Download Life Of Charles Dickens Prepared By John Forster Released As Hardcover

book in three volumes written by C Dickens' trusted friend is difficult to understand in part because of the complex sentence structure used by the author.
In addition, the book concentrates almost entirely on Dickens' writing and methods of writing, the circumstances surrounding his writing, and reactions of others to his writing.
I am left feeling as though I know little about Dickens at the end of the final volume, I am quite disappointed. This is a great biography by Dickens's friend John Forster, in an abridged edition, with many added illustrations, excerpts from his works, and critical pieces by authors from the lastyears or so.
The book itself has used many of the letters Dickens sent to Forster as its basis, giving first hand information about his writing processes and the life he lived.
A really enjoyable read, though some detailssuch as Dickens's relationship with Ellen Ternan were left out as being too 'personal', not the kind of thing one would expect from a Victorian biography! This book is guilty of being both a rush job and a historical marker as it gives little insights in Charles Dickens' mind from the point of view of a close friend, fellow author, pandering fan, and later executor of Dickens' will, John Forster.
The biography also gives an additional insight into Dickens' work as a boy in the blacking factory, and his first trip to North America when he stopped in Halifax NS, and after a choppy sea crossing and having his ship run aground on the mud banks off NS, the young author was immediately greeted with fanfare by the local politicians in Halifax he was offloaded with a pregnant and sick wife and taken to the Government Building where he was paraded as a celebrity, which he didn't care for so much.
Veeeerrrry casually reading, with little intention to finish, This book is not for everyone since Forster was Dickens' friend and contemporary, this book is written in florid Victorian prose I had to reread multiple paragraphs to grasp their meaning.
And this is no modern tellall, either, Forster manages to keep things very chaste by mostly using Dickens' personal correspondence as source material, He says little about the author's separation from his wife and practically nothing about the chippie

young actress that Dickens apparently had an affair with.
Nonetheless, if you're interested in a youarethere feel and lots of beautiful illustrations in this edition, The Life of Charles Dickens is well worth the read.
Lots of details about the life of Dickens that can be found nowhere else, It gives us the dirt on the kind of things I want to know about, On Saturday nights when young Charles got hiss paypacket from the blacking warehouse he would take Blackfriars Bridge not his usual Southwark or London one to go home to Camden Town.
Why Because there were lots of cheap, lowbrow shops and entertainment on Blackfriars Road, I'm fascinated by the walks Dickens took around London and there's lots of details about that, What a nice surprise to find out that Forster was actually at the meeting in Paris between the Inimitable One and the Great Victor Hugo.
I always wanted to know what was said and the kind of reception Dickens got, Foster even comments on the degree of fluency of his friend's French, Illustrations were great but I gave up reading halfway through, Wasn't expecting it to be so dry the author was a contemporary of Dickens and seemed to be mostly bent on chronicling all kinds of trivial details about his life without providing much insight about anything else The best bits were actually excerpts of Dickens' own writing, especially his letters about his trip to America.


title: Larger than life
But maybe not larger than this book, The title of my review is the tag line on the back cover of this one volumepage abridged edition on oversized pages printed on thick glossy paper, referring to its subject but also applicable to this book.
It is large and have to hold to read, and you won't want to take it on your next plane trip.


Forster was a long time friend and the first biographer of Dickens, close enough to be named as recipient of his manuscripts, copyrights, and some personal effects in Dickens's will printed here as an appendix.


This quote from p,is indicative of much of Forster's biography

"Ah," he said to me, "when I saw those places, how I thought that to leave one's hand upon the time, lastingly upon the time, with one tender touch for the mass of toiling people that nothing could obliterate, would be to lift oneself above the dust of all the Doges in their graves, and stand upon a giant's staircase that Sampson couldn't overthrow!"

It is adoring, never critical, and also commissioned by Dickens before his death, so what else is to be expected He never mentions Dickens's long time mistress Ellen Ternan, dismisses out of hand and on his evidence alone rumours of an affair with his wife's sister, and passes over Dickens's rude and demeaning public separation from his wife with no comment beyond bare reporting of the event.


It is written passed very largely on Dickens's letters to Forster, This makes Forster nearly a primary source but it also makes it feel as if we are seeing Dickens through a very small pinhole.


Forster is almost always on the page or just off the margin, One contemporary review referred to the biography as "The autobiography of JohnForster with recollections of Charles Dickens, "

These are both strengths and weaknesses, the weaknesses leaving especially this edition with its quotes from contemporaries, quotes from Dickens's writings, pictures of people and scenes from his life, and sidebars on people, places, and literary criticism to be read more as history than as biography.


