Charles Dickens

Michael Slater

Published by Yale University Press 2009

Charles Dickens

Michael Slater

https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300165524

Overview
Contents

About this book

This long-awaited biography, twenty years after the last major account, uncovers Dickens the man through the profession in which he excelled. Drawing on a lifetime’s study of this prodigiously brilliant figure, Michael Slater explores the personal and emotional life, the high-profile public activities, the relentless travel, the charitable works, the amateur theatricals and the astonishing productivity. But the core focus is Dickens’ career as a writer and professional author, covering not only his big novels but also his phenomenal output of other writing--letters, journalism, shorter fiction, plays, verses, essays, writings for children, travel books, speeches, and scripts for his public readings, and the relationships among them.

Slater’s account, rooted in deep research but written with affection, clarity, and economy, illuminates the context of each of the great novels while locating the life of the author within the imagination that created them. It highlights Dickens’ boundless energy, his passion for order and fascination with disorder, his organizational genius, his deep concern for the poor and outrage at indifference towards them, his susceptibility towards young women, his love of Christmas and fairy tales, and his hatred of tyranny.

Richly and precisely illustrated with many rare images, this masterly work on the complete Dickens, man and writer, becomes the indispensable guide and companion to one of the greatest novelists in the language.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of illustrations in the text Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
List of plates Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiv
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Note on monetary values Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
1. Early years: from Portsmouth to Chatham, 1812–1822 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Early years: London, 1822–1827 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
3. ‘The Copperfield days’, 1828–1835 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
4. Break-through year, 1836 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
5. Editing Bentley’s Magazine, 1836–1837 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
6. Periodicals into novels, 1837–1839 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
7. The Master Humphrey experiment, 1840–1841 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
8. America brought to book, 1842 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
9. ‘The turning-point of his career’: England, Italy, England, 1842–1845 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
10. An interlude: ‘daily nooses’ and the noose itself, 1846 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
11. Dombey and other dealings, 1846–1848 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
12. From Dombey to Copperfield, 1848–1849 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
13. Interweaving and conducting: writing David Copperfield and beginning Household Words, 1849–1850 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
14. The year of the Guild, 1850–1851 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
15. Writing Bleak House, 1852–1853 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	340
16. Writing ‘For These Times’, 1853–1854 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	363
17. Writing Little Dorrit – among other things, 1855–1857 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	387
18. Drama and dénouement: performing The Frozen Deep and finishing Little Dorrit, 1857 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	416
19. Writing off a marriage, 1857–1858 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	432
20. Stories into scripts: the public readings, 1858 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	461
21. Serials, series and stories: writing for All the Year Round, 1859–1861 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	469
22. Christmas numbers, public readings, and ‘uncommercial’ travels, 1861–1863 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	498
23. Back to the ‘big brushes’: writing Our Mutual Friend, 1864–1865 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	521
24. Last Christmas numbers, 1865–1867 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	545
25. Writing, and reading, for America, 1867–1868 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	561
26. Disappearances and deaths, 1868–1870 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	585
27. Charles Dickens’s explanations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	615
Abbreviations and select bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	624
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	627
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	671

Language: English
Publisher: Yale University Press
Pages
- Main content: 720
Illustrations
- Other: 65 b/w; 2 16-page b/w inserts with 80 h/t

eBook

Published: November 10, 2009
ISBN: 9780300165524