Dickens and Prince: The joyous and illuminating biography of two creative geniuses from the award winning author of Fever Pitch and About a Boy Paperback – 2 Nov. 2023

My wife is currently reading this. As she adores Dickens and Prince this was a perfect game ft!

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.

An excellent and interesting book from one of very best writers

It's a very short book and talks about Dickens and Prince. Some interesting bits but no attempt to link them really, except as artists admired by the author.

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...

Perfect condition, great writing

In all honesty, there was no reason for this book to be written. In fact, I have to believe if Mr. Hornby hadn’t already been a successful author, this never would have seen print. I can’t say I would have missed it but, having read it, I must admit to finding some pleasures in it.This book purports to be a comparison of similarities in genius between Charles Dickens and Prince, an unexpected mash-up to be sure. Frankly, I am such a fan of Dickens that I read almost anything about him. I’m not really a Prince fan. On the other hand, it is one of those memorable moments of my youth that Purple Rain was the first rated R movie I ever saw. And, of course, on couldn’t be a teen in the eighties without hearing his music. So, when I heard about this book, I was willing to give it a try.To be fair, Mr. Hornby finds a great number of connections between the lives and careers of these two seeming disparate people. They both were brought up poor, found their métier quite young, became hugely successful, and were extraordinarily prolific. Once pointed out, it almost seems too obvious. And yet, little of critical interest comes from these points. There was only one chapter that is really interesting and insightful: his chapter on the movies. He makes the very piquant point that the work of both Dickens and Prince is generally misunderstood because of the very successful movies made of there work. In Dickens’ case, the musical Oliver! distorts the social commentary and challenges of his work while the hits of Purple Rain put a pop sheen over an artist who was mainly experimental.Ultimately, I don’t think there’s enough here to make it a really great book; and yet, it reads much as a longish essay. For the time it takes to read, it offers some fun to fans of Dickens and Prince. It might even make fans of the other for fans of one. So, why not?

I would have never put these two people together in any conceivable setting. This was recommended in a book discussion I'm a part of, and otherwise, I wouldn't have known or wanted to read this. The study of the two is fascinating, and the comparisons between them aren't ones I would have immediately been aware of.The archetype of the successful creative who continues to find ways and reasons to struggle is familiar. These career paths are notorious for their tenuous qualities. The book doesn't offer any surprises about that. I think I would have liked to be more surprised than I was.

Here is my favorite book of 2022. I began reading it not as a fan of Dickens or Prince (I'm not well versed in either) but of Nick Hornby, who clearly is incapable of writing anything boring. I finished it already knowing that I had not enjoyed a new book (nonfiction or otherwise) this thoroughly, or consumed one this rapidly, since...well, since the last Nick Hornby book came out. Its subject is creativity as much as it is the two men whose lives parallel each other in so many interesting and unlikely ways, and the case it makes--that great art can be made by "people of any background, and of any age, in any circumstance"--is persuasive and compellingly argued. My favorite passage (or one of them): "Every time someone tells us that creativity is hard, rare, precious, in accessible, or needs treating with suspicion, just remember the twenty-five-year-old who could write two massive, brilliant novels at once. He was Inimitable, I know, but contemplating the apparent ease of his inimitability can't help but loosen one up." Grade: A+