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March 2012, no. 339

Open Page with Peter Conrad
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Why do you write?

It’s the one thing I know how to do. I could never catch a ball when I was a kid, couldn’t balance on a bike, can’t drive a car – not to mention other inadequacies. It’s a relief to think that I have one area of competence, relatively speaking.

Are you a vivid dreamer?

My specialty is ghastly nightmares. In order to dream, I’d probably need to sleep more hours than I usually manage. I hate the sight of the digital clock announcing three a.m.

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Why do you write?

It’s the one thing I know how to do. I could never catch a ball when I was a kid, couldn’t balance on a bike, can’t drive a car – not to mention other inadequacies. It’s a relief to think that I have one area of competence, relatively speaking.

Are you a vivid dreamer?

My specialty is ghastly nightmares. In order to dream, I’d probably need to sleep more hours than I usually manage. I hate the sight of the digital clock announcing three a.m.

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Evelyn Juers reviews Charles Dickens: A life by Claire Tomalin and Becoming Dickens: The invention of a novelist by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
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Contents Category: Literary Studies
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Article Title: The burdens and genius of Charles Dickens
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This is how Claire Tomalin closes her Dickens biography: ‘He left a trail like a meteor, and everyone finds their own version of Charles Dickens’, followed by a long list of types. I consider Dickens the surrealist, or the sentimentalist, but then I pick Dickens the tireless walker. And I concede, with Tomalin, that regarding his life and work, ‘a great many questions hang in the air, unanswered and mostly unanswerable’.

Book 1 Title: Charles Dickens
Book 1 Subtitle: A life
Book Author: Claire Tomalin
Book 1 Biblio: Viking, $39.95 hb, 574 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 1 Readings Link: https://www.booktopia.com.au/charles-dickens-claire-tomalin/book/9780141036939.html
Book 2 Title: Becoming Dickens
Book 2 Subtitle: The invention of a novelist
Book 2 Author: Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Book 2 Biblio: Harvard University Press, $39.95 hb, 389 pp
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This is how Claire Tomalin closes her Dickens biography: ‘He left a trail like a meteor, and everyone finds their own version of Charles Dickens’, followed by a long list of types. I consider Dickens the surrealist, or the sentimentalist, but then I pick Dickens the tireless walker. And I concede, with Tomalin, that regarding his life and work, ‘a great many questions hang in the air, unanswered and mostly unanswerable’.

Read more: Evelyn Juers reviews 'Charles Dickens: A life' by Claire Tomalin and 'Becoming Dickens: The...

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Contents Category: Poem
Custom Article Title: 'After Devotion', a new poem by Annamaria Weldon
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1

The far margin of wintering wetlands,
mist before sunrise. Outside my window
a rock parrot is perched on its fence-post.

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After Devotion

Annamaria Weldon

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Contents Category: Poem
Custom Article Title: 'Provenance', a new poem by Gareth Robinson
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Taking note might prompt some things:
look! Even a colon finds correlation
with the eyes of Hoji’s frog, and the king’s.

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Provenance

Gareth Robinson

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