Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

The many rival identities of Charles Dickens

He was a bundle of contradictions, especially in his treatment of women, as A.N. Wilson’s exceptional study shows

William Powell Frith’s portrait of Dickens, aged 47. Jane Carlyle said that his face seemed ‘as if made of steel’ (Getty Images)
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  • The Mystery of Charles Dickens

    A.N. Wilson

    Atlantic, pp. 368, £17

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