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mojostdennis's review against another edition
3.0
read harder challenge 2022: read a biography of an author you admire
popsugar challenge 2022: read a book set in Victorian times
fifty two book club 2022: read a book that addresses a specific topic
popsugar challenge 2022: read a book set in Victorian times
fifty two book club 2022: read a book that addresses a specific topic
unabridgedchick's review against another edition
3.0
Terrible confession: I hate Dickens. At least, I think I do; I'm not sure I've ever read him, other than A Christmas Carol, and to be honest, I'm not even sure I've read it.Ā (I've certainly seen enough adaptations to think I have!)Ā Of all the Victorian authors in the world, he appeals to me the least. I know, I'm a godless heathen for saying so. I hope to rectify this someday and read something of his, but other books jostle to the top of the list.
All this is to say I know little about Dickens. But as with the Edna O'Brien bio on Joyce, I love writers on writers. Where O'Brien's take was boisterous, rowdy, emulating Joyce's style, Smiley's is a more traditional biography, although not entirely chronologically. She hits on the themes of Dickens life -- family, social critique, celebrity -- and offers background for readers about his works.
I enjoyed this read -- it was quick, very easy to get in to, and enlightening without being overwhelming. As with most biographies, learning more about authors is a mixed bag for me: I love reading about other lives, and I especially enjoy learning about the creative process, but I do hate learning less savory details about historical figures I might like. In this, Smiley is remarkably (maddeningly, I found) even-handed, acknowledging Dickens' wife's depression while still honoring Dickens' unhappiness with his wife. As with the Joyce biography, I was more interested in the women of Dickens' life, but this slender volume is not the place for it.
As a starting place for anyone interested in Charles Dickens and his works, I highly recommend this book. Smiley suggests her own reading order for anyone starting with Dickens, and provides brief context and commentary on his major works to springboard the curious reader into their own Dickens studies.
All this is to say I know little about Dickens. But as with the Edna O'Brien bio on Joyce, I love writers on writers. Where O'Brien's take was boisterous, rowdy, emulating Joyce's style, Smiley's is a more traditional biography, although not entirely chronologically. She hits on the themes of Dickens life -- family, social critique, celebrity -- and offers background for readers about his works.
I enjoyed this read -- it was quick, very easy to get in to, and enlightening without being overwhelming. As with most biographies, learning more about authors is a mixed bag for me: I love reading about other lives, and I especially enjoy learning about the creative process, but I do hate learning less savory details about historical figures I might like. In this, Smiley is remarkably (maddeningly, I found) even-handed, acknowledging Dickens' wife's depression while still honoring Dickens' unhappiness with his wife. As with the Joyce biography, I was more interested in the women of Dickens' life, but this slender volume is not the place for it.
As a starting place for anyone interested in Charles Dickens and his works, I highly recommend this book. Smiley suggests her own reading order for anyone starting with Dickens, and provides brief context and commentary on his major works to springboard the curious reader into their own Dickens studies.
chickiebean_loves_books's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Five things about Charles Dickens: A Life by Jane Smiley 5/5āļøsĀ
1. First, this is a slim volume but it manages to cover Dickensās life, relationships, and writings without compromising or circumnavigating his complexities. Smiley is incredibly skilled, restrained, and generous all at once.Ā
2. I was captivated from the first, as Smiley explains that hers is an attempt to explore Dickens life in the chronology with which he himself chose (or was forced) to reveal it. This, it does not start with his childhood - as he kept this hidden for most of his life and instead begins with Pickwick which was his first success.Ā
3. Iāve spent this year with Dickens. Iāve read all of his major works in the last two yearsā¦12 of them this year. I have done so with a chip on my shoulderā¦loved him and his work with restraintā¦because of his treatment of of his devoted wife Catherine. Smiley manages to honor Catherine while creating within me a deep empathy for the man.Ā
4. āMost other great innovators owe something to someone - even Shakespeare was preceded by Christopher Marloweā¦ Dickens however spoke in a new voice, in a new form, to a new audience, a new world, about several old ideas reconsidered for the new system of capitalism - that care and respect are owed to the weakest and meekest in society, rather than to the strongest; the ways in which class and money divide humans from one another are artificial and dangerous; that pleasure and physical comfort are positive goods; that the spiritual lives of the powerful have social and economic ramificationsā¦Dickens grasped this idea from the earliest stages of his career and demonstrated his increasingly sophisticated grasp of it in the plots characterizations, themes, and styles of every single novel he wrote. This is the root source of his greatness. That he did so in English at the very moment when England was establishing herself as a worldwide force is the root source of his importance. That he combined his artistic vision with social action in an outpouring of energy and hard work is the root source of his uniqueness.āĀ
5. āThe question is not whether Dickensās characters are realisticā¦but whether he makes a compelling case for the origins and resolutions of their dilemmas, which are, in many cases, extreme and melodramatic. These are exactly the terms in which most people experience their own dilemmas - life or death propositions that are tremendously challenging to resolveā¦ Dickens excelled at bodying forth the drama of the inner battleā¦ the resolution [for his characters] always takes place within the character first and then in the social nexus.āĀ
6. Team Dickens for life!Ā
1. First, this is a slim volume but it manages to cover Dickensās life, relationships, and writings without compromising or circumnavigating his complexities. Smiley is incredibly skilled, restrained, and generous all at once.Ā
2. I was captivated from the first, as Smiley explains that hers is an attempt to explore Dickens life in the chronology with which he himself chose (or was forced) to reveal it. This, it does not start with his childhood - as he kept this hidden for most of his life and instead begins with Pickwick which was his first success.Ā
3. Iāve spent this year with Dickens. Iāve read all of his major works in the last two yearsā¦12 of them this year. I have done so with a chip on my shoulderā¦loved him and his work with restraintā¦because of his treatment of of his devoted wife Catherine. Smiley manages to honor Catherine while creating within me a deep empathy for the man.Ā
4. āMost other great innovators owe something to someone - even Shakespeare was preceded by Christopher Marloweā¦ Dickens however spoke in a new voice, in a new form, to a new audience, a new world, about several old ideas reconsidered for the new system of capitalism - that care and respect are owed to the weakest and meekest in society, rather than to the strongest; the ways in which class and money divide humans from one another are artificial and dangerous; that pleasure and physical comfort are positive goods; that the spiritual lives of the powerful have social and economic ramificationsā¦Dickens grasped this idea from the earliest stages of his career and demonstrated his increasingly sophisticated grasp of it in the plots characterizations, themes, and styles of every single novel he wrote. This is the root source of his greatness. That he did so in English at the very moment when England was establishing herself as a worldwide force is the root source of his importance. That he combined his artistic vision with social action in an outpouring of energy and hard work is the root source of his uniqueness.āĀ
5. āThe question is not whether Dickensās characters are realisticā¦but whether he makes a compelling case for the origins and resolutions of their dilemmas, which are, in many cases, extreme and melodramatic. These are exactly the terms in which most people experience their own dilemmas - life or death propositions that are tremendously challenging to resolveā¦ Dickens excelled at bodying forth the drama of the inner battleā¦ the resolution [for his characters] always takes place within the character first and then in the social nexus.āĀ
6. Team Dickens for life!Ā
tome15's review against another edition
3.0
Chatty and readable with a few intriguing opinions. But there is no original research and at least one very careless factual error about Charlotte Bronteās cause of death.
csd17's review against another edition
3.0
A little too artistic. It's like too little cake with too much frosting.
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