Charles Dickens: A Life

In the run-up to Dickens' 200th birthday this year, there have been a number of biographies of the writer published. As a big fan of Dickens, I have read a number of them and most of them are quite good. I've yet to come across one I'd describe as the "best" or "definitive" as they all seem to have their strengths and weaknesses. Tomalin's biography is no different. In some ways it is very good but it also has its irritations.Let's start with the strengths. This is one of the most readable of the recent biographies of Dickens. It is of manageable length, though it covers his entire life, and the prose pops along very energetically. Mainly this is because she controls the fount of detail. Unlike many biographers, she doesn't overwhelm us. She gives us enough to get a good outline of his story.The weakness of this biography comes from her fairly obvious desire to take The Inimitable down a few pegs. Her analysis of every novel contains sentences that make me wonder whether she even likes his work. And, of course, there is her desire to beat up Dickens over his treatment of his wife and bring to the fore his mistress, Nelly Ternan. (In fact, she's already written an entire book on Ternan, The Invisible Woman.)In and of itself, this is not a problem. I am not a fan of worshipful biographies because every human is flawed. For example, no one would argue, I think, that Dickens treated his wife horribly. It is the way Tomalin makes her points that is the problem. In particular, she is a master of saying "there is no proof" of something and then subtly taking that thing for granted as fact later in her book. She does this often but one instance should suffice here: on p. 327 she writes, "There is no proof that it was Nelly who took Dickens to France the summer of 1862, or that the reason for her being in France was the she was pregnant..." and then follows on p. 405 with, "They [Nelly and her husband, George Robinson] had two children, Geoffrey, born in 1879, the adored son who filled the place of the son she had lost, and a daughter, Gladys, in 1884." (My italics.)Still, if you can take some of Tomalin's "facts" with a grain of salt, this is a pretty good biography. It takes you through Dickens' story briskly and informatively, which is not a quality of all the biographies out there.

Charles Dickens wrote so much and lived his life on such a scale that his most complete and definitive biographies (such as Peter Ackroyd's exuberant 1990 life study of the author) assume Dickensian proportions themselves. While this dynamic can be vastly entertaining, it can also make many of them quite intimidating for readers trying to find a simpler outline of the great novelist's life; Jane Smiley's brief 2003 biography for the Penguin Lives series sought to fill such a gap, but was judged inadequate and too chatty by many of its reviewers. Claire Tomalin, one of the best contemporary British biographers, has produced this book which is enormously readable and quite manageable in size, consisting of only about 400 pages of text narrative. This work should be seen by no means as any kind of standard or definitive biography (it is too brief for that), but is probably a much better introduction to Dickens's life for the common reader than Edgar Johnson's famous work from more than a half a century ago or Ackroyd's 1990 work (no matter how much fun Ackroyd's can be if you have the time and can find an old copy of it). It is also less invested, as other reviewers have noted, in providing full-scale readings of Dickens's novels and major novellas or short stories, though it does outline and evaluate them intelligently and provide crucial links between them and Dickens' life.Tomalin produced an account of Dickens' affair late in life with the actress Ellen Ternan, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, many years ago, so is clearly well read in the relevant source materials from Dickens and his circle. Although she is quite clear in her belief that Dickens did consummate his affair with Ternan (which some other Dickens' biographers have disputed), she is to some extent more generous to Dickens himself than other biographers have been, who have produced a portrait of him late in his life (particularly after his break with his wife Catherine) as being obsessively paranoid, self-righteous and manic nearly to the degree of insanity. (This depiction has found perhaps its consummation in Dan Simmons' overwrought and exhausting gothic horror fantasy about Dickens' later years, DROOD.) But although Tomalin does not deny Dickens' cruelty towards his wife and his narcissism, and of the many missteps he takes with his friends and family and even his critical pieces in his journals, there's a strong sense throughout this biography of how much she strongly admires him, right to the end of his life. The book is marvelously readable and comes with some rarely seen (and helpfully annotated) images of Dickens and his family and his circle, as well as terrific illustrated maps of his and his family's homes in Rochester, central London and North London. I would recommend this highly to anyone who is first reading Dickens' novels and wants to get a full (if not fully scholarly) outline of his life and achievements.

