Overview

""Deeply respecting, and bowing down before the character of Our Saviour, you cannot go very wrong, and will always preserve at heart a true spirit of veneration and humility."" Charles Dickens Charles Dickens was a great storyteller; he possessed the unique ability of documenting the realities of life for both his contemporaries and future generations. A journalist, commentator, historian, and the social conscience of a nation, his influence and reach extended far beyond that normally associated with a novelist. Although the subject of numerous books, none have sought to detail how the writer tried through his work to change the hearts of his readers. In this authoritative and highly readable new biography, Keith Hooper explores the nature and development of Dickens's faith, and the means by which it was expressed. This excellent study of Dickens's beliefs and struggles with the contemporary church gives new and valuable insight into his literary work.

Full Product Details

Author:   Keith Hooper
Publisher:   SPCK Publishing
Imprint:   Lion Books
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9780745968513

ISBN 10:   0745968511
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   22 September 2017
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments 7 A Timeline of Charles Dickens’s Life 8 Introduction 12 1 Lady of John Dickens Esq. a Son 17 2 The Workhouse, the Theatre, and Royalty 24 3 The Happy Dream of Childhood 29 4 The Reader, the Watcher, and the Learner 39 5 Disturbing Shadows of Debt and Despair 46 6 The Prisoner and the Pupil 55 7 I Begin Life on My Account 64 8 The Actor, the Reporter, and the Writer 73 9 Sketches By Boz and Sparks on Sunday 91 10 Charitable Angels and the Invisible World of Poverty 101 11 Oliver Twist: The Parable of the Good Samaritan and Female Angels 111 12 Nicholas Nickleby: Charitable and Female Angels 126 13 The Old Curiosity Shop and the Ticking of the Clock 134 14 Death, the Resurrection, and Child Angels 140 15 A Christmas Carol 150 16 The Chimes 162 17 The Simple Faith of Dickens 170 18 The Private and Public Charity of Dickens 179 19 The Battle of Life 188 20 Telescopic Philanthropy and Original Sin 198 21 Law, Grace, and Feet of Clay 207 22 The Triumph of His Latter Years 217 The End 231 Select Bibliography 239

Reviews

The complexity of Dickens's life and character never diminished his Christian charity and advocacy of the poor. Hooper's new biography reveals a different Dickens, one who wrote expressly for his children The Life of our Lord. At the heart of this is a man who loved Jesus, acknowledging that there was none so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for people who did wrong. Hooper gives us a Dickens who, in the midst of his complex and divided life struggled to translate his faith into practical social good. -- Revd Canon Professor David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow

Author Information

...A lecturer, speaker, English Tutor and writer...If it helps this is the sort of thing that appears in my lecture publicity...'Awarded a doctorate from the University of Exeter for his work on Charles Dickens, Keith Hooper regularly speaks on Victorian literature. His lectures, available on YouTube, have attracted thousands of viewers. His work has also appeared in the international journal The Dickensian. A qualified teacher, he currently works as an English tutor.

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