Download or read book Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World written by Simon Callow and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A short biography of Charles Dickens by acclaimed actor and writer Simon Callow that offers a fresh perspective on one of the greatest novelists in the English language in a lively, highly readable account. "It has all the gusto that a popular biography of Dickens—a man who “could do nothing by halves”—should possess. . . . The best biography for Dickens newcomers and a wonderful read for all."—Library Journal Dickens was one of the first true celebrity authors. Thousands of fans in Britain and America eagerly awaited each new installment of his stories and flocked to see him on his legendary speaking tours. Not only did he create an incredible cast of characters on the page, but he was also a dazzling mimic and storyteller, and he wrote, stage-managed, and acted in plays for the public. Throughout his life, from his childhood performances in pubs to his legendarily powerful reading tours, Dickens was fanatical about the stage. Callow reveals Dickens’s genius on and off the page and offers a compelling insight into a life that was driven as much by performance and showmanship as by literature.
Download or read book The World of Charles Dickens written by Martin Fido and published by Carlton Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Dickens is one of the most popular and enduring authors in the English language. His novels, short stories and sketches have made an indelible impression on generations of readers. This book presents the author's life and works in a highly illustrated volume that takes a thematic all-encompassing look at this brilliant writer and the society that so influenced his work. It also looks at both the public and the private Dickens- his beliefs, his passions and his relationships. -- from Book Jacket.
Download or read book The Great Charles Dickens Scandal written by Michael Slater and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-14 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the sensational rumors surrounding the Victorian author—and the attempts to cover them up: “Riveting . . . a scholarly detective story” (The Boston Globe). Charles Dickens was regarded as the great proponent of hearth and home in Victorian Britain, but in 1858 this image was nearly shattered. With the breakup of his marriage that year, rumors of a scandalous relationship he may have conducted with the young actress Ellen “Nelly” Ternan flourished. For the remaining twelve years of his life, Dickens managed to contain the gossip. After his death, surviving family members did the same. But when the author’s last living son died in 1934, there was no one to discourage rampant speculation. Dramatic revelations came from every corner—over Nelly’s role as Dickens’s mistress, their clandestine meetings, and even his possibly fathering an illegitimate child. This book presents the most complete account of the scandal and ensuing cover-up ever published. Drawing on the author's letters and other archival sources not previously available, Dickens scholar Michael Slater investigates what Dickens did or may have done, then traces the way the scandal was elaborated over succeeding generations. Slater shows how various writers concocted outlandish yet plausible theories while newspapers and book publishers vied for salacious information. With its tale of intrigue and a cast of well-known figures from Thackeray and Shaw to Orwell and Edmund Wilson, this book will delight not only Dickens fans but anyone who appreciate tales of mystery, cover-up, and clever detection. “Slater’s work is a fascinating investigation into the nature of scandal itself as much as it is a look at the particular episode.” —TheDaily Beast
Download or read book A Wicked Christmas Carol written by Bobby Keniston and published by . This book was released on 2019-08 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Edinburgh Companion to Charles Dickens and the Arts written by Claire Wood and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-31 with total page 605 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Edinburgh Companion to Charles Dickens and the Arts explores Dickens's rich and complex relationships with a myriad of art forms and the far-reaching resonance of his works across the arts overall. This volume reassesses Dickens's prescient philosophy of art, both through a historical and a present-day lens and in the context of debates about the cultural value of the arts. Across thirty-three original essays, it outlines the ways in which Dickens broke down oppositions between high and low art, money and the aesthetic, the extraordinary and the ordinary, and art for its own sake and the social good. In doing so, it considers how Dickens prefigured the arts of the future, including rap music, television, fanfiction and global cinema.
Download or read book Drinking with Dickens written by Cedric Dickens and published by New Amsterdam Books. This book was released on 1998-04-21 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drinking with Dickens is a light-hearted sketch by Cedric Dickens, the great-grandson of Charles Dickens. There are vivid and memorable drinking scenes in Dickens' books, and Drinking with Dickens abounds in recipes, many based on the drinks of Dickensian England and America: Bishop, Dog's Nose, Hot Bowl Punch, Milk Punch, Mint Julep, Sherry Cobbler, Shrub and Negus, to mention only a few. Unbelievably it seems to be the first book on this vast and important subject, and Cedric has added some recipes and experiences of his own. The Victorian sources include a penny notebook dated 1859 and kept by "Auntie Georgie," Georgina Hogarth, when she was looking after the younger children of Charles Dickens at Gads Hill. It starts with a recipe for Ginger Beer, a teetotal drink which calls for a quart of brandy! Then there is the catalogue for the sale of Gads Hill after Charles Dickens died which shows what was in the cellar at that time. This book transcends the generations. Cedric, with an eye for people and detail, describes a whole series of joyous episodes where drink, wisely taken, has been the catalyst.