This book has surely been a tour-de-force by the author in reconstructing the life of Charles Dickens. In fact the man behind the most celebrated novels of the Victorian age (and of all times) was what we would call today a hyper-active dude, both in personal life and in public and literary life. Always restless, and probably harbouring a tangle of un-resolved conflicts with his family of origin, Dickens spent his life in so many activities that it is difficult to understand how he found time for everything: novelist, journalist, editor, dramaturgist, more-than-amateur actor, social and political activist, philantropist, socialite and more, having a family menagerie with a score of children, living and possessing several houses in England and abroad, travelling throughout Europe and America. Actually I cannot imagine how the biographer could reconstruct all those details from the available documentation. The book is above all a description on how in Dickens personal life and literature are so inestricably entangled that it is difficult to understand what came first: private experiences or literary fantasy. For those who love Dickens and his works this is a book not to miss.

I loved this book. It’s a fairly hefty tome at 417 pages, but it races along at a cracking pace and it never feels overly scholarly or didactic. Like Dickens’ own doorstopper books, there seems to be a cast of thousands, but the author has conveniently provided a cast list at the beginning of the book of all the people who are mentioned for easy reference, along with maps of all the places associated with Dickens. There are also lots of illustrations.I only knew the basic outline of Dickens’ life that everyone knows, so this threw up some very interesting facts about him that I didn’t know. For example, that he was a frequent visitor to the continent and spoke fluent French; that he had ten children, but only really wanted the first three and was slightly resentful of the others; that he was at once charming and charismatic, but could be surprisingly cruel and vindictive to those who he fell out with (he forbade his children to have anything to do with his wife after their separation and he once went nearly two years without speaking to his favourite daughter Katey because she occasionally visited her mother). He used to regularly walk from North London to his home Gad’s Hill in Higham, Kent - a distance of some 30 miles.His manic energy – he seemed to be in perpetual motion and never stayed in the same place for more than a few days – and superhuman work ethic were all driven by his fear of returning to the poverty he had known as a child. But he was also at one point supporting around five families: his own, his in-laws, various siblings and the Ternan family. He once calculated that he needed around £9,000 a year (£630,000) to provide for his extended family and all their dependents.I haven’t read any other Dickens’ biographies so I can’t make a comparison, but the best compliment I can probably give it is that it made me want to go away and read more about him, as well as Claire Tomalin’s related book ‘The Invisible Woman’ about his mistress Ellen Ternan.

Tomalin's biography of Dickens is interesting but surprisingly traditional for such a critically acclaimed work on the man. There is nothing of Ackroyd's flamboyant fictionalised approach to the telling of the story (so much the better for that), but at the same time Tomalin's narrative approach, sticking just to chronology feels a bit dull and plodding at times. There is often much more narrative than there is assessment and analysis.What emerges from the book is a vivid picture of Dickens the man, with all his virtues and flaws. Driven, perhaps even haunted, by early events in his life such as the debts racked up by his father, his own experiences of working in poor conditions and witnessing the poverty and suffering in London, Dickens emerged as a prolific writer, campaigner, popular celebrity. He seems equally prolific in fathering children, and comes over as a surprisingly immature individual, prone to bouts of teenage-like infatuation with women, and the ability to coldly, almost ruthlessly, cut people out of his life who crossed or wronged him in some way.Tomalin is good in presenting an objective view of Dickens's work. She's not afraid to say where books or stories fall short of the mark, and is equally objective with praise for his most successful and influential works. Seemingly driven by money as much as anything, Dickens wasn't afraid to milk the rich seam of public readings, which seems to have sustained his popularity into his declining years. Like anyone blessed with such talents. Dickens also has his dark side, and comes over as both hugely gifted and yet, at the same time, something of a monstrous ego maniac. The latter stages of the book drag on too long, but overall an illuminating if rather stodgy take on Dickens. What emerges most strongly is just how much he packed into his life for someone who didn't even reach the age of 60.

