Changes

As a biography of Dickens, this short book makes an interesting read, and I was particularly grateful for the six-page chronology of his life which follows the final chapter. It does however leave a certain amount unexplained, in that the author speculates but is unable to put her finger on the exact causes of the estrangement between the author and his mother, then later with his wife. Nevertheless it reveals that he was a complex, many-sided character with perhaps unrealistic expectations (a case of ''too great expectations'', perhaps?) from those in his life. In this case, the artistic temperament of a creative yet restless soul evidently did not have the makings of a good and faithful husband. As the last sentence reads, ""''Charles Dickens would always have wanted more""''.