DICKENS

English biographer, novelist, and critic Peter Ackroyd was born on October 5, 1949. He has a passion for London's history and culture. He received the Somerset Maugham Award and two Whitbread Awards for his works on English history and culture, including his biography of Sir Thomas More, William Blake, Charles Dickens, and T. S. Eliot. He is renowned for the amount of his output, the variety of styles, his ability to adopt several voices, and the breadth of his studies. He is the author of DICKENS, one of the best books on industrial revolution.

Similar to the scenario of one of his novels, Charles Dickens's life is a tale of rags to riches complete with bankruptcy, imprisonment, forced child labor, fame and fortune shrouded by guilt, and secrecy. Indeed, a lot of Dickens' fiction was heavily inspired by his own experiences. The author provides a new perspective on Dickens' amazing life story in this passage.

Dickens' books are rife with allusions; they are set in locations he frequented and lived in, include characters he was familiar with, and were motivated by the obsessions that consumed his thoughts. Dickens' passionate calls for social reform were sparked by the harsh realities of Victorian life, which Ackroyd emphasizes. He also charts the significant historical events of the time, including the arrival of the railways, the impact of the industrial revolution on society, and the growth of the British Empire.

Dickens had a nuanced character. He appeared to have had all—fame, success, and wealth—but he passed away with the deep melancholy he had carried throughout his life. He was also modest enough to prevent a lavish funeral. He led a double life, just like many notable Victorians. Even though he stressed that his middle-class readers shouldn't be offended by anything in the newspapers he edited, he frequently engaged in questionable nighttime antics with fellow author Wilkie Collins and, for the last 13 years of his life, maintained a covert mistress, Ellen Ternan.

Author: Peter Ackroyd

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