The Essential Chaplin

At age twenty-eight, Charlie Chaplin was a millionaire and one of the world's most famous personalities. He had grown rich playing the poorest of men. He was to go on playing unforgettable characters in timeless films, but now the psychology of celebrity began both to drive and to damage his creativity. Richard Schickel, the distinguished film critic, has called Chaplin the first victim of modern celebrity culture, “driven by his relentless ego, by his helpless need for an audience to dominate, to lead. All the tragedies of his life stemmed from those drives and needs.” Mr. Schickel is the rarest of Chaplin enthusiasts, an unabashed fan who can celebrate the object of his affection without looking away when his subject deserves a poking. In this indispensable collection of some thirty essays, he has selected the most provocative and insightful criticisms of Chaplin's life and work, from the great comedian's beginnings through his early features, his mid-life crisis, and his late films. The contributors include Andrew Sarris, David Thomson, Andre Bazin, Gilbert Seldes, Alistair Cooke, Frances Hackett, Robert E. Sherwood, Stark Young, Penelope Gilliatt, Edmund Wilson, Stanley Kauffmann, Alexander Woollcott, George Jean Nathan, Winston Churchill, Max Eastman, Graham Greene, Otis Ferguson, James Agee, Dwight Macdonald, Robert Warshow, Walter Kerr, J. Hoberman, and others. Mr. Schickel, the last critic to study Chaplin intensively (for his award-winning documentary of a year ago), offers a long Introduction.

“"[These] essays...deserve ongoing recommendation and mention for any Chaplin fan, whether newcomer or seasoned."”

The Essential Chaplin stresses the significance of Charlie’s oeuvre and directs the audience to its most hilarious films. The Wall Street Journal
A wonderfully put-together overview of Chaplin's life and art. -- Ina Hughes News-Sentinel
[An] intrinsically valuable new anthology. -- Scott Eyman The New York Observer
A fascinating compilation...For fans, this book is a must; it is also valuable as a study of expository and critical writing. -- Dana Cobern-Kullman Library Journal
Collectively...insightful and thorough....this volume is a must CHOICE
The best pieces in this collection...are the ones that leaven admiration with healthy cynicism. -- Marc Weingarten Los Angeles Times
One of the finest English-language pieces on Chaplin ever written....The seminal text on the comedian. -- Jim Hempill American Society of Cinematographers
The book's best feature is its organized cacophony, its trace of this astonishingly long and rich body of work and personal travail....There is much to savor in these essays. -- Robert Jackson, Professor of Political Science, Florida State University Virginia Quarterly Review
Midwest Book Review
"Nearly thirty essays from film critic Richard Schickel deserve ongoing recommendation and mention for any Chaplin fan, whether newcomer or seasoned...an analysis of genius and methods rather than films alone, and one which holds up well against movie reviewer surveys or biographies alone." California Bookwatch

Richard Schickel, longtime film critic for Time magazine, also contributes regularly to the Los Angeles Times. He has written biographies of Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando, James Cagney, D. W. Griffith, Cary Grant, and Walt Disney, as well as Matinee Idylls, The Men Who Made the Movies, Intimate Strangers, Woody Allen, and a memoir, Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip. His most recent book is a highly praised biography of Elia Kazan. He lives in Los Angeles.

The most important criticism of the great comedian's work, including pieces by Andrew Sarris, David Thomson, Gilbert Seldes, Alistair Cooke, Robert E. Sherwood, Stark Young, Edmund Wilson, Stanley Kauffmann, Alexander Woollcott, George Jean Nathan, Max Eastman, Robert Warshow, Water Kerr, and James Agee. Richard Schickel, one of our outstanding film critics, has written a long introduction. Praise for Schickel's Chaplin documentary: An invaluable critic and historian.... Schickel's film...is like a course in cultural history taught by a witty, slightly dyspeptic professor.-A. O. Scott, New York Times

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