In 1837, the twenty-five-year-old Charles Dickens was asked to "tidy up" the autobiography of Joseph Grimaldi, one of the greatest English clowns and pantomimes of all time. The task was so laborious that he ended up redrafting and rewriting most of it.

In 1837, the twenty-five-year-old Charles Dickens was asked to "tidy up" the autobiography of Joseph Grimaldi, one of the greatest English clowns and pantomimes of all time. The task was so laborious that he ended up redrafting and rewriting most of it. The result was a work comparable to Dickens' famous early successes, such as "Sketches of Boz" and the "Pickwick Papers", both of which appeared the year before.Although the book is widely cited and included in Dickens' complete works, there are currently no other editions in print of this unique work by the most popular and best-loved English Victorian writer.