This recent contribution (2010) by noted biographer Claire Tomalin gives equal time to Dickens' admirable traits and his failings, while thoroughly chronicling his childhood, his life as a young adult before his success as an author, and his journey to fame, as well as his years as the most well known man in England. Tomalin also provides an informed discussion of Dickens' relationship with Nelly Ternan, the young actress believed to have been his mistress, about whom Tomalin wrote an earlier (1991) biography.
