"What was it like to be Charles Dickens? His letters are the nearest we can get to a Dickens autobiography: vivid, close-up snapshots of a life lived at maximum intensity. This is the first selection to be made from the magisterial twelve-volume British Academy Pilgrim Edition, which contains over 14,000 of Dickens's letters. The 450 letters included here have been cherry-picked to give readers the best essence of the 'Sparkler of Albion'"-- Book jacket.