Book description
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NICK HORNBY
John Harmon returns to England after years in exile to claim his
inheritance: a great fortune and a beautiful young woman to whom he is
betrothed, but has never met. When Harmon's body is pulled out of the
Thames, all of London is fascinated by the mystery of the murdered man
and his unclaimed riches. Scavengers, social-climbers, lawyers and
teachers, a money-lender and a dolls-dressmaker, men and women both
honest and villainous, will all become embroiled in this tale of love
and obsession, death and rebirth.
Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Landport in
Portsmouth. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office who often
ended up in financial trouble. When Dickens was twelve years old he was
sent to work in a shoe polish factory because his father had been
imprisoned for debt. In 1833 he began to publish short stories and
essays in newspapers and magazines. The Pickwick Papers, his first
commercial success, was published in 1836, the same year that he married
Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837 while
The Pickwick Papers was still running. Many other novels followed and
Dickens became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. He also set up
and edited the journals Household Words (1850-9) and All the Year Round
(1859-70). Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870 leaving his last novel,
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster
Abbey.
