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WATTS, ALAN S: : The Life and Times of Charles Dickens

LONDON.STUDIO EDITIONS LTD.,1991.

ISBN 1851706372.

UK,slim Qrto HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj - absence of publisher's price.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,monochrome subject's portrait photographic illustrated front panel of dw/dj with white lettering,black lettering to spine and b/w London Docks scenic view 19thC engraving illustration to rear panel; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present. Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain pale grey/blue cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked black ink printed letters to spine/backstrip,a black headband and immaculate plain white endpapers.UK,slim Qrto HB +dw/dj,1st edn,6-144pp [paginated] includes author's foreword,6 chapters,profusely illustrated with b/w+colour historical reproduction illustrations and contemporary b/w+colour photographs - over 250 illustrations - interspersed throughout the text and the book,2pp colour illustrated Dickensiana collectables,an index,plus [unpaginated] half-title,b/w vignetted title page,b/w vignetted contents list/table with subject's b/w portrait photographic frntis to its verso. A highly collected and prolific book author (Dickens),and an unusual,detailed and erudite biography of one of England's greatest writers and will be an important,welcome addition to the Dickens's canon. After Shakespeare,Dickens is surely the greatest name in English literature.His greatness lies not only in the uniqueness of his writing and in his phenomenal output,but also in that special quality of humour and pathos which has touched and delighted adult and child readers worldwide.Indeed,Dickens has greatly influenced other writers: Shaw,Wells (H.G), Joyce,Eliot and Dostoyevsky are among his host of admirers.Since his first literary success with the serialised 'Pickwick Papers' in 1836, when 'Pickwick-mania' abounded,Dickens's reputation as a first-rate fiction writer has remained undisputed. In 'The Life and Times of Charles Dickens',Alan Watts skilfully organises Dickens's literary career into three main periods - Early,Middle and Late - covering all fifteen major novels,the Christmas Books and his travel writings.With an initial chapter on Dickens's childhood,family life,and his bewildering number of houses,both at home and abroad,and a final chapter on Dickens's remarkable achievements,this is an absorbing and unique biography. Alan Watts not only summarises the plot of each novel,but discusses how the story developed,how the characters evolved.Individual chapters highlight the significance of the many disturbing social issues and upheavals in Victorian England.Each novel develops not only a general moral theme,but also attacks specific areas in society which Dickens knew were in dire need of reform and for which he fought, politically and creatively.His targets included the Poor Laws,the workhouses,child labour, prostitution,industrial pollution,and the cholera epidemic. Watts selects some of the most colourful and moving passages from the novels,letters, articles,and extracts from other writers' works. The reader acquires an acute sense of the pressures,often self-inflicted,under which Dickens worked.One learns of his travels abroad, his creative ventures and public readings.All this is amply and vividly illustrated by photographs,including stills from theatre and film productions,by paintings,prints,engravings, antique collectables and book illustrations. These include not only the imaginative and intricate sketches of 'Phiz' (H.K. Browne),the first and most famous,but also the colourful images of Cruickshank,Tenniel,Stone and countless others.All these varied images work with the text to convey perfectly and pertinently the passionate vision and satirical invention; how his own rather bleak childhood, the riots,revolutions,poverty and degradation outraged his conscience while feeding his creative imagination.The reader is left with an even greater affection for those immortal characters: Pickwick,Squeers,Quilp,the Jellybys, Micawbers and Fezziwigs,Nancy,Little Nell and Pip.'The Life and Times of Charles Dickens' offers fresh insight on an author whose marvellous gift for the tragic and comic has instructed the world on the strengths and frailties of the human condition. Alan S. Watts,a retired civil servant,is the current President of the Dickens Fellowship (then 1991),having been Honorary General Secretary for fourteen years previously.He has published one-act plays,articles on various subjects,'A Children's Introduction to Charles Dickens.'(1980),and 'Dickens at Gad's Hill.' (1989).His 'Confessions of Charles Dickens: A Very Factual Fiction.' was published in US in 1991. Want more DICKENS-related titles? For similar and other available titles use keywords: q52_Charles Dickens - or please search my BIOGRAPHY,GENERAL and SIGNED catalogues. Please contact seller,because of the weight/value of this item for correct, insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. 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UK,slim Qrto HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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