There are surely many things to be gained from becoming one of the world’s great authors: fame, influence, earthly immortality, possible (though not inevitable) wealth. But there are disadvantages as well. The trouble with becoming a great author is that one almost always gets put on a pedestal. And then, explains British historian and cultural critic Peter Conrad, one has “no defense against … appropriation.” Great authors, because of their unquestioned greatness, are safe authors. We tend to stow them away in a mental cubbyhole as inoffensive, the kind of authors who – to quote one of them – could “never bring a blush to the cheek of a young person.” They are tamed into “national treasures,” commercial enterprises, providers of innocuous gifts to be ceremoniously bestowed on politicians on state occasions. Conrad is especially put out to see this fate visited on Charles Dickens.

Peter Conrad’s Dickens the Enchanter paints a portrait of the great storyteller in all his bizarre glory.