Sidney Dark

One of the most charming sketches we've come across. Sidney Dark writes delightfully with rare perception and restraint of Canon Mackay, for over twenty-five years vicar of All Saints, Margaret Street, London. One of the great powers in the Church of England, Canon Mackay was such a quiet person where his own abilities and accomplishments were concerned that every Episcopalian will profit from the reading of this memoir. As a preacher and author, Mackay was well known but it was probably in his work with individuals, high and low, who came to him for help that he was most truly loved, his greatest powers were exercised, and his deep spiritual experience most appreciated.

When Charles Dickens died in 1870, The Times of London successfully campaigned for his burial in Westminster Abbey, the final resting place of England's kings and heroes. Thousands flocked to mourn the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England. His books had made them laugh, shown them the squalor and greed of English life, and also the power of personal virtue and the strength of ordinary people. In his last years Dickens drew adoring crowds, had met presidents and princes, and had amassed a fortune. Yet like his heroes, Dickens trod a hard path to greatness. His young life was overturned when his profligate father was sent to debtors' prison and Dickens was forced into harsh factory work--but this led to his remarkable eye for all that was absurd, tragic, and redemptive in London life. This biography gives full measure to Dickens's stature--his virtues both as a writer and as a human being--while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye.--From publisher description.