charles dickens a life by claire tomalin

The children he wanted could do no wrong, and he forgave them time and again for the very crimes and failings that the children he did not want were cast out for. He is a monster to his wife, and not much better to his children. For a modern reader it is pretty well horrifying. The temptation is to excuse this because of the time he lived in, but as Tomalin makes very clear, Dickens' treatment of women was bad even for the standards of Victorian England. He is a misogynist of the worst kind, who pretends to love women-but only if they behave in his very narrowly prescribed ways of Acceptable Womanhood. Unfortunately, it is impossible to respect him. She delves into great (and sometimes excessive) detail about his life, his comings and goings, friendships, health issues, and passions, and you develop a very good insight into the man behind all of the famous novels. Tomalin's book is about as fair to him as it is possible to be. It is easier to forgive a genius for feet of clay than for a heart of stone, I find. This biography gives full measure to Dickens's stature-his virtues both as a writer and as a human being-while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye.-From publisher description. His young life was overturned when his profligate father was sent to debtors' prison and Dickens was forced into harsh factory work-but this led to his remarkable eye for all that was absurd, tragic, and redemptive in London life. Yet like his heroes, Dickens trod a hard path to greatness. In his last years Dickens drew adoring crowds, had met presidents and princes, and had amassed a fortune.

His books had made them laugh, shown them the squalor and greed of English life, and also the power of personal virtue and the strength of ordinary people. Thousands flocked to mourn the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England.

When Charles Dickens died in 1870, The Times of London successfully campaigned for his burial in Westminster Abbey, the final resting place of England's kings and heroes.

Charles dickens a life by claire tomalin