A short, straightforward biography of Edgar Allan Poe that goes from birth to death and provides some brief literary criticism/literary context for hiA short, straightforward biography of Edgar Allan Poe that goes from birth to death and provides some brief literary criticism/literary context for his major stories, poems and novel. I listened to it on Audible and most of his life and his context in American publishing and periodicals of the time was particularly interesting. Paul Collins was most enthusiastic about Poe as the inventor of the detective story, almost treating everything else as sui generis dead ends....more
The Novel of the Century is about the writing, reception and afterlife of Les Misérables. David Bellos does a marvelous job with this blend, providinThe Novel of the Century is about the writing, reception and afterlife of Les Misérables. David Bellos does a marvelous job with this blend, providing bits of French history, Victor Hugo biography, literary criticism, and the like. He is particularly strong on the writing process itself—from engaging an agent (who paid an unprecedented sum for the global rights, although limited only to eight years), to sending fair copies, proofs and corrected proofs back-and-forth on the three mail boats per week that went to/from his home in exile on the channel island of Guersney and the continent, to the eventual coordinated global launch with an advertising campaign and embargoed teasers for various papers.
The “interludes” between the five parts of Bellos’s book (organized like Les Misérables itself) provide fascinating information about the role of the color of clothing (because dye was expensive it connoted status, depending on the color), the different words for denominations of money, Hugo’s language (22,000 distinct words—including slang, regional dialects and Latin—as compared to the 2,000 distinct words in all of Racine), and the like.
The book goes into considerably less detail about the afterlife of Les Misérables but we do learn that it is the most adapted novel to screen (61 different versions, including the first fictional bit of film ever recorded). And we also learn different ways in which virtually all subsequent productions have changed the original to suit their purposes or their projections onto Hugo—for example, the Confederates during the Civil War deleting the negative references to slavery or subsequent productions playing up the Catholic content.
Bellos would succeed in his argument that it was the Novel of the Century if he did not have so many repeated references to other candidates, including Great Expectations, in a way that a book on Great Expectations probably would not have references to Les Misérables.
Overall, a good companion to the book. But could also be read as a standalone or introduction. One that you could follow up with Bellos’ suggestion to read one of the 365 chapters of Les Misérables each day for a year....more
A short, straightforward biography of Balzac's life with short observations on his work and his legacy. It is a well executed version of this paradigmA short, straightforward biography of Balzac's life with short observations on his work and his legacy. It is a well executed version of this paradigm, although short biographies themselves can be unsatisfying because you don't get to really feel and know any of the events, and in particular other characters, but you also do not get an interesting new perspective. That said, Balzac's life is interesting enough that it is an enjoyable and worthwhile read....more
The most thorough account one could possibly want, or even imagine, of the history of the "Great Charles Dickens Scandal"--that is his relationship wiThe most thorough account one could possibly want, or even imagine, of the history of the "Great Charles Dickens Scandal"--that is his relationship with Nelly Ternan. The book doesn't tell very much about his relationship with Nelly Ternan (and contains no new information or definitive judgments about just what exactly occurred). It also has no literary criticism or attempt to understand how it affected Dickens' writing. Instead, it is a history of the various accounts of the scandal--starting with contemporary newspaper accounts (many of them in American newspapers because of the lack of libel laws), the coverup by John Forster and Dickens other friends, going through the explosion of the scandal following the death of the last of Dickens' children and the publication of the novel "This Side Idolotry," through the more careful modern accounts by scholars, papers in the Dickensian, and Claire Tomalin's popularizations.
An interesting point it makes is that for nearly a century now newspapers have been fascinated by the discovery and rediscovery of the scandal, printing sensationalist articles that attempt to take down the great British moralist and raconteur of home and hearth a peg. But that almost none of them are actually new.
Michael Slater, probably the leading Dickens scholar alive, does vast amounts of minute research, for example citing an article that appeared in 1874 in The Bangor Daily Whig and Courier and another story in 1885 in The Rocky Mountain News. Some of it is fascinating. Some of it is tedious. And sometimes it can be confusing because rather than presenting a unified account, it presents a large number of accounts--some of which have subsequently been falsified, some of which are grounded in clear evidence, and some of which are speculative and thus unproven.