While Dickens had surely started life as one of the "toiling people" he so pities here, he had since risen far above and was writing these words from a year long sojourn in Italy with stays in fabulous villas and terrace homes far from the dark streets and dank hovels of London he had known and would always write about.
He would also remember that impoverished beginning, perhaps subconsciously, certainly to his detriment, for it was at least but only partially his fear of financial ruin that drove him to his physically exhausting reading tours that weakened his healthy and pointed him to an early death.


All these things make Dickens endlessly fascinating, and Forster a worthy addition, especially in this edition, to the Dickens fan's library.
Quoting yet again from a letter from Dickens: "I think it is my infirmity to fancy or perceive relations in things which are not apparent generally.
"which Forster defines as "one of those exquisite properties of humour by which are discovered, . . the level of a common humanity, ". It is also a very neat paraphrase of the purpose of The catholic reader, the collection of my book reviews you are reading now.
Good read. He was as interesting and beloved as his characters, but there was a dark side too ENGLISH: Monumental biography of Charles Dickens, written by his close friend shortly after his death, using documentation that only he could have, such as personal letters, personal communications and similar sources.


Dickens declared himself a believer, and Forster confirms this on many occasions, However, he seems to have had strong antiCatholic sentiments, in spite of his historical novel "Barnaby Rudge," where he criticises violence against Catholics.
But he speaks frequently against Catholic religious orders, especially Jesuits, And in a letter to Forster from Switzerland, he says this: , . . their horror of the introduction of Catholic priests, . . into their towns, seems to me the most rational feeling in the world, . . I would be as steady against the Catholic cantons and the propagation of Jesuitism as any radical among 'em: believing the dissemination of Catholicity to be the most horrible means of political and social degradation left in the world.


In one of his letters Dickens mentions a dream he had, where he saw "a spirit in a blue drapery, as the Madonna might in a picture by Raphael," but whom he later identifies as Mary Hogarth, her sisterinlaw, dead at, whom he idealized and represented in the character of Agnes, in "David Copperfield.
" This dream brought some people to believe wrongly that he had seen the Virgin Mary in his dream, for he addresses the spirit of his sisterinlaw as Mary, although later he mentions indirectly her family name.


A couple of sayings by Dickens in his personal letters:

All kind things must be done on their own account, and for their own sake, and without the least reference to any gratitude.


one does a generous thing because it is right and pleasant, and not for any response it is to awaken in others.


ESPAÑOL: Monumental biografía de Dickens, escrita por un íntimo amigo suyo poco después de su muerte, utilizando documentación que sólo él podía tener, como cartas personales, comunicaciones personales y otras fuentes semejantes.


Dickens se declaró creyente, y Forster lo confirma en muchas ocasiones, Sin embargo, parece haber tenido fuertes sentimientos anticatólicos, a pesar de su novela histórica "Barnaby Rudge", en la que critica la violencia contra los católicos.
Pero habla con frecuencia contra las órdenes religiosas católicas, especialmente los jesuitas, Y en una carta a Forster desde Suiza, dice esto: , . . su horror a la introducción de sacerdotes católicos, . . en sus ciudades me parece el sentimiento más racional del mundo, . . Yo sería tan firme en contra de los cantones católicos y de la propagación del jesuitismo como cualquiera de sus radicales: pues pienso que la difusión de la catolicidad es el medio más horrible de degradación política y social que queda en el mundo.


En una de sus cartas, Dickens menciona un sueño en el que vio "a un espíritu vestido de azul, como la Virgen en un cuadro de Rafael", pero a quien más tarde identifica como Mary Hogarth, su cuñada muerta a losaños, a quien idealizó y representó en "David Copperfield" en el personaje de Agnes.
Este sueño ha llevado a algunos a creer erróneamente que Dickens había visto en su sueño a la Virgen María, porque se dirige al espíritu de su cuñada llamándola Mary, aunque un poco más tarde menciona indirectamente su apellido.
Véase, por ejemplo, este artículo publicado en enero de: sitelink aciprensa. com/noticias/ch

Un par de dichos de Dickens en sus cartas personales:

Todas las cosas amables deben hacerse por sí mismas, sin la menor referencia a la gratitud.


uno hace algo generoso porque es correcto y agradable, no por la respuesta que deba provocar en los demás.

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