DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Charles Dickens: His Life and Work" by Stephen Butler Leacock. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic, widely recognized as a literary genius. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. G. K. Chesterton took great interest in the literature of Charles Dickens, writing several books concerning his life and his works: Charles Dickens – Biographical Sketch Charles Dickens – Critical Study Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens

Nicholas Nickleby, the second volume of the new Oxford Edition of Charles Dickens, is Dickens's third novel, originally published in monthly parts between March 1838 and September 1839. Brilliantly comic, the novel quickly developed a strong strand of social criticism, exploring themes such as love and family, selfishness, work, and charity. It showcases a host of characters, from the earnest and passionate young hero Nicholas, the pathetic Smike, and the brutal schoolmaster Wackford Squeers, to sparkling minor players like John Browdie, Mrs. Squeers, Mr. Mantalini, Mr. Crummles, and the infuriatingly inept Mrs. Nickleby. Solidifying the reputation for comedy and pathos Dickens had established with The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, this novel reached—and delighted—the widest audience Dickens had yet known. The manuscript of Nicholas Nickleby survives only in fragments, with the British Library, the Charles Dickens Museum, and The Rosenbach library holding substantial portions, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Morgan Library also holding pages. This edition is presented in two volumes: the text in Volume I and Essay on the Text and Notes in Volume 2. The editors have closely examined all the surviving manuscript, recovering scores of deletions and recording all variants of wording in the textual apparatus. The text is based on that of the original serial instalments; all emendations from that text are fully documented. All lifetime British editions (the Cheap, the Library, the Illustrated Library, the People's and the Charles Dickens) have been carefully collated, and all verbal variants are recorded.

From Marilyn to Mussolini, people captivate people. A&E's Biography, best-selling autobiographies, and biographical novels testify to the popularity of the genre. But where does one begin? Collected here are descriptions and evaluations of over 10,000 biographical works, including books of fact and fiction, biographies for young readers, and documentaries and movies, all based on the lives of over 500 historical figures from scientists and writers, to political and military leaders, to artists and musicians. Each entry includes a brief profile, autobiographical and primary sources, and recommended works. Short reviews describe the pertinent biographical works and offer insight into the qualities and special features of each title, helping readers to find the best biographical material available on hundreds of fascinating individuals.

The Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens is a comprehensive and up-to-date collection on Dickens's life and works. It includes original chapters on all of Dickens's writing and new considerations of his contexts, from the social, political, and economic to the scientific, commercial, and religious. The contributions speak in new ways about his depictions of families, environmental degradation, and improvements of the industrial age, as well as the law, charity, and communications. His treatment of gender, his mastery of prose in all its varieties and genres, and his range of affects and dramatization all come under stimulating reconsideration. His understanding of British history, of empire and colonization, of his own nation and foreign ones, and of selfhood and otherness, like all the other topics, is explained in terms easy to comprehend and profoundly relevant to global modernity.

Charles Dickens's 200th birthday will be celebrated in 2012. Though his writings are now more than 100 years old, many remain in print and are avidly read and studied. Often overlooked--or unknown--are the considerable Christian convictions Dickens held and displayed in his work. This book fills that vacuum by examining Dickens the Christian and showing how Christian beliefs and practices permeate his work. This historical work is written for pastors, students, and laity alike. Chapters look at Dickens's life and work topically, arguing that Christian faith was front and center in some of what Dickens wrote (such as his children's work The Life of Our Lord) and saliently implicit throughout various other characters and plots. Since Dickens's Christian side is rarely considered, Gary Colledge illuminates a fresh angle of Dickens, and the 200th birthday makes it especially timely.

This volume discusses traditional and new resources for researching British literature of the Victorian and Edwardian ages and the ways in which those resources can be used in conjunction with one another.

An accessible and reliable introduction to the life and works of Charles Dickens, offering a unique combination of academic biography and literary analysis The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens explores the relationship between Dickens’ lived experience and his works, discussing themes within and key influences on literary classics such as Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby, and Great Expectations. An excellent introduction to the world of Dickens scholarship, this easily accessible volume provides the necessary background about the author’s life while encouraging readers to critically analyze Dickens’ works. Organized thematically by chapter, the book opens with a brief overview of Dickens’ life and a chronology of major works. Subsequent chapters focus on key aspects of Dickens’ life, concluding with case studies of selected texts that demonstrate the similarities between events in Dickens’ own life and the literature he was writing at the time. Throughout the book, readers are provided with an informative portrait of Dickens’ early family life, personal relationships, professional networks, social circles, travels abroad, charitable works, financial issues, dealings with publishers, and much more. Incorporates the latest discussions in Dickens research alongside documents and materials from Dickens’ time Discusses the afterlife of Dickens in film, theater, and television, including A Christmas Carol, Dickens’ most adapted story Features archival material from the Charles Dickens Museum and discussion of Dickens’ roles as a journalist, editor, and professional reader Includes short case studies at the end of each chapter to demonstrate the ways Dickens’ life informed his work The Life of the Author: Charles Dickens is an ideal introductory textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in English Literature and Victorian Literature courses, as well as a valuable resource for Dickens scholars and enthusiasts.