Customer Reviews

The Life and Times of Charlie Chaplin (Life and Times Series)

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Yes, I must be a die-hard Chaplin fan to have endured the reading of this muddled biography.

I don't remember reading such ineffective prose, filled with grammatical errors and oddities. More importantly, the sequence of events is all over the place, with little regard for the timeline - a serious problem for a biography. For example, the health condition of Charlie's mother is mentioned all over the place. The subject jumps from one paragraph to another, repeating the same thing, but out of order. It all feels somewhat amateurish, which is astonishing, because after googling these authors, I saw ample proof that these are in fact experienced writers!

Here's an example of confusing text (page 29): Instead of a clear "Such was Charlie's life from the age of eleven to thirteen," we read "Such was Charlie's life at the age of eleven (and twelve and thirteen)." Is it just me, or does this sound weird to you too? (Still 29): "Money, and the opportunities to make it, were never far from Chaplin's mind then and for the rest of his days."
There are many examples like that. Not all grammatically incorrect, but without natural flow, or just bizarre.

Ultimately, what bothers me the most is the sloppy work. There are too many references out there today to write a new book on Chaplin without offering something new to us, the readers. If I were bad spirited, I'd say this book was an opportunity to make a quick buck on the good name of a celebrity.

How stupid of me... of course!... That's what it was!