Reviewed by:

• The Mystery of Charles Dickens by A. N. Wilson
• Natalie McKnight (bio)

Many biographies of Charles Dickens have been published since his death, starting with John Forster's that came out between 1871–74 and continuing with the steady stream that has appeared in the last few decades (Peter Ackroyd's in 1991, Michael Slater's in 2009, Jane Smiley's and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's, both in 2011, and Claire Tomalin's in 2012, to name just a few). So it is natural when hearing of yet another book about Dickens's life to wonder what this one could possibly add to what has come before. Does this biographer have enough new material or a unique enough vision to make reading a new biography worthwhile? With A. N. Wilson's The Mystery of Charles Dickens, the answer to that question is decidedly yes.

To begin with, Wilson's book offers a unique structure and approach: it is less a typical biography and more a series of reflective essays on various mysterious aspects of Dickens's life, with chapters devoted to the mystery surrounding his death, the mystery of his childhood, the mystery of his marriage, as well as the mysteries surrounding his substantial charity, his wildly popular but probably fatal public readings, and the unfinished last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The final chapter of Wilson's book explores the mystery of Dickens's style and impact–how some readers (Larkin, for example) argue that Dickens barely deserves being considered a writer, let alone a great one, while others see him as the "last of the great mythologists and perhaps the greatest," as Chesterton wrote more than a hundred years ago. In this final chapter, Wilson provides an astute analysis and defense of Dickens's mythologizing and his powerful ability to move, transport and mesmerize readers–the "enchanter," to use Nabokov's appellation (196).

Wilson's original approach works well for the most part as it provides a compelling interpretive lens through which to view Dickens while always showing that the more one knows about the man the more mysterious he seems. "Every beating heart … is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it," Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities (Book 1, ch. 3), and that would be a fitting epigraph to this biography (as it is to The Invisible Woman, the 2013 film based on Claire Tomalin's book about Dickens's [End Page 97] mistress Ellen Ternan). The downside of the "mystery" approach is that it involves returning to certain subjects repeatedly–like Ellen, like the readings, like his death. But as these are fascinating topics, the repetition for the most part works well and makes for compelling reading; it certainly works better than a plodding chronological approach.

Wilson is hardly new to the subject of Victorian culture, of course. He has a deservedly excellent reputation for his biographies of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, and the compendium biography/history The Victorians, and the research he conducted for those books serves him well here. Wilson clearly knows the age broadly and deeply, and it turns out, he also knows Charles Dickens and his works remarkably well. One of the great strengths of the biography is his detailed knowledge not only of Dickens's fiction but his vast non-fiction as well. But what he offers in his discussions of Dickens's works goes beyond knowledge and understanding; Wilson clearly loves his subject and conveys a sense of gratitude for novels that helped him through dark times when he was a schoolboy. The passages where Wilson describes what Dickens meant to him when he was an abused youth–not unlike Oliver Twist, Smike, or David Copperfield–add a poignancy and immediacy that helps to explain Dickens's enduring attraction to readers far better than literary criticism often does. As Wilson reveals, "I had read and reread Dickens with obsessive rapture, beginning in a childhood of abject misery when his books, more than anything in the Bible or anything...

审核人：

• 查尔斯·狄更斯的奥秘由AN威尔逊
• 娜塔莉·麦克奈特（生物）

查尔斯·狄更斯去世以来，已经出版了许多传记，从约翰·福斯特（John Forster）于1871–74年间出版，一直到最近几十年出现的源源不断（彼得·阿克罗伊德（Peter Ackroyd）于1991年，迈克尔·斯拉特（Michael Slater）于2009年，简·西里（Jane Smiley）的和罗伯特·道格拉斯·费尔赫斯特（Robert Douglas-Fairhurst），分别于2011年和2012年的克莱尔·托马林（Claire Tomalin），仅举几例）。因此，当听到另一本有关狄更斯生平的书时，很自然地想知道这本书可能会增加以前的著作吗？这位传记作者是否拥有足够的新材料或独特的视野，以使阅读新传记值得？借助安·威尔逊（AN Wilson）的《查尔斯·狄更斯的奥秘》，该问题的答案肯定是。

首先，威尔逊的书提供了独特的结构和方法：它不是一部典型的传记，而是有关狄更斯一生中各个神秘方面的一系列反思性文章，其中章节围绕着他的去世之谜，童年之谜，他婚姻的奥秘，以及他慈善事业的奥秘，他广受欢迎但可能致命的公众读物，以及最后一部未完成的小说《埃德温·德罗德之谜》。威尔逊这本书的最后一章探讨了狄更斯的风格和影响力的奥秘-一些读者（例如拉金）如何认为狄更斯几乎不值得被视为作家，更不用说一个伟大的作家了，而其他人则把他视为“最后的作家”。伟大的神话学家，也许是最伟大的神话学家。”正如切斯特顿（Chesterton）一百多年前写的那样。在最后一章中，威尔逊对狄更斯的神话化以及他利用纳博科夫的称呼来移动，运送和迷住读者的“附魔”的强大能力进行了精辟的分析和辩护（196）。

威尔逊的原始方法在大多数情况下效果很好，因为它提供了一种引人入胜的解释镜头，可以通过它查看狄更斯，同时始终表明人们对这个人的了解越多，他看上去就越神秘。狄更斯在《两个城市的故事》（第1章，第3章）中写道：“每一次跳动的心……在某些想像中，都是离它最近的心的秘密。”就像2013年的《看不见的女人》一样，该电影改编自克莱尔·托马林（Claire Tomalin）关于狄更斯的著作[[第97页]]情妇埃伦·特南（Ellen Ternan）。“神秘”方法的弊端在于，它涉及到反复地回到某些主题上，例如爱伦（Ellen），喜欢读书，喜欢他的死亡。但是，由于这些都是有趣的主题，因此重复在大多数情况下效果很好，并能使阅读更具吸引力。它肯定比按时间顺序排序的方法更好。

当然，威尔逊对维多利亚时代的文化主题并不陌生。他因其维多利亚女王的阿尔伯特亲王传记和简史传记/ 《维多利亚时代》而享有应有的声誉。，而他为这些书籍所做的研究在这里对他很有帮助。威尔逊清楚而广泛地了解了这个年龄，事实证明，他也非常了解查尔斯·狄更斯和他的作品。这本传记的长处之一就是他不仅对狄更斯的小说有深入的了解，而且对他的大量非小说也有深入的了解。但是他在讨论狄更斯的作品时所提供的不仅仅是知识和理解。威尔逊显然热爱他的学科，并表达了对帮助他度过黑暗时期的小说的感激之情。威尔逊描述受虐青年时狄更斯对他的含义的段落（与奥利弗·特威斯，斯米克或大卫·科波菲尔不同）增加了凄美和直率，这有助于解释狄更斯的 它对读者的持久吸引力远胜于文学批评通常所具有的吸引力。正如威尔逊所揭示的那样：“我从小就被狄更斯迷住了，他从小就遭受痛苦，那时他的书比圣经或其他任何东西都多...