Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Personally I prefer Peter Ackroyd's biography of Dickens.
|
Depends how keen you are on Dickens:
If you want a detailed account by someone who was a personal friend, then Forster's Life of Dickens is indispensible (Forster was also involved in many of Dickens' business negotiations, so his account is valuable from that point of view) .
Edgar Johnson - Dickens, His Tragedy and Triumph was the first really thorough and scholarly investigation of Dicken's Life (I've only read the one volume Penguin edition).
Peter Ackroyd's imaginative and sympathetic account is a really good read. I've ordered Michael Slater's Life of Dickens from Amazon (looking forward to that!).
I read Claire Tomalin's biography of Dickens recently and thought it was well written and well researched.
Any of these (except Forster) will give you the all the basic facts. Forster glossed over episodes that didn't reflect well on his friend's reputation and didn't mention Ellen Ternan at all (although he certainly knew about her).
Last week I went to see "Dicken's Women" - a performance piece by Miriam Margolyes, here in Sydney. It was outstanding. I can't recommend it too highly to any Dickens enthusiast.