This is a lively and insightful biographical celebration of the imaginative genius of Charles Dickens, published in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his death.
The Mystery of Charles Dickens is illustrated with 30 black-and-white images.
Andrew Norman Wilson is an English writer and newspaper columnist, known for his critical biographies and novels.Â
Filled with the twists, pathos, and unusual characters that sprang from this novelist’s extraordinary imagination, The Mystery of Charles Dickens looks back from the legendary writer’s death to recall the key events in his life.Â
In doing so, he seeks to understand Dickens’ creative genius and enduring popularity.Â
Following his life from cradle to grave, it becomes clear that Dickens’s fiction drew from his life— a fact he acknowledged.Â
Like Oliver Twist, Dickens suffered a wretched childhood, then grew up to become not only a respectable gentleman but an artist of prodigious popularity.Â
Dickens knew firsthand the poverty and pain his characters endured, including the scandal of a failed marriage.
