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Public Life And Private Passion
Hylas Publishing
March 2006
On Sale: February 25, 2006
Featuring: Charles Dickens
216 pages
ISBN: 159258215X
EAN: 9781592582150
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Non-Fiction Biography
The acclaimed chronicler of London, Peter Ackroyd, explores
the life and times of Charles Dickens, the great Victorian
author. It is a story of rags to riches, demonstrating how
much Dickens drew upon his own experiences in his fiction
and what drove him to call for social reform. Charles Dickens's life is a story of rags to riches,
complete with bankruptcy, prison, forced child labour, and
fame and fortune overshadowed by guilt and secrecy - rather
like the plot of one of his novels. Indeed, Dickens drew
strongly on his own experiences as the source for much of
his fiction. Here the author offers a fresh view of Dickens's remarkable
life story. Dickens's novels brim with references; they are
located in the places he lived in and visited, peopled with
characters he knew, and inspired by the preoccupations that
haunted his mind. Ackroyd highlights the reality of
Victorian life, warts and all, and the issues that sparked
Dickens's fervent calls for social reform; and he also
charts the influential landmarks of that era, such as the
coming of the railways, the effects upon society of the
industrial revolution and the expansion of the British Empire. Dickens was a complex personality. He apparently had
everything - fame, success, wealth - but he died harboring
the great sadness he had carried with him all his life, and
he was humble enough to forbid a grand funeral. Like many
eminent Victorians, he led a double life.
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