If there is a hero for the book, it is a century of Dickensians--and their opponents--who have gone over layer after layer of minutia in an attempt to piece together events that will likely be permanently lost to history....more
A short excellent book that conveys Michael Dirda's delight in reading, provides a good reading of the Sherlock Holmes canon, an interesting introductA short excellent book that conveys Michael Dirda's delight in reading, provides a good reading of the Sherlock Holmes canon, an interesting introduction to the other works of Conan Doyle (I've only read The Lost World), and a fascinating inside account of the Baker Street Irregulars, the American association of Sherlockians. It's infectious. ...more
A traditional, cradle-to-grave live of Charles Dickens. In fact, it starts well before the cradle -- with tbe obligatory discussion of the lives of grA traditional, cradle-to-grave live of Charles Dickens. In fact, it starts well before the cradle -- with tbe obligatory discussion of the lives of grandparents and parents before the subject is even born. And in an innovation, the final chapter covers the remainder of the lives of everyone who knew Dickens -- including a brief life and death of each of his children (he had ten in total) and friends (many more), going through 1939 when the last person that knew him died.
But that should not be a turn off. The biography feels definitive. It focuses on the life, especially Dickens' manic travel, but also includes a thoughtful few pages on each of Dickens' novels. It is less focused on the process of writing and editing than Michael Slater's Charles Dickens. And it is less creative than Douglas-Fairhurst's Becoming Dickens. And less vast than Ackroyd's Dickens. But at about 400 pages of text (not counting the extensive notes, etc.), for most people this would be the best biography to read.
Claire Tomalin is especially strong on the women in Dickens' life, including his horrendous treatment of his wife Kate, his likely affair with Nelly Ternan (Tomalin has a chapter speculating, reasonably convincingly, that Dickens fathered a child who subsequently died with her), as well as the sister-in-law and subsequently daughter who managed his household. ...more
In 1855, Charles Dickens formally withdrew from the formal list of law students, permanently giving up the idea of a stable career in the law. At the In 1855, Charles Dickens formally withdrew from the formal list of law students, permanently giving up the idea of a stable career in the law. At the time he was already the most famous novelist in England, the author of The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Bleak House.
This fact captures what appears to be intended as the thesis of Robert Douglas-Fairhurst’s Becoming Dickens. The book is intended as a counterweight to what might be called the Whig history of Dickens, the inevitable march from Sketches by Box to the Pickwick Papers all the way through to completing the first half of The Mystery of Edwin Drood before his death. Instead, Douglas-Fairhurst focuses on the first 26 years of Dickens’ life, ending in 1838 when he first signed a novel with the name “Charles Dickens.”
The thesis is that before Dickens settled into his role as novelist, he pursued a number of other potential careers. Douglas-Fairhurst zooms in on several of these, starting with the blacking factory, as a clerk, in a law office, as a parliamentary reporter, and even after his current trajectory started, branching off into writing plays, editing memoirs, etc.
Every single page of the book is interesting and insightful, very light on the biography and heavy on the literary criticism – either how events were later reflected in the multiplicity of Dickens’ or deeper dives into some of the early individual pieces, like the first story Dickens wrote, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk.” Every chapter works as a unified essay.
But the chapter’s don’t add up to a book that supports the thesis or provides a completely original insight into Dickens life. In part this is because Dickens became a hugely popular writer at age 24 so there really were not a lot of roads not taken. In part, this is because Dickens continued to restlessly follow multiple paths his entire life, as an editor, public speaker and amateur dramatist, among other vocations. And in part all of this has been well told before, by Michael Slater and others.
Becoming Dickens is still an excellent book. Just not quite as original or proven as the premise it sets up....more
Excellent book. Like a well written novel (not Dickensian though, if you want that read Dickens). It is partly biography (focusing on a narrow slice oExcellent book. Like a well written novel (not Dickensian though, if you want that read Dickens). It is partly biography (focusing on a narrow slice of Dickens' life surrounding the 1843 publication of A Christmas Carol), partly a history of Christmas, and partly a detailed description of the book publishing industry at the time. The subtitle is "How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits" and the book was probably stronger on the first half of this promise than the second. In fact, the defense of Dickens's Christmas role against Washington Irving was a bit of a stretch. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone as a great introduction to the period and the writer and a narrow slice of social history....more
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