1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910826203103321

Autore

Slater Michael

Titolo

Charles Dickens [[electronic resource] ] : a life defined by writing / / Michael Slater

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2009

ISBN

1-282-50140-2

0-300-16552-8

9786612501401

1-4416-4558-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (720 p.)

Disciplina

823/.8

B

Soggetti

Authors, English - 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of illustrations in the text -- List of plates -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Note on monetary values -- 1. Early years: from Portsmouth to Chatham, 1812-1822 -- 2. Early years: London, 1822-1827 -- 3. 'The Copperfield days', 1828-1835 -- 4. Break-through year, 1836 -- 5. Editing Bentley's Magazine, 1836-1837 -- 6. Periodicals into novels, 1837-1839 -- 7. The Master Humphrey experiment, 1840-1841 -- 8. America brought to book, 1842 -- 9. 'The turning-point of his career': England, Italy, England, 1842-1845 -- 10. An interlude: 'daily nooses' and the noose itself, 1846 -- 11. Dombey and other dealings, 1846-1848 -- 12. From Dombey to Copperfield, 1848-1849 -- 13. Interweaving and conducting: writing David Copperfield and beginning Household Words, 1849-1850 -- 14. The year of the Guild, 1850-1851 -- 15. Writing Bleak House, 1852-1853 -- 16. Writing 'For These Times', 1853-1854 -- 17. Writing Little Dorrit - among other things, 1855-1857 -- 18. Drama and dénouement: performing The Frozen Deep and finishing Little Dorrit, 1857 -- 19. Writing off a marriage, 1857-1858 -- 20. Stories into scripts: the public readings, 1858 -- 21. Serials, series and stories: writing for All the Year Round, 1859-1861 -- 22. Christmas



numbers, public readings, and 'uncommercial' travels, 1861-1863 -- 23. Back to the 'big brushes': writing Our Mutual Friend, 1864-1865 -- 24. Last Christmas numbers, 1865-1867 -- 25. Writing, and reading, for America, 1867-1868 -- 26. Disappearances and deaths, 1868-1870 -- 27. Charles Dickens's explanations -- Abbreviations and select bibliography -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

This long-awaited biography, twenty years after the last major account, uncovers Dickens the man through the profession in which he excelled. Drawing on a lifetime's study of this prodigiously brilliant figure, Michael Slater explores the personal and emotional life, the high-profile public activities, the relentless travel, the charitable works, the amateur theatricals and the astonishing productivity. But the core focus is Dickens' career as a writer and professional author, covering not only his big novels but also his phenomenal output of other writing--letters, journalism, shorter fiction, plays, verses, essays, writings for children, travel books, speeches, and scripts for his public readings, and the relationships among them.Slater's account, rooted in deep research but written with affection, clarity, and economy, illuminates the context of each of the great novels while locating the life of the author within the imagination that created them. It highlights Dickens' boundless energy, his passion for order and fascination with disorder, his organizational genius, his deep concern for the poor and outrage at indifference towards them, his susceptibility towards young women, his love of Christmas and fairy tales, and his hatred of tyranny.Richly and precisely illustrated with many rare images, this masterly work on the complete Dickens, man and writer, becomes the indispensable guide and companion to one of the greatest novelists in the language.