Overview

Charles Dickens was a superb public performer, a great orator and one of the most famous of the Eminent Victorians. Slight of build, with a frenzied, hyper-energetic personality, Dickens looked much older than his fifty-eight years when he died - an occasion marked by a crowded funeral at Westminster Abbey, despite his waking wishes for a small affair. Experiencing the worst and best of life during the Victorian Age, Dickens was not merely the conduit through whom some of the most beloved characters in literature came into the world. He was one of them. 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. In doing so, A. N. Wilson seeks to understand Dickens' creative genius and enduring popularity. Following his life from cradle to grave, it becomes clear that Dickens's fiction drew from his own experiences - a fact he acknowledged. Like Oliver Twist, Dickens suffered a wretched childhood, then grew up to become not only a respectable gentleman but an artist of prodigious popularity. Dickens knew firsthand the poverty and pain his characters endured, including the scandal of a failed marriage. Going beyond standard narrative biography, Wilson brilliantly revisits the wellspring of Dickens's vast and wild imagination, to reveal at long last why his novels captured the hearts of nineteenth-century readers - and why they continue to resonate today.

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9781786497918

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Reviews

Beyond the eye-opening analysis, Wilson also offers a moving personal account of why Dickens has meant so much to him * Booklist (starred review) * Utterly satisfying... A marvelous exploration by an author steeped in the craft of his subject's elastic, elusive work. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * Enthralling... In each section, themes and ideas spool out with Wilson's characteristic fluency and narrative flair. He both loves and is appalled by Dickens * Literary Review * A wonderfully fresh and vivid account, fluently integrating life and work, teasingly constructed without being relentlessly chronological, and personally charged by an impassioned gratitude to Dickens... Wilson's unquenchable gusto, sharp critical intelligence and buoyant prose make compelling reading - a vindication not so much of the mystery of Charles Dickens as the miracle. * The Telegraph * A sprightly retelling of a well-known narrative... vivid, detailed. * Guardian, 'Book of the Week' * A brilliant denunciation of the sickness of Victorian England.[Wilson] is especially vivid on the moral horror of a self-confident, capitalist society without a safety net for those at the bottom. * The Times, 'Book of the Week' * Fascinating... The greatest compliment one could pay this book is to say that it doesn't only read like something written about Dickens; animated by a restless, rummaging critical intelligence, and a curiosity about many of the things others simply take for granted, at times it reads more like something written by Dickens. * Spectator * Hugely enjoyable... A wonderfully fresh and vivid account... Wilson's unquenchable gusto, sharp critical intelligence and buoyant prose make compelling reading. * Daily Telegraph * Delightful, riveting... In this superb book, [Wilson] has succeeded in prising open the layers and revealing the inner child inside Charles Dickens. * Daily Mail, 'Book of the Week' *

Wilson's approach is admiring, argumentative and astute. He is a brisk, irreverent revisionist who likes to find other people's ticklish points. * The Times on Prince Albert * Mesmerising... An irresistible and informative read... A.N. Wilson's brilliant book is a treat: an absorbing and entertaining guide to the complex tensions of Albert's world. * The i on Prince Albert * Enthralling... [Wilson] writes so exuberantly and perceptively... What keeps his portrait so animated is not only the extensive use of primary sources - chiefly the correspondence lodged in the Royal Archives - but also a novelist's ability to make character vivid and narrative swift... Wilson's account of this remarkable man is unfailingly enjoyable and sharply astute. * Daily Telegraph on Prince Albert * Wilson has produced in this biography what has hitherto been an oxymoron, a highly entertaining book about Albert. * Sunday Times on Prince Albert * Beyond the eye-opening analysis, Wilson also offers a moving personal account of why Dickens has meant so much to him * Booklist (starred review) * Utterly satisfying... A marvelous exploration by an author steeped in the craft of his subject's elastic, elusive work. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *

Wilson's approach is admiring, argumentative and astute. He is a brisk, irreverent revisionist who likes to find other people's ticklish points. * The Times on Prince Albert * Mesmerising... An irresistible and informative read... A.N. Wilson's brilliant book is a treat: an absorbing and entertaining guide to the complex tensions of Albert's world. * The i on Prince Albert * Enthralling... [Wilson] writes so exuberantly and perceptively... What keeps his portrait so animated is not only the extensive use of primary sources - chiefly the correspondence lodged in the Royal Archives - but also a novelist's ability to make character vivid and narrative swift... Wilson's account of this remarkable man is unfailingly enjoyable and sharply astute. * Daily Telegraph on Prince Albert * Wilson has produced in this biography what has hitherto been an oxymoron, a highly entertaining book about Albert. * Sunday Times on Prince Albert *

Beyond the eye-opening analysis, Wilson also offers a moving personal account of why Dickens has meant so much to him * Booklist (starred review) * Utterly satisfying... A marvelous exploration by an author steeped in the craft of his subject's elastic, elusive work. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * Enthralling... In each section, themes and ideas spool out with Wilson's characteristic fluency and narrative flair. He both loves and is appalled by Dickens * Literary Review * A sprightly retelling of a well-known narrative... vivid, detailed. * Guardian, 'Book of the Week' * Wilson's attempt to pin down the Dickens we don't know is energetic. He leads the reader, like one of the ghosts in A Christmas Carol, to visit moments in the writer's life... Compelling * Financial Times * Hugely enjoyable... A wonderfully fresh and vivid account, fluently integrating life and work, teasingly constructed without being relentlessly chronological, and personally charged by an impassioned gratitude to Dickens... Wilson's unquenchable gusto, sharp critical intelligence and buoyant prose make compelling reading - a vindication not so much of the mystery of Charles Dickens as the miracle. * Daily Telegraph * A brilliant denunciation of the sickness of Victorian England.[Wilson] is especially vivid on the moral horror of a self-confident, capitalist society without a safety net for those at the bottom. * The Times, 'Book of the Week' * Fascinating... The greatest compliment one could pay this book is to say that it doesn't only read like something written about Dickens; animated by a restless, rummaging critical intelligence, and a curiosity about many of the things others simply take for granted, at times it reads more like something written by Dickens. * Spectator * Delightful, riveting... In this superb book, [Wilson] has succeeded in prising open the layers and revealing the inner child inside Charles Dickens. * Daily Mail, 'Book of the Week' *

Author Information

A. N. Wilson grew up in Staffordshire and was educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is a prolific and award-winning biographer and celebrated novelist. He lives in North London.

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