Chaplin: His Life And Art - Softcover

Robinson, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141977507 ISBN 13: 9780141977508

Publisher: Penguin, 2013

Synopsis

David Robinson's definitive and monumental biography of Charlie Chaplin, the greatest icon in the history of cinema, who lived one of the most dramatic rags to riches stories ever told.

Chaplin's life was marked by extraordinary contrasts: the child of London slums who became a multimillionaire; the on-screen clown who was a driven perfectionist behind the camera; the adulated star who publicly fell from grace after personal and political scandal. This engrossing and definitive work, written with full access to Chaplin's archives, tells the whole story of a brilliant, complex man.

David Robinson is a celebrated film critic and historian who wrote for The Times and the Financial Times for several decades. His many books include World Cinema, Hollywood in the Twenties and Buster Keaton.

'A marvellous book . . . unlikely ever to be surpassed' Spectator

'I cannot imagine how anyone could write a better book on the great complex subject . . . movingly entertaining, awesomely thorough and profoundly respectful' Sunday Telegraph

'One of the great cinema books; a labour of love and a splendid achievement' Variety

'One of those addictive biographies in which you start by looking in the index for items that interest you . . . and as dawn breaks you're reading the book from cover to cover' Financial Times

About this title

Review:

A marvellous book . . . unlikely ever to be surpassed (Spectator)

I cannot imagine how anyone could write a better book on the great complex subject . . . movingly entertaining, awesomely thorough and profoundly respectful (Sunday Telegraph)

One of the great cinema books; a labour of love and a splendid achievement (Variety)

One of those addictive biographies in which you start by looking in the index for items that interest you . . . and as dawn breaks you're reading the book from cover to cover (Financial Times)

From the Back Cover:

In just a few short years Charles Chaplin revolutionized the language of cinema and became the most universally loved performer of all time. But who was the man that dazzled and perplexed his adoring public? Perfectionist, playboy or workaholic? Spokesman for the poor playmate, of the international rich? Calculating or compassionate?

Only this definitive biography answers such contradictory and intriguing questions-the only one to be written with full access to the Chaplain archives-in which David Robinson provides a uniquely documented record of the working methods and extra-ordinary life of the mercurial genius of early cinema.

"An indispensable work for all concerned with the history of the cinema."
SUNDAY TIMES

"A classic piece of film biography which is also the fascinating story of a brilliant, perverse, courageous man, indisputably one of the great artists of the twentieth century"
LINDSAY ANDERSON, 'Tatler'

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0141977507
• ISBN 13: 9780141977508
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 1008