"The Friendly Dickens helps you turn the pages of a masterpiece like David Copperfield or an "obscure" novel like Nicholas Nickleby as eagerly as you switch channels." "Norrie Epstein - whose The Friendly Shakespeare was called "spirited, informative and provocative" by The New York Times - strips away the polite veneer of Victorian society to reveal Dickens's life and times in all their squalor and glory, from his childhood days toiling in a blacking...