Charlie Chaplin and His Times

By: Kenneth S. Lynn

Narrated by: Adams Morgan

With the psychologically penetrating insight that marked his award-winning Hemingway, Kenneth Lynn probes beneath the mystique of the "Little Tramp", the first truly worldwide celebrity. This landmark, full-scale biography reveals the inner man whose unmatched comic genius masked a complex, sometimes tragic life.

Lynn delves into Chaplin's childhood and family, his often controversial relationships with four wives and a slew of mistresses, and his associations with British music-hall impresario Fred Karno and silent-screen star and pal Douglas Fairbanks. He addresses Chaplin's political influences and convictions, and brings a keen, critical intelligence to the meaning of the films, illuminating Chaplin's elusive genius.

©1997 Kenneth S. Lynn (P)1997 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Kenneth S. Lynn...has produced an enormous, often fascinating, prodigiously researched book that goes off in all directions in search of the man behind the myth." (The New York Times)
"Chaplin's life is truly an enormous subject...and Lynn does a magisterial job of knitting it all together, allowing Chaplin to emerge as fresh and evocative as the Little Tramp in his first incarnation." (Booklist)
"Lynn deftly interweaves Chaplin's life with the events and personalities of his era....Lynn has done meticulous research....All a biography should be, this is enthusiastically recommended." (Library Journal)

Good book lots of Information.

What did you love best about Charlie Chaplin and His Times?

The writer gives a great deal of detail quoting a number of other books and how they differ in information and structure, this is a good book if you wanted to find out something about the man and his life.

What did you like best about this story?

A great deal of detail but never boring.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

too long for one sitting

Flawed by bias

This book may be worthwhile because the subject is so interesting, and there is no other biography available at Audible.com. It is flawed (as other reviews point out,) by the author's extreme right-wing bias and apparent dislike for his subject. Chaplin's politics were na?ve and sentimental and like a lot of people on the left at the time he refused to see the evil of the Soviet Union. His biographer on the other hand refuses to see the evil of McCarthyism. The author's done his research; the facts of Chaplin's life are in the book. The narrator is good. But to enjoy the book - if you're not Rush Limbaugh, you'll have to do a lot a filtering to neutralize the writer's bias. Chaplin deserves better.

Great Book

It seems the author has a growing distaste for Charlie Chaplin, and especially his politics as the book goes on. This is a good thing. CC was not at all an angel. A sycophant may have varnished over the unpleasantness. Lynn goes into full tilt sneer mode concerning Chaplin in the MacCarthy era. Also good because one gets the full measure of contempt the United States felt for Charlie at this time. Then back to pro Charlie in the last part of the book. Just like the country was. Also lots of peripheral classic hollywood lore.

It's Chaplin!

I've read My Autobiography and others, this book is really good. Chaplin was a player, sure, but why get all bent on that. This is a great book about one of the fathers of comedic cinema, a person that inspired the guys who inspired the guys that probably inspired the guys that inspired you. Old Hollywood at it's best, and there isn't much by way of film history on audio books.

nothing new under the sun.

okay, so he was a horrible father, had an unhealthy appetite for underage women and believed in a political philosophy with a death count that makes hilter look like a sunday school teacher. so what, he made great movies so, all is forgiven.. Hollywood has always been a shining beacon of morality i suppose.
Otherwise, great book, well documented very interesting. and the narrator was decent. well worth reading.