"Dickens," Mr. G. K. Chesterton has written, "is as individual as the sea and as English as Nelson." The author of this biography has found no better excuse than this for writing another book about him. Dickens was a writer apart and the novelist of the lettered and of the unlettered. The man at the street corner who has hardly heard of Thackeray knows all about Sam Weller and Mrs. Gamp. This is the glory of Dickens In the pages of this book the author has retold, briefly and simply, the events of his life, summarized his " cheery, gladsome message," and endeavoured to suggest the particular value and significance of each of his principal books.