Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens

About this book

THE STRANGE AND VARIED LIVES OF THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLDS MOST BELOVED NOVELIST Charles Dickens famous for the indelible child characters he createdfrom Little Nell to Oliver Twist and David Copperfieldwas also the father of ten children (and a possible eleventh). Who those children were and what happened to them is the fascinating subject of Robert Gottliebs Great Expectations. With sympathy and understanding Gottlieb narrates the highly various and surprising stories of each of Dickenss sons and daughters from Katey who became a successful portraitist to Frank who died in Moline Illinois after serving a grim stretch in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; and from Sydney who joined the Royal Navy and was banned from Gads Hill for his ruinous behavior and died at sea at the age of twenty-five to Henry ("Sir Henry") a prominent jurist and paterfamilias who lived to be eighty-four. Each of these lives is fascinating on its own. Together they comprise a unique window into Victorian England as well as a moving and disturbing study of Dickens as a father and a man.