The Life of Charles Dickens: Volume One, 1812-42

John Forster’s The Life of Charles Dickens is the fount, the foundation stone of all subsequent Dickens’ biographies. Forster’s three volume work is a vivid and fascinating account of Dickens’ prodigiously productive and fascinating life. Wilkie Collins, the novelist, collaborator and close friend of Dickens observed: "The assertion that no letters addressed by Dickens to other old friends revealed his character so frankly and completely as his letters to Forster, it is not necessary to contradict. Volume One describes Charles Dickens’ life from his birth in 1812 to 1842, through the trials and tribulations of his childhood to his first tour of the United States of America. Greg Wagland narrates for Magpie Audio.