Why do I keep hearing about Dickens?
This is just the start of it. 7 February 2012 is the bicentennary of Dickens’ birth, and there are all sorts of commemorative shenanigans planned for next year. Expect lots more biographies and documentaries.
Who’s Claire Tomalin?
An award-winning biographer of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys, Mary Wollstonecraft and Katherine Mansfield. Her background is journalism rather than academia. She’s married to the author Michael Frayn.
What’s the deal with this biography?
Tomalin’s book claims to offer a concise, rounded portrait of the man and his work. She doesn’t hold back from making judgments on his tricky personal life (in 1990 she published The Invisible Woman, an account of Dickens’ affair with the actress Nelly Ternan) but is in no doubt of his literary greatness.
Have the critics been positive?
Mostly, yes.
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