title: Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens
author:  Robert Gottlieb 
description: Just in time for fireside reading season, Gottlieb (Lives and Letters; Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhard) offers this intimate look into the family life of Charles Dickens, the World's Best Worst Father. Gottlieb profiles each of the 10 Dickens childrenseven sons and three daughters, one who died in infancyand includes a chapter on the scandalous possible existence of an 11th child, a son born to Ellen Ternan, Dickens's probable mistress. The book is divided into two separate, chronological sections delineated by Dickens's death in 1870, a structural choice that re-enacts the way in which Dickens held ultimate control over the life narratives of his children, and demonstrates just how large his shadow loomed as both an excellence-demanding father and a disappointment-doling ghost. Life was often bleak for the siblings, who were subject to Dickens's often brutal scrutiny and the life-altering decisions that followed. Gottlieb studs these portraits with artifacts ripe for happy discovery, including excerpts from personal letters and rare photographs. The results are fascinating but often tragic, with each Dickens baby born with more perceived brilliance than the last, only to grow up and reveal a fatal ordinariness to their father. This smart and accessible biography is written in a clever, conversational tone that radiates coziness during even the coldest moments, keeping the pages swiftly turning. (Nov.)
zlib_text: > _**Daddy’s**_  
  >  _ **Little Earner**_
  
  >  
  
  > _**Daddy’s**_  
  >  _ **Little Earner**_
  
  > A heartbreaking true  
  > story of a brave little girl’s  
  > escape from violence
  
  > MARIA LANDON
  
  > with
  
  > Andrew Crofts
  
  > > __
  
  > _To Glen_  
   _Love you and miss you always xx_
  
  ‘Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or
  gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the
  formation of the first link on one memorable day.’
  
  Charles Dickens – _Great Expectations_
  
  > _**introduction**_
  
    
  
  ‘Ria, you’re my favourite,’ Dad would tell me throughout my childhood. ‘All
  daddies love their little girls the best.’ I’d fill with pride at this
  announcement from my big, handsome, heroic father. I was his special one. My
  brother Terry might be Mum’s favourite but Dad loved me most and I’d have done
  anything to please him.
  
  Mum says that right from the start he boasted to all and sundry that he was
  going to train me to be ‘the best little prostitute o