The Friendly Charles Dickens: Being a Good-Natured Guide to the Art and Adventures of the Man Who Invented Scrooge Book

Norrie Epstein-whose The Friendly Shakespeare was called spirited, informative and provocative by The New York Times-strips away the polite veneer of Victorian society to reveal Dickens's life and times in all their squalor and glory. Along with a guide to all of Dickens's works, interviews with aficionados from Patrick Stewart to biographer Phyllis Rose, eye-catching illustrations, copious quotations, a highly opinionated filmography, and informative sidebars on almost every page, you'll find answers to such questions as:? Why are nineteenth-century novels so long? ? What was Dickens's evil hour?? Why couldn't the Victorians resist a deathbed scene?? How many characters populated Dickens's first novel, The Pickwick Papers?? Why is Dickens the most popular-and the most despised-novelist in the world?This Friendly companion to the man who called himself The Inimitable will have you running in delight to dust off your Dickens.Read More