Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin

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Dickens A LifeJust in time for his 200th birthday, Claire Tomalin, the author of The Invisible Woman, comes out with Charles Dickens: A Life. (The book will be released October 27, but can be pre-ordered now.)

Amazon has this to say about Charles Dickens: A Life, “Charles Dickens: A Life gives full measure to Dickens’s heroic stature-his huge virtues both as a writer and as a human being- while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye. Renowned literary biographer Claire Tomalin crafts a story worthy of Dickens’s own pen, a comedy that turns to tragedy as the very qualities that made him great-his indomitable energy, boldness, imagination, and showmanship-finally destroyed him. The man who emerges is one of extraordinary contradictions, whose vices and virtues were intertwined as surely as his life and his art.”

Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini

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Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry HoudiniFans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will be happy to hear that a new book about his life will soon be published. Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini tells about the friendship and conflict between Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.

People unfamiliar with Conan Doyle’s life may be surprised to learn that he was a proponent of Spiritualism.  He firmly believed that it was possible to communicate with those who had passed over to the other side.

Houdini, who was hit hard by the death of his beloved mother, was outraged at the tricks mediums used during their seances.  He used his experience as a magician and illusionist to expose the fraudulent spiritualists.

Amazon says this about the book:

Renowned mystery author Arthur Conan Doyle and famous illusionist Harry Houdini first met in 1920, during the magician’s tour of England. At the time, Conan Doyle had given up his lucrative writing career, killing off Sherlock Holmes in the process, in order to concentrate on his increasingly manic interest in Spiritualism. Houdini, who regularly conducted séances in an attempt to reach his late mother, was also infatuated with the idea of what he called a “living afterlife,” though his enthusiasm came to be tempered by his ability to expose fraudulent mediums, many of whom employed crude variations of his own well-known illusions. Using previously unpublished material on the murky relationship between Houdini and Conan Doyle, this sometimes macabre, sometimes comic tale tells the fascinating story of the relationship between two of the most loved figures of the 20th century and their pursuit of magic and lost loved ones.

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The Invisible Woman – The Affair of Charles Dickens

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Invisible WomanOne of the first biographies I read about Charles Dickens was The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin.  The book focuses on Dickens’ affair with the actress Ellen Ternan.

Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan met in 1857; she was 18, a hard-working actress performing in his production of The Frozen Deep, and he was 45, the most lionized writer in England. Out of their meeting came a love affair that lasted thirteen years and destroyed Dickens’s marriage while effacing Nelly Ternan from the public record.

In this remarkable work of biography and scholarly reconstruction, the acclaimed biographer of Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys and Jane Austen rescues Nelly from the shadows of history, not only returning the neglected actress to her rightful place, but also providing a compelling portrait of the great Victorian novelist himself. The result is a thrilling literary detective story and a deeply compassionate work that encompasses all those women who were exiled from the warm, well-lighted parlors of Victorian England.

You can learn more about Dickens’ marriage and affair on our partner site, Charles Dickens Info.

 

Grave Expectations

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At the end of this month another horror rewrite of classic literature will hit the bookstores.  Grave Expectations by Sherri Browning Erwin and Charles Dickens will show us Pip and Estella as we’ve never seen them before.

Per Amazon’s website, “Bristly, sensitive, and meat-hungry Pip is a robust young whelp, an orphan born under a full moon. Between hunting escaped convicts alongside zombified soldiers, trying not to become one of the hunted himself, and hiding his hairy hands from the supernaturally beautiful and haughty Estella, whose devilish moods keep him chomping at the bit, Pip is sure he will die penniless or a convict like the rest of his commonly uncommon kind.”

Learn more about Charles Dickens:

Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders

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Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders – In the latest in the series of Oscar Wilde murder mysteries,  Wilde and his good friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle face something very odd indeed.  A duchess is found murdered—with two tiny puncture marks on her throat. Hmm . . . I wonder what that could mean?

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Sherlock Season 1

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SherlockIf you haven’t seen this modern day retelling of the Sherlock Holmes stories then you’re in for a treat.  Sherlock brilliantly walks the line between staying true to the works of Conan Doyle and giving the tale a new twist.

Wait until you see what they did with the phrase “three pipe problem.” Here’s the original quote:

“It is quite a three pipe problem.” ~ The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Slings & Arrows – Season 2

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Slings & Arrows - Season 2
Season One of Slings & Arrows dealt with a production of Hamlet.  The second season of Slings & Arrows takes on the dreaded Macbeth.  Along the way the characters face  issues as diverse as love, death, middle age and tax audits.

What can I tell you?  It’s smart.  It’s funny.  I enjoyed it immensely.

“There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Gad’s Hill Place and Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens bought Gad’s Hill Place in 1856 and lived there until his death in 1870. This video shows the house as well as the surrounding area.

Hmmm . . . I wonder how much a trip to England would cost?

Learn more about Charles Dickens:

Conan Doyle Speaks

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Check out this fascinating YouTube video showing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle talking about how he came up with the idea for Sherlock Holmes.

Learn more about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

More Zombies – Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

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Jane Austen I had heard of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies before.  To be honest, I didn’t really pay that much attention.  A rewrite of the Pride and Prejudice with Zombies?  I filed in my brain the same place as the ghost of Elvis and Big Foot.  Then I read the reviews.

Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-.  It made it to the top ten of the New York Times bestseller list.  The A.V. club states, “Grahame-Smith’s amendments add some interest, pathos, and essential motivation to Austen’s subplots.”

This one could be worth a read.  In the meantime, if you want Zombie-free Jane Austen:

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” ~ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen