Life and work of the man who wrote A Christmas carol and Oliver Twist.

A portrait of nineteenth-century actress Ellen Ternan, the woman who was the mistress of Charles Dickens, describing her secret relationship with the author.

When Charles Dickens died in 1870, The Times of London successfully campaigned for his burial in Westminster Abbey, the final resting place of England's kings and heroes. Thousands flocked to mourn the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England. His books had made them laugh, shown them the squalor and greed of English life, and also the power of personal virtue and the strength of ordinary people. In his last years Dickens drew adoring...

Publisher Marketing: "A radical reassessment of the famed Victorian author, revealing the true story behind the creator of some of literature's best-known novels. This dynamic new study of Charles Dickens will make readers re-examine his life and work in a completely different light. First, partly due to the massive digitalization of papers and letters in recent years, Helena Kelly has unearthed new material about Dickens that simply wasn't available...

A guide to Dickens's life, works, characters, the Victorian context in which he lived and wrote, and the critics and scholars who have commented on his novels.