CHARLES

Charles"" in this instance is Charles Dickens, and the book is an impassioned personal recreation of the man and the writer in fictional form. Here is the boy, toy-theatre, family, school and all; here the young man susceptible to a pre-tense of gentility; here the beginning writer, the erratic husband, the rise from pot boiler to artist; here the many new beginnings that debt and financial pressures demanded. Dickens was a complex person, brimful of warmth and energy. This biographical novel may lead younger readers to Dickens' own books.