Very nice render. I watched a biography of Dickens just a few weeks ago, on bravo or bio channel one, that portrayed him as being quite an ass, actually. I didn't catch the beginning that would have covered his childhood, but he had a wife that he didn't want anything to do with because she was fat and ugly, but he kept her well paid and taken care of, and in a house seperate from his. something about not letting his kids have much of anything to do with her either. then there was a sister who he was madly in love with, but not until she died at the age of 17. before then he hardly had anything to do with her and treated her more like a nusence. but she was the only one that admired and encouraged him to write. (i think she was quite a bit younger). the bio portrayed him as being quite a womanizer. there was one point when an old friend/crush from his teens/young adult days who wrote him wanting to come visit and for months leading up to it he was exstatic about it, until she actually got there and he found that she was no longer the stunning beauty he remembered her to be but instead had put on several pounds and grown ugly, so he pretty much kicked her out 5 minutes later, then wrote a book that featured a character similar to her, pretty much making fun of her. at one point early on he nearly lost his fame after taking a trip to new york for some book signings, etc, and when returning to england made some statements somewhere about how horrible he thought the states and the people in new york were and that he didn't plan on going back any time soon. apparently that rubbed some folks the wrong way. there was other points the bio brought up but overall it made him seem like quite an ass in person. I've never read much of his stuff. E.D.