Skip to content

Charles Dickens: A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life Paperback - 2012

by Claire Tomalin

Award-winning author Tomalin sets the standard for sophisticated and popular biography, having written about Jane Austen, Samuel Pepys, and Thomas Hardy, among others. Here she tackles a literary leviathan of 19th-century England: Charles Dickens.


Summary

Award-winning author Claire Tomalin sets the standard for sophisticated and popular biography, having written lives of Jane Austen, Samuel Pepys, and Thomas Hardy, among others. Here she tackles the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England, Charles Dickens; a literary leviathan whose own difficult path to greatness inspired the creation of classic novels such as Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Hard Times.

From his sensational public appearances to the obsessive love affair that led him to betray, deceive, and break with those closest to him, Charles Dickens: A Life is a triumph of the biographer’s craft, a comedy that turns to tragedy in a story worthy of Dickens’ own pen.

From the publisher

Award-winning Claire Tomalin, author of A Life of My Own, sets the standard for sophisticated and popular biography, having written lives of Jane Austen, Samuel Pepys, and Thomas Hardy, among others. Here she tackles the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England, Charles Dickens; a literary leviathan whose own difficult path to greatness inspired the creation of classic novels such as Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Hard Times. From his sensational public appearances to the obsessive love affair that led him to betray, deceive, and break with those closest to him, Charles Dickens: A Life is a triumph of the biographer's craft, a comedy that turns to tragedy in a story worthy of Dickens' own pen.

Details

  • Title Charles Dickens: A Life
  • Author Claire Tomalin
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 608
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books, New York
  • Date 2012-10-30
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Maps
  • ISBN 9780143122050 / 0143122053
  • Weight 1.1 lbs (0.50 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.3 in (21.08 x 13.72 x 3.30 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 19th Century
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Library of Congress subjects Authors, English - 19th century, Dickens, Charles
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2011031466
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

Media reviews

"As Claire Tomalin demonstrates in her vivid and moving new biography, Dickens’s own life was rich in the attributes we call “Dickensian” — shameless melodrama, gargantuan appetites, reversals of fortune... To encompass this frenzy, Tomalin keeps the story racing. She brings Dickens to life in all his maddening contradictions... Dickens walks off the page, and the pace never flags. Tomalin accomplishes this resurrection in a mere 417 pages of text, supplemented by dozens of illustrations, several maps of Dickens’s London and a helpful dramatis personae... if you plan to read only one biography of the most popular Victorian writer, it should be this one."
--THE WASHINGTON POST

"Enormously ambitious... admirable... warmly sympathetic and often eloquent."

--Joyce Carol Oates, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOK

“Clear-eyed, sympathetic and scholarly, she spreads the whole canvas, alive with incident and detail, with places and people. She writes of publishers, illustrators, collaborators and all Dickens’s intersecting circles of friends and family. It is wonderfully done.”
--THE ECONOMIST

“[A] splendid history… Tomalin skillfully presents the chief trauma of Dickens' young life — being sent to work in a factory at age 12, after his father was imprisoned for debt — and suggests the ways it left a lasting mark, from his sympathy for the working class to his towering ambition and herculean work ethic.”
--SEATTLE TIMES

"[O]nward-driving, hypnotically vivid… the result of Claire Tomalin's unrivalled talent for telling a story and keeping a reader enthralled: long as the book is, I wanted more.”
--THE GUARDIAN (UK)

About the author

CLAIRE TOMALIN worked in publishing and journalism for many years. She was literary editor first of the New Statesman and then the Sunday Times, before devoting herself to writing full time. She is the author of eight highly acclaimed biographies including Thomas Hardy, The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, and Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, which was the 2002 Whitbread Book of the Year. She lives in England with her husband, Michael Frayn.
Back to Top

More Copies for Sale

Charles Dickens: A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • Used
Condition
Used - Good
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£1.43
£2.43 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Penguin Books. Used - Good. . Former Library book.. All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofi9780393706468 t job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
Item Price
£1.43
£2.43 shipping to USA
Charles Dickens: A Life

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • Used
  • good
  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 2 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£6.71
£8.57 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Paperback. Good.
Item Price
£6.71
£8.57 shipping to USA
Charles Dickens: A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • Used
Condition
UsedGood
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Rotterdam , New York, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£5.53
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
UsedGood. Shows minimal wear such as frayed or folded edges, minor rips and tears, and/or slightly worn binding. May have stickers and/or contain inscription on title page. No observed missing pages.
Item Price
£5.53
FREE shipping to USA
Charles Dickens: A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Claire Tomalin

  • Used
  • good
Condition
Used - Good
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Wichita, Kansas, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£6.27
£3.23 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Penguin Books, October 2012. Paper Back. Good. Light to moderate cover wear, firm binding, aged text. Previous owner's nameplate on flyleaf, remainder mark on bottom textblock edge.
Item Price
£6.27
£3.23 shipping to USA
Charles Dickens : A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens : A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • Used
Condition
Used - Very Good
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Mishawaka, Indiana, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£6.39
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Penguin Publishing Group. Used - Very Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects.
Item Price
£6.39
FREE shipping to USA
Charles Dickens: A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
Used: Good
Edition
Reprint
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
HOUSTON, Texas, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£8.26
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Penguin Books, 2012-10-30. Reprint. paperback. Used: Good.
Item Price
£8.26
FREE shipping to USA
Charles Dickens: A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • Used
  • good
Condition
Used - Good
Edition
Reprint
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£8.34
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Penguin Books. Reprint. Good. Good. Ship within 24hrs. Satisfaction 100% guaranteed. APO/FPO addresses supported
Item Price
£8.34
FREE shipping to USA
Charles Dickens: A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • New
  • Paperback
Condition
New
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
777
Seller
Fairfax Station, Virginia, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 2 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£11.92
£3.23 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Penguin Books, 2012-10-30. Paperback. New.
Item Price
£11.92
£3.23 shipping to USA
Charles Dickens:  A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • New
  • Paperback
  • first
Condition
New
Edition
1st Trade Pb Edition; First Printing
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£13.76
£2.83 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Penguin Books. New. 2012. 1st Trade Pb Edition; First Printing. Trade Paperback, illus.. 0143122053 . Book NEW. NO notes, names or ANY markings. ; 527 pages .
Item Price
£13.76
£2.83 shipping to USA
Charles Dickens: A Life
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Tomalin, Claire

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
Used:Good
Edition
Reprint
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780143122050 / 0143122053
Quantity Available
1
Seller
HOUSTON, Texas, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£17.48
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Penguin Books, 2012-10-30. Reprint. paperback. Used:Good.
Item Price
£17.48
FREE shipping to USA