Rating: 
Summary: There Are Better Bios of Dickens
Review: This is the first book in the "Penguin Lives" series of books that I have read. I chose it because I am a huge fan of Charles Dickens and because I've enjoyed a number of Jane Smiley's novels. Unfortunately, I have to admit to being a bit disappointed.The basics are all here--his life, his books and his death. But it's all rather dry. It reads like a Masters student's thesis as opposed to a book for popular consumption. Plus, there's very little actual biography here. It's very heavy on some rather uninsightful analysis of Dickens' novels which isn't helpful in a book that's only some 200 pages to begin with. Certainly, it's not useful for someone who knows very little about Dickens and might have read only a little by him. This book would have been better targeted at a reader who is unfamiliar with Dickens at all. More lively stories about the man himself might actually end up drawing new readers to this fabulous author. What is needed here is a vivid picture of a man; instead we get a rather bland portrait and literary commentary. This book may be brief but it reads longer than a number of more ambitious biographies. I hope other biographies in this series are better done than this.
Rating:
Summary: There Are Better Bios of Dickens
Review: This is the first book in the "Penguin Lives" series of books that I have read. I chose it because I am a huge fan of Charles Dickens and because I've enjoyed a number of Jane Smiley's novels. Unfortunately, I have to admit to being a bit disappointed. The basics are all here--his life, his books and his death. But it's all rather dry. It reads like a Masters student's thesis as opposed to a book for popular consumption. Plus, there's very little actual biography here. It's very heavy on some rather uninsightful analysis of Dickens' novels which isn't helpful in a book that's only some 200 pages to begin with. Certainly, it's not useful for someone who knows very little about Dickens and might have read only a little by him. This book would have been better targeted at a reader who is unfamiliar with Dickens at all. More lively stories about the man himself might actually end up drawing new readers to this fabulous author. What is needed here is a vivid picture of a man; instead we get a rather bland portrait and literary commentary. This book may be brief but it reads longer than a number of more ambitious biographies. I hope other biographies in this series are better done than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific Overview
Review: This lively book provides an overview of the literary achievements and personal life of Charles Dickens. For those Amazon.com customers who, like me, don't know how to approach this writer's vast achievements, I provide this advice from Smiley, who is an intelligent, charming, and enthusiastic biographer: "But a newcomer to Dickens can do no better than to begin with a novel-my suggestions are David Copperfield, to be followed by Great Expectations, Dombey and Son, A Tale of Two Cities, and Our Mutual Friend, in that order, light, dark, light, dark, light, a wonderful chiaroscuro of Dickens's most characteristic and accessible work." Bravo for Jane and her fun and concise treatment of an enormous subject!
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