Knowra John Forster John Forster John Forster (1812–1876) was an English biographer, literary critic, and close friend of Charles Dickens. His biography of Dickens drew on extensive personal knowledge and access to the novelist’s papers.
Charles Dickens : An English novelist whose works include Oliver Twist , David Copperfield , and Great Expectations . Forster’s closest literary friendship and his major biographical subject.
The Life of Charles Dickens : John Forster’s three-volume biography of Charles Dickens, published from 1872 to 1874. Forster’s defining work, based on intimate knowledge and Dickens’s papers.
Victorian biography : A nineteenth-century form of life writing shaped by documentary research, moral judgment, and literary reputation. Forster’s work exemplifies the period’s blend of personal testimony and documentary evidence.
Dickens's will : The legal document recording Charles Dickens’s final instructions for his estate and family. Forster’s close involvement with Dickens extended into the handling of his affairs after death.
William Makepeace Thackeray : An English novelist and satirist best known for Vanity Fair . A fellow Victorian novelist in Forster’s literary and social circle.
The Life of Oliver Goldsmith : John Forster’s biography of the eighteenth-century writer Oliver Goldsmith, published in 1848. An early major biography that established Forster’s reputation in literary biography.
Literary criticism : The analysis and evaluation of literary works, authors, and traditions. Forster’s critical work and biography both interpreted writers for a reading public.
Dickens House Museum : A museum in London preserving the former home of Charles Dickens at 48 Doughty Street. The biographical legacy Forster helped establish later informed the preservation of Dickens’s life and work.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton : An English novelist, playwright, and politician whose works include The Last Days of Pompeii . Forster’s friend and fellow literary figure, later connected to Dickens’s theatrical work.
The Life of Walter Savage Landor : John Forster’s biography of the English writer Walter Savage Landor, published in 1869. It shows Forster applying his biographical method to another contemporary literary figure.
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