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    The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
    Unavailable
    The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
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    The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
    Ebook356 pages5 hours

    The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi

    By Charles Dickens

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Joseph Grimaldi (1778 - 1837), one of the greatest English clowns and pantomimes of all time, was born in London to an Italian ballet-master and a dancer in the theatre's corps-de-ballet. The death of Grimaldi's father when he was nine plunged the family into debt. He was introduced to the stage at the age of two and began performing at the Sadler's Wells theatre at the age of three. Grimaldi's fame as a pantomime clown was unequalled and he is credited as an innovator. He introduced the tradition of audience participation, of poking fun at spectators, and presented to the world in his performance as Joey, the modern clown as a central character. He was the original 'Clown Joey', the term 'Joey' being used to describe clowns since his day. Of his own name he punned 'I am grim all day - but I make you laugh at night!' Yet he died a poor and physically crippled man. A memorial service is held every year in Hackney on the first Sunday joined by hundreds of clowns from all over the world and followed by a show for children. In 1837 Charles Dickens, then twenty-five years old, was asked to 'tidy up' Grimaldi's autobiography. He ended up re-writing most of it and the result is a work comparable to Dickens's famous early successes, Sketches of Boz and The Pickwick Papers, both of which had appeared the year before.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPushkin Press
    Release dateAug 31, 2012
    ISBN9781908968586
    Unavailable
    The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.

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