Two centuries after his birth, Charles Dickens remains a beloved author whose works seem timeless--yet if ever a man was the product of his times, it was he. The virtues and vices of the Victorian Age Dickens so memorably set forth mirrored his own life, from his poverty-stricken childhood to his dizzying rise to fame.  In The World of Charles Dickens, eminent scholar Martin Fido traces that complex and fascinating history in all its drama, tragedy, and triumph.