Becoming Dickens
Subtitle: the invention of a novelist
By: Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 389
ISBN-13: 9780674050037
Subjects: English Novelists; Biography
Description: Becoming Dickens tells the story of how an ambitious young Londoner became England's greatest novelist. In following the twists and turns of Charles Dickens's early career, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst examines a remarkable double transformation: in reinventing himself Dickens reinvented the form of the novel. It was a high-stakes gamble, and Dickens never forgot how differently things could have turned out. From his traumatized childhood to the suicide of his first collaborator and the sudden death of the woman who had a good claim to being the love of his life, Dickens faced powerful obstacles. Douglas-Fairhurst's provocative new biography, focused on the 1830s, portrays a restless and uncertain Dickens who could not decide on the career path he should take and would never feel secure in his considerable achievements. -- from Publisher Description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue : Somebody and nobody; title: Lost and found; title: The clerk's tale; title: Up in the gallery; title: Mr Dickin; title: Here we are!; title: Becoming Boz; title: The moving age; title: Pickwick triumphant; title: Writer; title: Dickens at home; title: Is she his wife?; title: Being Dickens; title: Postscript : Signing off