Charles Dickens: A Life

Charles Dickens is the acclaimed definitive biography of Britain’s greatest novelist by bestselling author Claire Tomalin, author of Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self and Jane Austen: A Life

‘Powerful and remarkable. It is a celebration of a great genius. No question: you put Tomalin’s book down knowing that you have met a living author’ Miriam Margolyes, The Times

‘By far the most humane and imaginatively sympathetic account yet for the general reader’ Amanda Craig, New Statesman

‘Tomalin has captured Dickens, in sun and shadow, with all the full-hearted exuberance, generosity and keen wit that he merits’ Boyd Tonkin, Independent

‘Written with immense knowledge… it presents a portrait of the novelist unrivalled in its complex humanity. Dickens lives and breathes in these pages. Engrossing’ William Boyd, Guardian, Books of the Year

Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: a demonically hardworking journalist, the father of ten children, a tireless walker and traveller, a supporter of liberal social causes, but most of all a great novelist - the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination: Ebenezer Scrooge, the Artful Dodger, Mr Pickwick, Pip, David Copperfield, Little Nell, Lady Dedlock, and many more.

At the age of twelve he was sent to work in a blacking factory by his affectionate but feckless parents. From these unpromising beginnings, he rose to scale all the social and literary heights, entirely through his own efforts. When he died, the world mourned, and he was buried — against his wishes — in Westminster Abbey.

Yet the brilliance concealed a contradictory character. In Charles Dickens: A Life, award-winning author Claire Tomalin paints an unforgettable portrait of Dickens, vividly capturing the complex character of this great genius.