlife, including Dickens' most adapted story, A Christmas Carol, and his unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Concise, highly engaging chapters each focus on a particular aspect of Dickens' life, from the author's childhood and personal relationships to his professional networks, charitable works, financial issues, and more. Throughout the book, archival material from the Charles Dickens Museum in London is presented alongside the latest scholarship on Dickens' lesser-known roles as a journalist, an editor, and a professional reader.

Featuring end-of-chapter case studies that demonstrate the similarities between events in Dickens' own life and the literature he was writing, 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.

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.