FICTION
Released: Sept. 1, 2001
"A tale of initially great but subsequently diminished expectations."
An ambitious first novel from short-fiction writer and editor Rackham—a multivoiced story of Charles Dickens's long affair with actress Ellen Ternan—offers a saucily imagined but uneven view of life behind the screen of Victorian propriety.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 1, 2000
"Still among the greatest of "crossover" writers, Dickens broadens the appeal of this most ancient of metaphors by casting it as a tale told by a child—and it positively begs to be read aloud. (Picture book. 9-11, adult)"
Chan (Music for the Tsar of the Sea, 1998, etc.) illustrates one of Dickens's lesser-known Christmas stories (in this case there's only a passing reference to the holiday) with lustrous, full-page scenes of figures in antique dress, slightly hazy as if viewed through a scrim, and moving through shadowy woods.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 1, 2000
"More colorful, if less scholarly, than The Annotated Christmas Carol (1989), this is not only well-suited to assignment-driven reading, but is likely to entice some new young fans into the Dickensian fold. (Fiction. 11+)"
Over 150 years old, it is no surprise that Dickens's classic tale is filled with details and references that have become obscure—and so, voila!
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FICTION
Released: Nov. 1, 1999
"Piety for mopheads."
CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 1, 1995
"Marks's storytelling skills are further demonstrated by the different sizes of the pictures, their distribution, and layout—on the whole, they evocatively conjure this hearty tale, and will send readers off to the original. (Picture book. 8-12)"
A more or less self-contained excerpt from the novel, in a creative abridgement done by Dickens for one of his public readings (Anthea Bell's afterword provides notes about these performances and the texts Dickens prepared for them).
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Aug. 1, 1993
"Brief bibliography (standard adult works; three books for young readers; 14 of Dickens's most familiar works). (Biography/Picture book. 8+)"
The authors follow their splendid Bard of Avon (1992, ALA Notable) with an equally handsome book on the beloved novelist.
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