Download or read book Charles Dickens and the Staplehurst Train Crash written by Peter Lewis and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five years to the day from the Staplehurst train accident, Charles Dickens died. How did the accident affect him?
Download or read book Dickens and Staplehurst A Biography of a Rail Crash written by Gerald Dickens and published by Olympia Publishers. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Staplehurst rail crash of June 9th, 1865 which claimed ten lives, might have passed relatively unnoticed but for the presence of a celebrity passenger among the survivors. Charles Dickens, returning from France on the ill-fated boat train from Folkestone to London, was to be profoundly affected by the experience. In a fascinating exploration of the circumstances surrounding the disaster and probing insight into Dickens' personal life, the writer's great-great-grandson, Gerald Dickens, examines his secret relationship with the actress Ellen Ternan and professional motivation in the years either side of the accident. Questions concerning the conduct of the inquest into the crash and apportioning of blame are raised that remain unresolved even today. Striking parallels are drawn with more recent disasters and the signs of wrestling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are evident in the account of Dickens' final years, powerfully reflected in the stirring ghost story The Signalman.
Download or read book Historic Railway Disasters written by Oswald Stevens Nock and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Signal Man Illustrated written by Charles Dickens and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-24 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Signal-Man" is a horror/mystery story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of the Mugby Junction collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round.The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of an apparition that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signal-box in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident.The first accident involves a terrible collision between two trains in the tunnel. Dickens may have based this incident on the Clayton Tunnel crash that occurred in 1861, five years before he wrote the story. Readers in 1866 would have been familiar with this major disaster. The second warning involves the mysterious death of a young woman on a passing train. The final warning is a premonition of the signalman's own death.
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 Charles Dickens s Networks written by Jonathan H. Grossman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-03 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the rise of the passenger transport network in the nineteenth century and the impact it made on Dickens's work.
Download or read book The Meaning of Night written by Michael Cox and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2011-05-18 with total page 607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.” So begins an extraordinary story of betrayal and treachery, of delusion and deceit narrated by Edward Glyver. Glyver may be a bibliophile, but he is no bookworm. Employed “in a private capacity” by one of Victorian London’s top lawyers, he knows his Macrobius from his First Folio, but he has the street-smarts and ruthlessness of a Philip Marlowe. And just as it is with many a contemporary detective, one can’t always be sure whether Glyver is acting on the side of right or wrong. As the novel begins, Glyver silently stabs a stranger from behind, killing him apparently at random. But though he has committed a callous and brutal crime, Glyver soon reveals himself to be a sympathetic and seductively charming narrator. In fact, Edward Glyver keeps the reader spellbound for 600 riveting pages full of betrayal, twists, lies, and obsession. Glyver has an unforgettable story to tell. Raised in straitened circumstances by his novelist mother, he attended Eton thanks to the munificence of a mysterious benefactor. After his mother’s death, Glyver is not sure what path to take in life. Should he explore the new art of photography, take a job at the British Museum, continue his travels in Europe with his friend Le Grice? But then, going through his mother’s papers, he discovers something that seems unbelievable: the woman who raised him was not his mother at all. He is actually the son of Lord Tansor, one of the richest and most powerful men in England. Naturally, Glyver sets out to prove his case. But he lacks evidence, and while trying to find it under the alias “Edward Glapthorn,” he discovers that one person stands between him and his birthright: his old schoolmate and rival Phoebus Rainsford Daunt, a popular poet (and secret criminal) whom Lord Tansor has taken a decidedly paternal interest in after the death of his only son. Glyver’s mission to regain his patrimony takes him from the heights of society to its lowest depths, from brothels and opium dens to Cambridge colleges and the idylls of Evenwood, the Tansor family’s ancestral home. Glyver is tough and resourceful, but Daunt always seems to be a step ahead, at least until Glyver meets the beguilingly beautiful Emily Carteret, daughter of Lord Tansor’s secretary. But nothing is as it seems in this accomplished, suspenseful novel. Glyver’s employer Tredgold warns him to trust no one: Is his enigmatic neighbour Fordyce Jukes spying on him? Is the brutal murderer Josiah Pluckthorn on his trail? And is Glyver himself, driven half-mad by the desire for revenge, telling us the whole truth in his candid, but very artful, “confession”? A global phenomenon, The Meaning of Night is an addictive, darkly funny, and completely captivating novel. Meticulously researched and utterly gripping, it draws its readers relentlessly forward until its compelling narrator’s final revelations.