I love Dickens the Author, he wrote the most amazing stories and I have also read some non fictional works. He was also known for his ability to highlight the plight of the underdog, and for his campaigning and charitable works. That was probably the extent of my knowledge about Dickens until I read this book. Dickens the man certainly appears to be a complex character, and I believe full of contradictions. He had a public face and was loved and admired but in terms of his private life, there seemed double standards and I am not sure I would have actually liked him due to some aspects of his behaviour. Found the book very informative, and thought provoking, really good.

the book kicks off well with dickens the embryonic author. some excellent facts and portraits of the man in various settings. then it starts to get a bit sticky and stodgy. its nicely written but the pattern of CD's life just goes round and round - he writes a book, it gets lauded or not so, he goes on holiday or moves house and the whole process begins again. after the decent start i recommended it to my dad - he has to get audio books - and he told me he got bored with it too. i'm now into his middle life and the book still hasn't really fired up. i keep thinking about other literary biogs i have read - ellmans wilde, judds ford madox ford and most others and how they leave tomalins charles dickens flailing! i'll probably see it through but how this is rated so highly is a mystery.

Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens: A LifeUnlike Peter Ackroyd's Dickens, which begins with Dickens's death at Gad's Hill in 1870, Claire Tomalin's book opens with an 1840 episode with Dickens as juror at a murder trial. The contrast between these two excellent biographies is thus set from the start: Ackroyd will be meticulously thorough and painstakingly detailed, while Tomalin's approach will tend to be more impressionistic. Strangely, Tomalin the biographer's book reads more like a novel than that of Ackroyd the novelist. While both biographies are crammed with fascinating detail, Tomalin, where possible, confines this to the notes at the end of the book. Ackroyd, too, is prolific with his notes, quotes and suggestions for further reading, but the sheer length of his book, not to mention the length of his chapters, is somewhat overwhelming: he provides the researcher with over 50 pages of Notes on Text and Sources. Tomalin is more economical and an easier read and she neatly divides her chapters into nice bite-size pieces. I especially relished the way in which Tomalin interlaces penetrating criticism of the novels with Dickens's life at the time of writing. Of course Ackroyd does the same and equally well, as, for example with the relationship between the author's random opening of Tristram Shandy as a spur to the writing of Dombey and Son. But Tomalin embeds this episode in a chapter headed `Dombey, with Interruptions 1846-1848,' in which the novel seems to grow out of the author's life like an unruly plant against a background of Chartism, being attacked by a horse, attending the funeral of his publisher William Hall, writing to Thackeray and the setting up of his Home for Homeless Women. In fact the lively chapter headings throughout add greatly to the pleasure of the book, orientating the reader to time, place and action. Thus we have `A London Education 1822-1827,' `Blackguards and Brigands 1837-1839,' and for his relationship with Ellen Ternan, `The Bebelle Life.' Perhaps the principal contrast between the two works lies their portrayal of the relationship between Dickens and his wife. Catherine is treated more sympathetically by Tomalin, who lays stress on her isolation and the cruel treatment she stoically endured from her husband. Her clumsiness, domestic indolence and kitchen incompetence is played down, while Ackroyd seems to follow Dickens's lead in seeing her as a figure of fun. And where Ackroyd finds it `almost inconceivable' that Dickens had a full sexual relationship with young Ellen Ternan, Tomalin makes no bones about going into detail by quoting the words of those involved in the cover-up of an affair of complete intimacy. `We can never know,' says Ackroyd, and that is true, but we can believe those who did know (such as Katey Dickens and the Rev William Benham) and others who were wise to the secret and shielded their hero from discovery. None of this of course has any bearing on our appreciation of the works. Ultimately what concerns us is not what an author is but what he produces and that in Dickens's case is almost always lively, insightful, entertaining. moving and tremendous fun.