From the bestselling author of Just Like You, High Fidelity, and Fever Pitch, a short, warm, and entertaining book about art, creativity, and the unlikely similarities between Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and modern American rock star Prince
Every so often, a pairing comes along that seems completely unlikely–until it’s not. Peanut butter and jelly, Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un, ducks and puppies, and now: Dickens and Prince.
Equipped with a fan’s admiration and his trademark humor and wit, Nick Hornby invites us into his latest obsession: the cosmic link between two unlikely artists, geniuses in their own rights, spanning race, class, and centuries–each of whom electrified their different disciplines and whose legacy resounded far beyond their own time.
When Prince’s 1987 record Sign o’ the Times was rereleased in 2020, the iconic album now came with dozens of songs that weren’t on the original– Prince was endlessly prolific, recording 102 songs in 1986 alone. In awe, Hornby began to wonder, Who else ever produced this much? Who else ever worked that way? He soon found his answer in Victorian novelist and social critic Charles Dickens, who died more than a hundred years before Prince began making music.
Examining the two artists’ personal tragedies, social statuses, boundless productivity, and other parallels, both humorous and haunting, Hornby shows how these two unlikely men from different centuries “lit up the world.” In the process, he creates a lively, stimulating rumination on the creativity, flamboyance, discipline, and soul it takes to produce great art.
READ
5.0 out of 5 stars Just so good…
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2022
Verified Purchase
Like everyone growing up in the 80s-90s, I’d always been a little obsessed with Prince (although that word doesn’t seem fitting, given the descriptions of true obsessions in this book). And I’d read Great Expectations at school, and honestly nothing else. Then a few years ago, I stumbled on the Girl in the Blue Dress- (a sort of fictionalized, dramatized biography of Dickens as told by his ex-wife), and couldn’t get over what a character he was. So then I had to read everything else Dickens wrote (I mean, honestly, not everything, but more than Great Expectations). He wrote and published all these books a few pages at a time at an offensive rate- while he was fathering ten kids, and starting charities, and cheating with half of London, and walking twelve miles a day! So yes- Prince and Dickens are both geniuses.
I loved all the parallels between them- their horrible childhoods, their belief in themselves, their productivity, their weakness for women, their anger at the system, and their early deaths (and on and on). Hornby may push it sometimes to make a point- drawing a parallel between MTV videos and the serialization of stores in newspapers, or that Sign of the Times and Oliver Twist (if considered in dog years! ha!) were both put out into the world 38 years ago.
But what’s great is that Hornby also adds his own views- talking about his own experience as an author (he writes that he is closer to Dickens than Prince, but in the same way that he is closer to Mars than Saturn…which somehow seemed modest and not humble-bragging). Hornby wonders why they weren’t both just happy, but also acknowledges that maybe they didn’t have the tools to accept injustices.
As all of his books- it’s so easy to read, and so witty and intelligent, and I learnt a lot about the pair of them (and actually Hornby too).
My biggest gripe is that it was too damn short- maybe a two hour read. And now I have to wait another couple of years before another of his books comes out…
FallenÅngel
3.0 out of 5 stars If you like Charles dickens or/and Prince you’ll love it.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2022
As a huge fan of nick hornby and his previous books I was eagerly awaiting this book. I don’t like to read any summaries of what his books are about, I love the suspense but in this case I should have done my research. As neither a huge fan of prince or Charles dickens (they both were good at what they did, I don’t deny it), I should have probably bothered to find out what the book was about before I bought it. Instead I saw the name Nick Hornby and assumed that I’d like it because I’ve liked all his others.
The book was well written as are all his others but the subject matter didn’t interest me so I struggled reading it.
The same Nick Hornby spark and wit was there as it always is but the book wasn’t for me.
Nick Hornby is the author of the novels Dickens and Prince pdf Book, A Long Way Down, Slam, How to Be Good, High Fidelity, and About a Boy, and the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, Shakespeare Wrote for Money, and The Polysyllabic Spree, as well as the editor of the short-story collection Speaking with the Angel. He is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ E. M. Forster Award and the winner of the 2003 Orange Word International Writers’ London Award. Among his many other honors and awards, four of his titles have been named New York Times Notable Books. A film written by Hornby, An Education – shown at the Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim – was the lead movie at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival and distributed by Sony that fall. That same September, the author published his latest novel, Juliet, Naked to wide acclaim. Hornby lives in North London.
You Can get A Copy Of Dickens and Prince pdf Or Paperback By Nick Hornby from these online store links below.
A Hidden Heiress’s Rise Amidst Betrayal, Power, and Unforgiving Love A Story That Grabs You…
A Tangled Royal Twist of Revenge, Family Loyalty, and Unexpected Love A Story That Grabs…
A Story That Grabs You From the Start Have you ever yearned for a story…
Are you a fan of romance stories that mix love, betrayal, heartbreak, and redemption? Then…
The Humble Ex-Wife Is Now a Brilliant Tycoon by Flory Corkery is a sizzling romance…
Beneath His Ugly Wife’s Mask: Her Revenge Was Her Brilliance by Lukas Difabio Elliana Marsh…