Reviews for The Crayon Miscellany

The average rating for The Crayon Miscellany based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-01-04 00:00:00 Todd Brekke In a series entitled 'Pocket Biographies', Catherine Peters does superbly in telling the story of Charles Dickens in just over 100 pages. Every important detail is present, nothing is skimped as the whole panoply of his life is adequately covered. Obviously set out chronologically Dickens goes from the unhappy young boy to a troubled worker in a blacking factory, through newspaper reporting to become the world famous Boz and when the sixth issue of the monthly 'Pickwick Papers' came out Bozomania very definitely took over. Thereafter he lived a colourful life, well portrayed by the author, with highs and lows. His visit to America in the early 1840s caused him much strife, his rather public break up with his wife Kate also caused much heartache. But there were also the thrill of being England's most popular novelist, the adulation he received from his public readings, which ultimately contributed significantly to his early death, and the pleasure he got from his amateur theatricals ... plus, of course, the enjoyment of his last love Ellen Ternan. For anyone who does not want to plough through Philip Acroyd's mammoth biography (and there is nothing wrong with that), this is an ideal, and less demanding, alternative.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-07-11 00:00:00 Ryan Batty A succinct autobiography of the author Charles Dickens. Catherine Peters does an excellent job of highliting the important elements to Dickens's life. I enjoyed that Peters made the connections between real people in Dickens life and some of the characters that he created. I was unaware that dickens had such a troubled childhood yet he overcame and became a literary master of his time. If you watch the film, the man who invited Christmas this book will make so much sense.