Charles Dickens, what an amazing man!

by Claire Harman

Among the dozens of Dickens publications connected with the bicentenary of the author’s birth on February 7, it is hard to imagine one more necessary than this, a one-volume, generously priced selection of his letters.

His letters were written without the help of any secretary or amanuensis and in the thick of one of the most active and productive lives on record, full of writing, editing, meddling, philanthropy, politics and performing, as well as the maintenance of a large and complex family life and many intense friendships. It was a phenomenal output, which he was the first to remark on, as he told John Forster, “whatever it is, it is always driving me, and I cannot help it”.

Dickens told one correspondent that the secret of his success had been simply to keep his eyes open, a disingenuously modest account.

The whole post can be read here

Charles Dickens