Bargain @ $2.99 for today only (Dec 15th) from Open Road Media according to the newsletter (couponable @ Kobo, price should be matched in all the standard Canadian & US venues if you have a preference, may or may not also be discounted in other regions, etc):
Dickens: A Biography by Pulitzer Prize-nominated biographer Fred Kaplan (
Wikipedia) and Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College & the City University of New York according to his entry, which is Exactly What It Says In The Title about Charles Dickens, originally out from HarperCollins' William Morrow imprint in 1988, apparently updated at some point in the late 90s, which is the edition that ORM are e-printing.
The Publishers Weekly and Library Journal reviews of this call it a major work that will be "important to Dickens scholars while accessible to the general public". It's certainly fairly substantial-looking, at an estimated 600+ pages in the Kindle edition.
The engaging biography of one of the most celebrated and enduring authors of Western literature
Charles Dickens grew up in harsh poverty and became one of the world’s most beloved authors. Biographer Fred Kaplan takes a brilliant, multifaceted approach in his examination of Dickens’s life: his fraught marriage and relationships; the ever-present effects of his humble beginnings; his extensive, but carefully managed, public life; and his friendships with famous writers. Dickens unearths the complex passions that drove both the man and his work, illuminating why the legendary author—just like the characters in his fiction—has remained a mammoth figure in Western literature.