Dickens

Ward, Adolphus William, Sir, 1837-1924Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 417K words
Chapters: 42

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Dickens by Sir Adolphus William WardAuthor: Ward, Adolphus William, Sir, 1837-1924,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 12, 2011

Editor's review

This is a literary-critical biography of Charles Dickens by Sir Adolphus William Ward, a nineteenth-century English scholar who traces Dickens's life and work in the manner of a historian. Unlike the lyrical biographies common today, the book is closer to an academic study of the author: it places the novels within the social context and publishing environment of the Victorian era, attending to the interweaving of Dickens's three roles as public figure, editor, and novelist. The Project Gutenberg edition preserves the original book's format. Of moderate length and written in formal English, it serves well as an introductory guide to Dickens studies, and also suits readers who have already read several Dickens novels and wish to understand the arc of his creative development, comparing chapters against the works at their own pace rather than reading it all at once.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and other works and want to know the man and his life
English literature students in need of a classic critical biography as a reference
Readers interested in Victorian society and publishing culture
Advanced learners seeking to train their reading of long texts in formal English

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners who have never read Dickens and only want light stories
Readers with weak English who would struggle with nineteenth-century academic prose
Researchers expecting a detailed chronology, original letters, or extensive illustrations

Reading tips

Read a Dickens novel first, then return to the corresponding biographical chapter for a more concrete understanding
Break the book into two or three sittings, taking brief notes alongside the timeline of works
Slow down at long nineteenth-century sentences: grasp the paragraph's main point first, then revisit the details

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book written by Dickens himself?

No. This is a critical biography of Dickens written by the English scholar Sir Adolphus William Ward; it is a later study of Dickens, not a novel or autobiography by Dickens. Project Gutenberg provides the public-domain electronic text of this book.

Can I read this book without having read any Dickens novels?

You can, but you will get less out of it. The book discusses specific works and their creative background at length, and if you know nothing of major works such as The Pickwick Papers or David Copperfield, it can feel abstract. It is best to read at least one or two of his representative novels first.

What should I keep in mind when reading the electronic edition?

This is a public-domain English e-book, set mainly in plain text, and it may lack the index and illustrations of the print edition. Use reading software that supports dictionary lookup and annotation, and pay attention to chapter titles so you can jump between topics rather than reading straight through from beginning to end.

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About the author

Ward, Adolphus William, Sir, 1837-1924 Author · British · 1837–1924

Sir Adolphus William Ward (1837–1924) was a British historian and literary scholar who served as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He devoted himself to the study of English literature and drama history and wrote a history of English dramatic literature, exerting influence in the fields of literary and dramatic history. His representative works are Chaucer and Dickens, both of which focus on classic English writers and reflect his overall grasp of their lives and works. Public information is limited, making it difficult to describe the details of his life in full, but judging from the works available, his writing combines historical research with literary criticism and offers a reference for later studies of English literature.