The American-born Writer Jane Smiley published a short biography of Charles Dickens in 2002. In this book, Jane Smiley also analyzes the major works of Charles Dickens. Smiley’s book starts in December 1833 when Dickens’ “first stretch, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk,” was published in the Monthly Magazine. Dickens, born on February 7, 1812, was only twenty-one” (Smiley 1). The book only talks about Dickens’s childhood in Chapter 3 when in the late 1840s, Dickens attempted to write an autobiography (Smiley 76-77). Jane Smiley’s organization of her biography of Dickens works for me, she organized the book around Dickens’s writings, which is fitting because he was a writer. The book does not have an index. I learned a lot from Smiley’s biography of Dickens. Jane Smiley’s biography in the Penguin Lives of Charles Dickens reminds me of Bobbie Ann Mason’s biography of Elvis Presley in the same series. Both Dickens and Presley were celebrities in their lifetime. Both short biographies explore the pitfalls of being an early celebrity in a time when celebrities were less protected from themselves or the general public. Both biographies explore the effects of being a major celebrity on the lives of both Dickens and Presley. Jane Smiley’s short biography of Charles Dickens was interesting.
Works Cited:
Mason, Bobbie Ann. 2003. Elvis Presley. New York: Penguin Putnam, Incorporated.

2012 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth. Dickens was a complicated man -- generous, driven, good to his wife early and miserable later, actor, sense of humor, created memorable characters such as Scrooge ----

well worth reading.

4.5 A well written “review” of Dickens’ life by Jane Smiley. This is not a lengthy, detailed biography (which has been done before), but an examination of Dickens’ life in relation to his novels. As Smiley says, “His novels shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels, and just as his novels were in part commentary on his life, so his actions, in part, grew out of the way that writing novels gave his feelings and thoughts specific being.”

Not your typical biography. Felt like it was more a review of his books. After a short while of reading it I enjoyed it for just that reason. The connection between Charles Dickens and what he wrote was very intersting.

Well balanced 'tween literary and personal biography. A good opening primer.

I haven't read many biographies, so I am not a great judge, but this one seemed more like a dissertation about Dickens' works than a biography of his life. That was disappointing, since the title is "Charles Dickens: a life." A better title would have been "Charles Dickens: his life reflected through his works" or something like that. Smiley used the works of Dickens to explain his relationships and personality. I didn't have a problem with that necessarily, but I felt a little cheated from getting the nitty gritty details of what was obviously a very amazing and interesting life.

I'll be standing in line for several hours this afternoon at the Shakespeare Theater Company waiting for Free for All tickets to Julius Caesar. This Penguin biography will fit in the pocket of my sports coat. The author won a Pulitzer for fiction. I was re-introduced to Dickens this week by Jill Lepore's article in The New Yorker on the annual Dickens Camp at UC Santa Cruz. "What the world needs is a good dose of Dickens."

Served its purpose. I needed a short, informative biography of Dickens and NOT 1000 pages. Got kind of lost when Smiley synopsized his novels, because I hadn't read any them. She got me curious enough to google a painting of Dickens that she mentioned, one that Maclise completed when Dickens was just 27 but already a father of three and quite famous. He didn't look anything like the bearded old fart from the card game Authors. I found it practical that she recommended a reading list of 5 Dickens novels, rather than his entire oeuvre. Personally, though, I'm still not inclined to read one.

This was interesting. Much I didn't know about Charles Dickens. Sad ending.

Having read almost all of Dickens's novels (holding off on Edwin Drood, since it isn't finished), I was interested to read about his life. However, many of the literary biographies are just enormous, such as Peter Ackroyd's recent biography, which is listed as being 3.9 pounds. That's just more than I want to know right now, and I was more interested in a precis of his life and work.

Smiley's book is the right length, more or less, and it by no means weighs you down with trivia. She makes the assumption that Dickens's readers want to know how his work relate to his life, and so she spend at least equal time on his writing as on his private life and accomplishments, which are actually pretty incredible. The biographical material is based on previous biographies rather than independent research, but the critical discussion of his writing is her own.

The author makes known her own opinion about the strongest work and the problems with the weaker work, which is very interesting even when one doesn't agree with her. Her critiques are from the perspective of another novelist--which characters work, which plots are too meandering, and so on--rather than from lit-crit theory. That is also what is of greatest interest to most of Dickens's readers.

On the whole, then, I'm glad I read the book. It was engaging and highly readable, and it stimulated my interest in rereading some of his work, which is perhaps the main reason to read an authorial biography.

Very long and in depth as she tries to pinpoint the character of Charles Dickens through his works. If you have not read all of his works extensively, it is not very easy to follow along with a lot of her reasoning. I did not find this particular book enjoyable. I learned a lot more by simply reading the remarks concerning his life on the internet!

(4.5 stars) I highly recommend this concise but rich biography of Charles Dickens. It was assigned as secondary reading when I took a Dickens class in college, but I never truly appreciated what it had to offer to my readings of Dickens’ novels until returning to it with greater focus now.

Smiley offers a very readable overview of the life and works of Charles Dickens. It is rather basic for me, not scholarship, but a descent and perceptive read from a fellow novelist.