Charles Dickens belongs to an exclusive literary club: he was immensely popular when he was alive, and his work has never fallen out of fashion. His books have been in print for over 140 years, and are widely read and admired every day, the world over. This book features facts and photos, stills, and cartoons of this writer.

Part 1 - The Inimitable Icon; "Life with Father"; What Gets Blacked in a Blacking Factory?; Dickens's Bookshelf; Sidebar: Dickens's Favourite Books; From the Gallery - Dickens's work as a Parliamentary reporter; Sidebar: A Short Look at Shorthand; "I'll Never Stop Saying Maria"--rejection by Maria Beadnell; Capsule: Sketches by Boz (1836); The Boz Style; Capsule: The Pickwick Papers (1836); Men with Pens: Dickens's Illustrators; Part 2 continues a Virtual Walking Tour to places associated with Dickens's life and work; Includes Capsules on Life and Adventures of Nichloas Nickleby (1830), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), Barnaby Rudge (1841); "Who Was Gordon and Why Did He Riot?" anti-Catholicism in Dickens's Day; Capsule: Martin Chuzzlewit (1844); Sidebar: A Dickens's Crossword Puzzle; Part 3 continues the Walking Tour and includes Capsules of David; Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, et al.; Sidebar: Dickens and W. C. Fields; Sidebar: Dickens in Nighttown; Was Dickens a Liberal or a Conservative?; Sidebar: Dickens on Film; "Diagnosis Exhaustion" A look at the medical reasons for Dickens's death at the relatively early age of 58; Dickens's Literary Descendents; (This is a truncated description, leaving much out, but providing a good sense of this book.).

The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companions are concise, witty, and often unexpected takes on the great authors and other figures who are seemingly all around us, like the air we breathe. Perfect for reading or browsing, for the general reader, for the beginning as well as the advanced student, the Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companions include plot summaries (no giveaways for the mystery writers!), biographical information, puzzles, posters, film stills, maps, Web sites, international clubs and societies, and more. Stylish, lavishly illustrated, and imaginatively structured, the Bedside Companions currently include volumes on Agatha Christie (more than 400,000 copies sold in two editions), Sherlock Holmes, and Shakespeare. Beginning in spring 2007, future Bedside Companions from Continuum International--many by journalists, novelists, and academic authorities (who wear their learning lightly) representing a true "hands-across-the-ocean" approach--are Frankenstein, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury, Dickens, The Brontes, Oscar Wilde, Dracula, and Jane Austen. Some of the volumes will include forewords by renowned figures associated with the respective subjects.