For all the quirky dialogue and colorful characters, he was kind of a jerk. Compassionate to the orphan, not so much to his own wife. Smiley spends most of her time connecting the dots between his story characters and the contemporary situation of his personal life, and though the development of his literary maturity is well argued and covers the whole of his career, a few places seem like a stretch. Still, the mark of a truly great author is one that can distill his own story philosophies, psychologies, and methods, then meld them with a few life experiences and relationships to create something completely unique, and this deep dive into his biography is a fascinating look behind the curtain. "Charles Dickens: A Life" is as insightful about his stories' inspirations as it is about his life.

For better or worse, it ends abruptly with his death and never asks the big picture questions: How did Dickens influence Victorian values and literature? How soon did his work end up in the essential English canon? At "only" 207 pages, it's a very brisk summary, but I enjoyed it and learned a lot, and the helpful afterword directs the reader to other, meatier biographies.

Five things about Charles Dickens: A Life by Jane Smiley 5/5⭐️s

1. First, this is a slim volume but it manages to cover Dickens’s life, relationships, and writings without compromising or circumnavigating his complexities. Smiley is incredibly skilled, restrained, and generous all at once.
2. I was captivated from the first, as Smiley explains that hers is an attempt to explore Dickens life in the chronology with which he himself chose (or was forced) to reveal it. This, it does not start with his childhood - as he kept this hidden for most of his life and instead begins with Pickwick which was his first success.
3. I’ve spent this year with Dickens. I’ve read all of his major works in the last two years…12 of them this year. I have done so with a chip on my shoulder…loved him and his work with restraint…because of his treatment of of his devoted wife Catherine. Smiley manages to honor Catherine while creating within me a deep empathy for the man.
4. “Most other great innovators owe something to someone - even Shakespeare was preceded by Christopher Marlowe… Dickens however spoke in a new voice, in a new form, to a new audience, a new world, about several old ideas reconsidered for the new system of capitalism - that care and respect are owed to the weakest and meekest in society, rather than to the strongest; the ways in which class and money divide humans from one another are artificial and dangerous; that pleasure and physical comfort are positive goods; that the spiritual lives of the powerful have social and economic ramifications…Dickens grasped this idea from the earliest stages of his career and demonstrated his increasingly sophisticated grasp of it in the plots characterizations, themes, and styles of every single novel he wrote. This is the root source of his greatness. That he did so in English at the very moment when England was establishing herself as a worldwide force is the root source of his importance. That he combined his artistic vision with social action in an outpouring of energy and hard work is the root source of his uniqueness.”
5. “The question is not whether Dickens’s characters are realistic…but whether he makes a compelling case for the origins and resolutions of their dilemmas, which are, in many cases, extreme and melodramatic. These are exactly the terms in which most people experience their own dilemmas - life or death propositions that are tremendously challenging to resolve… Dickens excelled at bodying forth the drama of the inner battle… the resolution [for his characters] always takes place within the character first and then in the social nexus.”
6. Team Dickens for life!

Really interesting to a literature major who has read most of his books. Smiley follows the chronology and plotlines of his books and cross references them with the happenings (or possible happenings) in his life. Found out a lot about Dickens and his biographers, and rekindled a desire to read many of my favorite Dickens books again.

This is a well-written biography on Charles Dickens, making links between the characters in his novels and the people he knew in real life. Ever since I read David Copperfield I was inrigued to find out more about the man behind it as many critics say it is his most autobiographical novel. Dickens' novels are complex and I can see why now that I have an insight into his personal life. He had an extremely energetic personality taking on multiple projects at one time and seemingly became dissatisfied and bored with his relationships on a regular basis. Considering he lived in Victorian England he was also very well travelled and on every page there was something new to learn about him. Jane Smiley has researched his life thoroughly from a range of sources which she shares readily, and overall I found this a very enjoyable read.

Smiley gives a writer's perspective to Dickens' novels. Funny to read that Henry James in his 20s panned 'Mutual Friend' - one of Dickens' great novels and my favorite. Smiley presents a far more complex man than perhaps is imagined by 'Christmas Carol' readers.

This short critical biography of CD makes me want to go back and read more Dickens

Short and sweet biography. I wish it was in chronological order from birth to death, instead based on his writing order. It flipped, flopped back and forth from young to old to show that his books performed as an autobiography. But to each his own. I would still recommend.

This is a short book with healthy doses of, "so-and-so was a liberal because that most easily comports to my values" or "so-and-so was a conservative because that most easily comports to my values." In this case, Smiley is squarely in the liberal camp, and her efforts are hamfisted, which is usually the case when looking backwards in the hope of influencing the present.

A really fun, if too brief, read, thanks in part to Smiley's lively enthusiasm for novels in general.

"Another thing that made Dickens a national treasure...had...everything to do with Dickens' class origins or, rather, the fluidity of his class origins. Carried upward and downward by the vagaries of his father's career and poor money management, and then by his own hard work and genius, Dickens found himself in a unique position to observe all facets of English society." - Jane Smiley, Charles Dickens

I really admire Dicken's ability to create memorable characters, but he himself has been a mystery to me. Smiley does a good job going through each piece of Dicken's work. I liked the book because I am an aspiring author and found encouragement in his struggles. But at times, Smiley can sound like she is doing an academic literary critque. So I wouldn't recommend for people curious about the personal life of Dickens, but I would recommend for authors starting off who like his tales. He was one of the original bloggers, publishing many of his novels one chapter a month.

Though there were a number of moments in this biography where I would have loved for Smiley to go further with the points she was making — merely because they were fascinating — I have no complaints with this rather compact look at Dickens and his work. She balances an insightful understanding of the man with an obvious familiarity and love for his body of work. This is an excellent and accessible biography.