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 Secret Richmond upon Thames written by Andy Bull and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Secret Richmond upon Thames explores the lesser-known history of the South West London borough of Richmond upon Thames through a fascinating selection of stories, unusual facts and attractive photographs.
Download or read book The Mystery of Charles Dickens written by A.N. Wilson and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography A lively and insightful biographical celebration of the imaginative genius of Charles Dickens, published in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his death. Charles Dickens was a superb public performer, a great orator and one of the most famous of the Eminent Victorians. Slight of build, with a frenzied, hyper-energetic personality, Dickens looked much older than his fifty-eight years when he died—an occasion marked by a crowded funeral at Westminster Abbey, despite his waking wishes for a small affair. Experiencing the worst and best of life during the Victorian Age, Dickens was not merely the conduit through whom some of the most beloved characters in literature came into the world. He was one of them. Filled with the twists, pathos, and unusual characters that sprang from this novelist’s extraordinary imagination, The Mystery of Charles Dickens looks back from the legendary writer’s death to recall the key events in his life. In doing so, he seeks to understand Dickens’ creative genius and enduring popularity. Following his life from cradle to grave, it becomes clear that Dickens’s fiction drew from his life—a fact he acknowledged. Like Oliver Twist, Dickens suffered a wretched childhood, then grew up to become not only a respectable gentleman but an artist of prodigious popularity. Dickens knew firsthand the poverty and pain his characters endured, including the scandal of a failed marriage. Going beyond standard narrative biography, A. N. Wilson brilliantly revisits the wellspring of Dickens’s vast and wild imagination, to reveal at long last why his novels captured the hearts of nineteenth century readers—and why they continue to resonate today. The Mystery of Charles Dickens is illustrated with 30 black-and-white images.
Download or read book Victorian Tales Terror on the Train written by Terry Deary and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-13 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Horrible Histories... A crowded train takes a wrong turn and hurtles at full speed into a section of track that should have been closed for repair. Among the passengers is the writer Charles Dickens. Can young workman Tommy stop the train in time and save the lives of those on board – or is it already too late? In this dramatic re-telling of one of the worst rail accidents in Victorian Britain, the Staplehurst Railway disaster, Terry Deary's Victorian Tales explore the fascinating world of the Victorians, including many of the incredible achievements and breakthroughs that took place, through the eyes of children who could have lived at the time. This new edition features notes for the reader to help extend learning and exploration of the historical period.
Download or read book Dickens London written by Charles Dickens and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book DICKENS ON RAILWAYS written by CHARLES. DICKENS and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book What the Dickens Tales of Crime and Mystery by Charles Dickens Fantasy and Horror Classics written by Charles Dickens and published by . This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Dickens was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era is still very popular today, here are collected the very finest of his crime and mystery stories. Some of the stories included are, 'The Drunkard's Death', 'The Automaton Police', 'The Edwin Drood Syndicate' and many more.
Download or read book The Invisible Woman written by Claire Tomalin and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-08-29 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan met in 1857; she was 18, a hard-working actress performing in his production of The Frozen Deep, and he was 45, the most lionized writer in England. Out of their meeting came a love affair that lasted thirteen years and destroyed Dickens’s marriage while effacing Nelly Ternan from the public record. In this remarkable work of biography and scholarly reconstruction, the acclaimed biographer of Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys and Jane Austen rescues Nelly from the shadows of history, not only returning the neglected actress to her rightful place, but also providing a compelling portrait of the great Victorian novelist himself. The result is a thrilling literary detective story and a deeply compassionate work that encompasses all those women who were exiled from the warm, well-lighted parlors of Victorian England.
Download or read book The Last Dickens written by Matthew Pearl and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-08-12 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1870. Charles Dickens is dead. The final instalment of his last manuscript has vanished. The script was last seen addressed to the publisher whose fortunes depend on it. Since its sudden disappearance the only clue to its whereabouts is a trail of brutal murders. With his livelihood - indeed his life - in jeopardy, Dickens' publisher sets out to unravel the mystery. The trail leads him from bustling West End theatres, through grimy East End backstreets, into the fug of illicit opium dens, as the crime he hopes to solve ensnares him.
Download or read book Little Nell written by Simon Gray and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forty-five years old and married, Charles Dickens falls passionately in love with Nelly Ternan, an actress almost thirty years his junior. They begin a long affair which ends only in Dickens' death in 1870, so that when, eventually, Nelly marries, she has thirteen clandestine years to explain away. In 1922, her son determines to uncover the truth.
