The Baker's Tale: Ruby Spriggs and the Legacy of Charles Dickens

Thomas Hauser

Des 2015 · Catapult

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An evocative historical novel that explores the rising influence of Dickens's work in mid–19th century London through the journey of a young woman's struggle against poverty and injustice.

In the winter of 1836, a young journalist named Charles Dickens held an infant in his arms. Only eight months of age, Ruby Spriggs was living under the most deplorable conditions that existed in London. Crushing poverty seemed her only future.

Through the intervention of kind patrons, the child blossoms into a young woman instilled with a love of learning and books. But the forces that Dickens fought against for most of his life threaten to destroy her.

At the heart of The Baker's Tale is Ruby Spriggs; Edwin Chatfield, the young man who would be her lover; Alexander Murd, the scheming coal baron who would destroy them; Abraham Hart, a dwarf who befriends Ruby in a faraway land; and Octavius Joy, a 19th–century philanthropist cut from unique cloth.

Meticulously researched and masterfully told, The Baker's Tale recreates the voice of beloved author Charles Dickens in gorgeous prose brimming with the atmosphere of historical London. It's a gripping tale of obsession, corruption, hope, and love instilled with the unequaled passion of Dickens's social conscience.

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Thomas Hauser is the author of forty–seven books on subjects ranging from professional boxing to Beethoven. His first novel Missing was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the National Book Award, and was the basis for the Academy–Award–winning film starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. He wrote Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times – the definitive biography of the most famous man on earth – which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Hauser has written extensively about the sport and business of professional boxing and has published articles in in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other publications. He is currently a consultant to HBO and lives in Manhattan.