THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS—John Forster, Edited and Annotated by J. W. T. Ley—Doubleday Doran ($10). The standard dignified biography by Dickens' intimate friend is amplified, contradicted, completed, by 600 modern footnotes.
CHARLES DICKENS, A Biography From New Sources—Ralph Straus—Cosmopolitan ($4). Dickens the showman sketched with humor and sympathy.
THIS SIDE IDOLATRY, A Novel Based on the Life of Dickens—C. E. Bechhofer Roberts ("Ephesian")—Bobbs Merrill ($2.50). The faults and foibles of ''the Inimitable" show him less noble, less lovable, more humanly possible. Dickens lovers will chafe, disagree.
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