Biography - Charles Dickens

The story of how a boy from a family mired in debt went on to become the foremost public celebrity of the 19th century is vividly told in this installment from the A&E Biography series. After being put to work in a factory as a child, Charles Dickens obsessively chased literary success, submitting his sketches of London life to newspapers and striving mightily to publish his great serialized novels. Experts on Dickens offer telling anecdotes about his family, his tortured romantic life, and his prodigious output of prose. His life as a public figure is also amply portrayed, with vintage illustrations and photographs showing the great novelist enjoying the role of celebrity. The video presents a balanced view of Dickens, noting that for all his genius at inventing characters, he was often lacking in his own personal relationships. As one would expect from the Biography series, the production is highly professional and intelligently delivered. It would serve as a very solid introduction to Dickens, but also features insights and visual treats that would make it interesting to those who already familiar with his life and work. --Robert J. McNamara Amazon.com

Why do scholars have to be so boring??

I acquired this video to interest my students in Dickens as I was about to assign reading. BIG MISTAKE. This video, while informative (hence the 2 stars), is dry an an old stick. If you use it, use it in small doses--interject your own anecdotes between small stretches of the video. That'll teach me not to preview a tape before I show it.
September 10, 2005

The life of the man who brought literature to the masses

I came into this particular Biography video with a little trepidation. Charles Dickens is one of my earliest and most significant heroes, the man who first awakened in me a deep love for literature and a desire to one day attempt to make my own contributions to the field. I already knew, though, that Dickens was not a necessarily happy man and that he had treated his wife in a manner I found troubling. What other shortcomings might this video reveal to me? As it turns out, my fears were baseless, as this is an insightful yet very respectful look at a man whom I now better understand and certainly still respect.

I knew little about Dickens' early life, but this video makes it clear that his experiences as a youth did much to shape him as a writer. His pains and personal demons maintained the fire of genius that burned in his soul and led him to push himself always, even up until the very end of his life. Born into the lower middle class of early nineteenth century England, Dickens suffered the shame of seeing his father eventually cast into debtors' prison; he himself was forced to do menial labor which appalled him during that harsh period of his life. This, the biographers indicate, motivated him to work tirelessly no matter how much success he found, using his pen to help forestall the nightmare of poverty overtaking his life again. His progression through a number of jobs eventually led him into writing, and his first success came in Sketches by Boz, in which he wrote (anonymously at that point) numerous little accounts of the people and events he had seen during his travels. The rejection by his first love left its mark on his soul, but the man poured everything into his work and, after the appearance of The Pickwick Papers, met with amazing success. In the mean time, he married and eventually had ten children. Before leavings his 20s, Dickens was a celebrated and immensely popular writer. The serialization of his early novels brought his works to the masses as well as society's elite, serving to make him the most acclaimed writer of his era. Yet still he was never satisfied.

In his personal life, success could never hold off feelings of depression and a general dissatisfaction with his life, and in his later years he grew quite cold toward his wife, eventually separating from her. He seems to have become infatuated with a young actress at that time, but scholars debate the existence of a physical relationship between the two. The most peculiar aspect of Dickens' life seems to be his feelings for one of his sisters-in-law who died at the tragic age of 17. She, it would seem, understood Dickens more than his wife ever could - or so Dickens believed - and her death came as a lasting blow to him. Almost all of these repressed feelings and private fears found their way into his novels, as Dickens wrote some of the most autobiographical novels of all time. Most of the quotes used here in this video to explain aspects of Dickens' life are actually lines taken from his novels, bits of private introspection spoken by characters but relating in the clearest of ways to the author himself.

This video provides viewers an informative, intriguing look at the life of Charles Dickens; whether the reference to personal demons oversteps the bounds of truth or not is hard to say, but obviously the darker episodes in Dickens' life cast much fuel onto the fire that made him the 19th century's greatest literary voice and secured him a legacy that will endure until the end of time. July 15, 2004

A Taste of Genius

This is another very good edition of A&E's biography series about a man who is one of my favorite authors. It covers the whole of his life including some of the most important incidents--his family being sent to debtors' prison when he was a boy, forcing him out of school and into work, and his troubled family life in later years. I was also pleased to see that time was spent talking about some of his "lesser known" works which are still fantastic books.

My only complaint about this program is really just the limitation of the form. What kind of coverage can you get in 50 minutes? You get a nice overview of Dickens' life but for some depth you have to go to one of the many well-written biographies of the author. April 1, 2001

TRULY THE CREATIVE MIND OF A GENIUS

A&E's biography does ample justice to a truly gifted writer! I am a big Dicken's fan and this video was exceptional in it's quality and content. We see Dickens from his early childhood through to his death and learn about how singular moments in his life helped create some of literatures most enduring characters. The length of time is perfect and the content is thoroughly appropriate and easily holds one's attention. Experts, including, his very own great grandson, contribute to making this an entertaining, educational and fun video to watch. Any Dickens fan will be inspired by this video as it allows you to see his wonderful, at times scary, characters through the eyes of the author himself. October 26, 2000

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