Download or read book The Mystery of Charles Dickens written by John Paulits and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2012-05-10 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History records that on June 9, 1870, Charles Dickens died of a cerebral haemorrhage. History, however, is wrong. June 9, 1870, is the day on which Emile de la Rue murdered Charles Dickens. During a stay in Genoa in 1844-45, Charles Dickens, an accomplished mesmerist, used his mesmeric abilities to treat a young Englishwoman, Augusta de la Rue, attempting to cure a years' long malady of hers that included facial spasms and phantom-filled dreams. During her trances she revealed to Dickens a truth she had long suppressed the knowledge that her husband murdered a rival so he could have her for himself. Dickens, at that time, was helpless to act on the devastating admission, but twenty-five years later Emile de la Rue shows up in London, and Dickens finally seeks justice. De La Rue cannot let this happen and stops at nothing to keep Dickens from revealing his secret.
Download or read book Dickens Christmas written by Simon Callow and published by Frances Lincoln. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christmas fascinated the great Victorian novelist Charles Dickens, and to Victorian England, Dickens was Christmas. Following the enormous success in 1843 of A Christmas Carol, Dickens wrote several other Christmas books, sketches, and short stories, and the holiday plays a part in many of his novels. Dickens' public, it seemed, couldn't get enough of his depictions of the season. This beautifully illustrated anthology contains the entire text of A Christmas Carol as well as excerpts from Dickens’ other writings that vividly describe houses decked in greenery and lighted candles, mistletoe in the hall and holly wreaths on the door, and lavish, waistcoat-popping dinners. Authentic recipes for 19th-century treats like plum pudding, mince pies, and gingerbread men allow readers to pop a few buttons of their own. Packed with delightful seasonal illustrations, including many original Dickens illustrations, this lovingly compiled book celebrates the Victorian Christmas in all its warmth and charm.
Download or read book Justice for All written by Marja Bergen and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2022-07-29 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Would you like to live a more meaningful life? Perhaps you want to speak out against injustice or make a change in your own life but lack the courage to do so. Justice for All recounts the inspirational achievements of twelve of history’s greats, all of whom overcame personal challenges and gave their lives to fighting the injustices of their times. People like William Wilberforce, who helped abolish slavery in Britain; Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader who was shy about public speaking but became one of the most influential leaders of modern times; and Mother Teresa, who saw Christ’s suffering in the poor she ministered to. Author Marja Bergen encourages the reader to identify what helped these leaders do what they did and to foster similar qualities in themselves, along with confidence in a God who tells them that they are of value to their community and their world. With a focus on modern Christians, Justice for All is for readers looking to make changes both in their lives and society. We can all learn from these outstanding individuals who shaped our world, from two thousand years ago to the present day.
Download or read book My Life in Pieces written by Simon Callow and published by Nick Hern Books. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Sheridan Morley Prize for theatre biography and Theatre book of the Year, 2010-The Times.
Download or read book The Life of Our Lord written by Charles Dickens and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Dickens's other Christmas classic, with a new introduction by Dickens's great-great-grandson, Gerald Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord during the years 1846-1849, just about the time he was completing David Copperfield. In this charming, simple retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, adapted from the Gospel of St. Luke, Dickens hoped to teach his young children about religion and faith. Since he wrote it exclusively for his children, Dickens refused to allow publication. For eighty-five years the manuscript was guarded as a precious family secret, and it was handed down from one relative to the next. When Dickens died in 1870, it was left to his sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth. From there it fell to Dickens's son, Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, with the admonition that it should not be published while any child of Dickens lived. Just before the 1933 holidays, Sir Henry, then the only living child of Dickens, died, leaving his father's manuscript to his wife and children. He also bequeathed to them the right to make the decision to publish The Life of Our Lord. By majority vote, Sir Henry's widow and children decided to publish the book in London. In 1934, Simon & Schuster published the first American edition, which became one of the year's biggest bestsellers.
