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Charles Dickens

A Life

A Life

By Jane Smiley

By Jane Smiley

By Jane Smiley

By Jane Smiley

By Jane Smiley
Read by Anna Fields

By Jane Smiley
Read by Anna Fields

Best Seller
Paperback $15.00

Nov 29, 2011 | ISBN 9780143119920

Ebook $11.99

May 13, 2002 | ISBN 9781101215432

Audiobook Download $17.50

Apr 10, 2002 | 450 Minutes

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    Charles Dickens by Jane Smiley
    Paperback $15.00
    Nov 29, 2011 | ISBN 9780143119920

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    • Paperback $15.00

      Nov 29, 2011 | ISBN 9780143119920

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      May 13, 2002 | ISBN 9781101215432

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    About Charles Dickens

    A brilliantly insightful biography from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley
     
    With delectable wit and characteristic sensitivity, Jane Smiley presents a fresh, illuminating take on the life of Charles Dickens. Smiley finds a kindred spirit in the author of such classics as Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol, who was not only a prolific writer but also one of the first modern “celebrities.” She offers interpretations of many of Dickens’s major works, exploring his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes. Smiley’s biograph is a perceptive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life.

    About Charles Dickens

    With the delectable wit, unforgettable characters, and challenging themes that have won her a Pulitzer Prize and national bestseller status, Jane Smiley naturally finds a kindred spirit in the author of classics such as Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. As “his novels shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels,” Smiley’s Charles Dickens is at once a sensitive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life.

    Smiley evokes Dickens as he might have seemed to his contemporaries: convivial, astute, boundlessly energetic-and lionized. As she makes clear, Dickens not only led the action-packed life of a prolific writer, editor, and family man but, balancing the artistic and the commercial in his work, he also consciously sustained his status as one of the first modern “celebrities.”

    Charles Dickens offers brilliant interpretations of almost all the major works, an exploration of his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes, and a reflection on how his richly varied lower-class cameos sprang from an experience and passion more personal than his public knew. Smiley’s own “demon narrative intelligence” (The Boston Globe) touches, too, on controversial details that include Dickens’s obsession with money and squabbles with publishers, his unhappy marriage, and the rumors of an affair.

    Here is a fresh look at the dazzling personality of a verbal magician and the fascinating times behind the classics we read in school and continue to enjoy today.

    About Charles Dickens

    Of Charles Dickens, Jane Smiley says that “his novels shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels.” Smiley’s Charles Dickens is at once a sensitive profile of the great master and a fascinating meditation on the writing life. Smiley evokes Dickens as he might have seemed to his contemporaries: convivial, astute, boundlessly energetic—and lionized. Charles Dickens offers brilliant interpretations of almost all his major works, an exploration of his narrative techniques and his innovative voice and themes, and a reflection on how his richly varied lower-class cameos sprang from an experience and passion more personal than his public knew.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

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    See all books by Jane Smiley

    Also by Jane Smiley

    A Dangerous Business
    Perestroika in Paris
    Taking the Reins (An Ellen & Ned Book)
    Riding Lessons (An Ellen & Ned Book)
    Saddles & Secrets (An Ellen & Ned Book)
    See all books by Jane Smiley

    About Jane Smiley

    JANE SMILEY is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books… More about Jane Smiley

    About Jane Smiley

    JANE SMILEY is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books… More about Jane Smiley

    About Jane Smiley

    JANE SMILEY is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books… More about Jane Smiley

    Product Details

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Historical Figure Biographies & Memoirs

    Paperback | $15.00
    Published by Penguin Books
    Nov 29, 2011 | 224 Pages | 5 x 7-1/8 | ISBN 9780143119920

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Historical Figure Biographies & Memoirs

    Ebook | $11.99
    Published by Penguin Books
    May 13, 2002 | 224 Pages | ISBN 9781101215432

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Criticism | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $17.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Apr 10, 2002 | 450 Minutes | ISBN 9781415911938
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