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Article: `Charles Dickens: A Penguin Life,' `James Madison,' `Santa Anna: A Curse Upon Mexico,' `Invisible Giants: Fifty Americans Who Shaped the Nation but Missed the History Books'.(The Dallas Morning News)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- August 14, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Brief is better (or at least, more profitable) seems to be the new battle cry in biographies, and three publishers are offering lines of concise profiles.
``Charles Dickens: A Penguin Life'' by Jane Smiley; Viking Books ($19.95)
As noted American novelist Jane Smiley points out in this slender biography (212 pages), Charles Dickens was the first novelist to be a public celebrity. His writing of novels first for serial magazines, then in book form, prefigures TV's soap operas. He also moved the novel to urban settings.
The outlines of his life are well known. Born in 1812, he was forced to work in a shoe polish factory at the age of 12 because ...