Download or read book Great Lengths written by Jonathan Kalb and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2011-10-06 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We know that size matters in many areas of human endeavor, but what about works of the imagination? Why do some dramatic creations extend to five hours or more, and how does their extreme length help them accomplish extraordinarily ambitious aims? In Great Lengths, theater critic and scholar Jonathan Kalb addresses these and other questions through a close look at seven internationally prominent theater productions, including Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, the Royal Shakespeare Company's Nicholas Nickleby, and the "durational works" of the British experimental company Forced Entertainment. This is a book about extreme length, monumental scope, and intensive immersion in the theater in general, written by a passionate spectator reflecting on selected pinnacles of his theatergoing over thirty years. The book's examples, deliberately chosen for their diversity, range from adapted novels and epics, to dramatic chronicles with macrohistorical and macropolitical implications, to stagings of super-size classic plays, to "postdramatic" works that negotiate the border between life and art. Kalb reconstructs each of the works, re-creating the experience of seeing it while at the same time explaining how it maintained attention and interest over so many hours, and then expanding the scope to embrace a wider view and ask broader questions. The discussion of Nicholas Nickleby, for example, considers melodrama as a basic tool of theatrical communication, and the section on Peter Brook's The Mahabharata explores the ethical problems surrounding theatrical exoticism. The chapter on Einstein on the Beach grows into a reflection on the media-age status of the much-debated Gesamtkunstwerk (or "total artwork") and a reassessment of the long avant-gardist tradition of challenging the primacy of rational language in theater. The essay on Peter Stein's Faust I + II becomes a reflection on the interpretive role of theater directors and the theatrical viability of antitheatrical closet drama. Great Lengths thus offers a remarkable panorama of the surprisingly broad field of contemporary marathon theater—an art form that diverse audiences of savvy, screen-weaned spectators continue to seek out, for the increasingly rare experiences of awe, transcendence, and sustained immersion that it provides. Great Lengths will appeal to general readers as well as theater specialists. It situates the chosen productions in various historical and critical contexts and engages with the many lively scholarly debates that have swirled around them. At the same time, it uses the productions as springboards for wide-ranging reflections on the basic purpose and enduring power of theater in an attention-challenged, media-saturated era.
Download or read book Simply Dickens written by Paul Schlicke and published by Simply Charly. This book was released on 2016-05-09 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This is one of the best short introductions to Dickens's life and work that I know. Paul Schlicke integrates the life of this extraordinary man with his fiction, journalism, and public readings in a very engaging and lively narrative. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to the widest range of readers.” —Malcolm Andrews, Emeritus Professor Victorian & Visual Arts, University of Kent, Editor of The Dickensian Oliver Twist. A Christmas Carol. David Copperfield. Bleak House. A Tale of Two Cities. Great Expectations. The novels of Charles Dickens (1812–1870) read like a “Who’s Who” of canonical works. Yet, less well known is the fact that Dickens himself was something of a created character, a larger-than-life figure who lived through his art and pursued his many passions with a theatrical zeal that could have belonged to one of his famous protagonists. Largely self-taught, with little formal education, Dickens was catapulted to fame at the age of 24 with the publication of The Pickwick Papers in 1836. For the next 30 years, he wrote a prodigious number of novels, short stories, essays, and other works, while simultaneously campaigning for a variety of social reforms. As Simply Dickens colorfully describes, in life and in art, Dickens threw himself into everything he undertook—from taking on the personalities of his characters as he wrote, to pursuing such causes as children’s rights and universal education. While some authors have depicted Dickens as a tormented soul or cruel misogynist who compromised his work by pandering to a wide audience, Simply Dickens convincingly shows him as a purposeful, supremely talented, and versatile personality, whose popular appeal was central to his achievement.
Download or read book The Art of Adapting Victorian Literature 1848 1920 written by Karen E. Laird and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Art of Adapting Victorian Literature, 1848-1920, Karen E. Laird alternates between readings of nineteenth-century stage and twentieth-century silent film adaptations to investigate the working practices of the first adapters of Victorian fiction. Laird’s juxtaposition between stage and screen brings to life the dynamic culture of literary adaptation as it developed throughout the long nineteenth-century. Focusing on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, Laird demonstrates how adaptations performed the valuable cultural work of expanding the original novel’s readership across class and gender divides, exporting the English novel to America, and commemorating the novelists through adaptations that functioned as virtual literary tourism. Bridging the divide between literary criticism, film studies, and theatre history, Laird’s book reveals how the Victorian adapters set the stage for our contemporary film adaptation industry.
Download or read book Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pip, a poor village boy, finds two chance meetings set his life on an unexpected course. At the water’s edge, he has a terrifying encounter with an escaped convict. In the decaying grandeur of Miss Haversham’s house, he falls hopelessly in love with the heartless Estella. When an anonymous benefactor helps him move to Calcutta, the heart of the British Raj, Pip pursues his great expectations and his dream of winning Estella’s heart. Relocating Pip’s extraordinary journey to nineteenth-century India, this coming-of-age story, evoking some of Dickens’ most colourful characters, is faithful to the period of the book and the richness of Dickens’ language – a vivid theatrical retelling of a universally loved masterpiece.
Download or read book American Notes written by Charles Dickens and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-11-16 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "American Notes" by Charles Dickens. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
Download or read book Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi written by Joseph Grimaldi and published by . This book was released on 1838 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
