Thoughts

Charles Dickens is one of those historical figures that has been lauded for a long time, but is now a more complicated figure. I wanted to know more about his history to understand any debate about his legacy, and who this man was. Many of the biographical books out there (and there are a lot!) seem dense and dull. This one presented as a clear, easy to read, full history of the man.

This was exactly what I was looking for - the life of Dickens laid out in pretty much linear fashion, with facts detailed and unknowns laid out with as much clarity as possible. Tomalin paints the picture of this complex man, the good, the bad, the endearing, and the arrogant.

Early in his writing career he started to call himself 'the inimitable': it was partly a joke with him, but not entirely, because he could see that there was no other writer at work who could surpass him, and that no one among his friends or family could even begin to match his energy and ambition.

So the book helps to get an understanding of this legendary author's life and why he made some of the decisions he did. We can't shy away from the fact that he was terrible to his wife, and could have been more involved with his children's lives, but there's also context here about the period of time Dickens lived in, and the other pressures he was under. The book is written without judgement, the facts are there to make your own mind up.

I was worried that a lengthy biography about one person's entire life would be boring in places, but even the mundane details are fascinating: travel details and writing schedules for the man who all but invented Christmas. For helping me get informed about a historical character, the book gets a 4 out of 5, missing out on the top score because I don't feel like I've answered the question of who he really was.

Rating: 4 / 5