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Charles Dickens

Dickens' Bicentenary 1812–2012; In Association with the Charles Dickens Museum, London
by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley
Charles Dickens: Dickens' Bicentenary 1812–2012; In Association with the Charles Dickens Museum, London. Insight Editions, dist. by PGW. 2011. 124p. index. ISBN 9781608870523. $39.99. LIT
COPY ISBN
This volume, combining the fun of a historical scrapbook with an eloquent and detailed overview of Dickens's life and works, is by the great, great granddaughter of his son Henry. Cozy and welcoming though the oversize presentation is, this should not be mistaken for a simplistic book. Hawksley celebrates not only Dickens the novelist, but also the crusading journalist, reformer, and avid traveler, while also acknowledging the man who publicly left his wife, took the children with him, and had a clandestine affair with a much younger woman. None of this is new information, but it's elegantly handled. Chronological chapters on the novels are interspersed with thematic ones such as "Dickens and Detectives."
VERDICT Unfortunately, owing to its removable facsimiles of Dickens ephemera, this book is better for gift giving than library circulation. Highly recommended to new and veteran Dickens fans.
Reviewed by Margaret Heilbrun , Feb 15, 2012
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