THE RAG & BONE SHOP

At the height of his career Charles Dickens was the most beloved man in Victorian England. Constantly in the public eye, he was desperate to keep secret his affair with an eighteen year-old actress of the vaudeville stage, a secret successfully kept from the public for nearly 100 years. The Rag and Bone Shop is a novel of Charles Dickens's very real, but little known, excursion outside the bounds of Victorian morality; an engrossing tale that illuminates the warring demands of public propriety and private libertinism.

Jeff Rackham has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Portugal and Macedonia. In addition to publishing short fiction, he is the author of several scholarly collections and a standard college textbook on writing. This is his first novel.

Jeff Rackham has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Portugal and Macedonia. In addition to publishing short fiction, he is the author of several scholarly collections and a standard college textbook on writing. This is his first novel. He is a professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.