When his newest book is an utter flop, Charles Dickens' publishers offer an ultimatum: either he writes a Christmas book in a month, or they will call in his debts, and he could lose everything. On one of his long walks, he meets a young woman who might be just the muse he needs. Over the next few weeks, Eleanor Lovejoy propels Dickens on a Scrooge-like journey that tests everything he believes about generosity, friendship, ambition - and Christmas....

"From the bestselling author of Just Like You, High Fidelity, and Fever Pitch, a short, warm, and entertaining book about art, creativity, and the unlikely similarities between Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and modern American rock star Prince. Every so often, a pairing comes along that seems completely unlikely-until it's not. Peanut butter and jelly, Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un, ducks and puppies, and now: Dickens and Prince. Equipped with...

How did Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger happen to meet? Where was David Copperfield born, and what is Pip's real name? The answer to every question about Dickens' characters and their fates are revealed in this remarkable book. Subtitled "A Key to the Plots and Characters in the Tales of Charles Dickens," it was compiled in 1872 by a leading expert of the era and updated at the turn of the twentieth century. Readers on both sides of the Atlantic...

When Charles Dickens died in 1870, The Times of London successfully campaigned for his burial in Westminster Abbey, the final resting place of England's kings and heroes. Thousands flocked to mourn the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England. His books had made them laugh, shown them the squalor and greed of English life, and also the power of personal virtue and the strength of ordinary people. In his last years Dickens drew adoring...

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens — at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world — hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.
Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession...