pickI finally finished this book yesterday at lunch. In spite of it taking me 8 months to finish, I really did enjoy it. It‘s divided into 7 segments, each looking at a bit of Dickens‘s life (childhood, marriage, charity, public readings, etc). It‘s a ‘warts and all‘ account, often showing his contradictory & hypocritical opinions regarding society and mores. If you know most of his work you may enjoy, if not you may be bored as so much is cited.
I‘m sorry, but every time I see this man‘s name I giggle and think of that scene in Bridget Jones where she tries to cover her “vile Richard” conversation with Jude (will that poor actor be known for anything other than weeping in bathrooms?) by pretending to talk to FR Leavis. Daniel‘s response of “The FR Leavis who died in 1978? Amazing . . .” has been my first thought when I see his name for 20 years. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oooofff. “still the poor woman is bodily and morally the husband‘s slave” Queen Victoria got it. She was self-aware enough to know how lucky she was to have Prince Albert.
pickI have loved reading Dickens since I was a teenager, but I never gave much thought to him as a man and author. His characters and stories have such a life of there own that Dickens the writer is easy to ignore. Wilson‘s bio probably isn‘t the most authoritative (there‘s a lot of speculative psychoanalysis about Dickens‘ relationship with his mother), but I enjoyed this book. I agree that Dickens‘ greatest legacy is bringing more kindness to life.
Quoted from the NYTimes review of the tagged book. The article is excellent. Not sure the tagged book is, the review doesn‘t seem to recommend it.
I fell in love with Dickens when I read A Christmas Carol and then a few more of his Christmas stories last year, even though I disliked A Tale of Two Cities when I was in 9th grade. I‘ll have to read it again. He‘s got brilliant wit and humor. I‘m really gunning for the new LEGO commemoration to Dickens for Christmas (along with Diagon Alley of course).
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/books/review/mystery-of-charles-dickens-a-n-w...
The Mystery of Charles Dickens | 
