Frank'ly Dickens
A Pop Culture Myth Reinvents Itself
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About the Book
´Frank’ly Dickens´ is based on comparative stories taken from the lives of Charles Dickens and Frank Sinatra - two men who stand alone in popular culture in their respective representation of the century and the country that they lived in.
What was so “Frank” about Charles Dickens? Practically everything,as you’ll find out in this book,which leaves the reader wondering whether
Frank Sinatra really was Charles Dickens,or if they had merely lived the same myth, as the author claims.
Twenty years after PBS first aired the six-hour television series, ´The Power of Myth,´ with Joseph Campbell, the series remains one of PBS’s most popular reruns, with the subject of myth still captivating viewing audiences. This story of a shared myth between two famous men whose lives were, and increasingly continue to be, an open book, serves to remind us that we don’t always have to look to the ancient myths to gain insights into life. Charles Dickens and Frank Sinatra serve as perfect models of observation in demonstrating how myth operates in the universe in a span of two centuries. This blending of biography, history, and journalism with esoteric thought - all in the context of myth – makes the subject of this book a totally original one; a new myth created by the author to help us tune in to some of the lessons of the Cosmos.
"The idea of ´Frank’ly Dickens´ is brilliant and the execution is perfect:
Patricia Vinci writes American! Her story is clear and precise, breezy and bright. Best of all, she offers something original for all of us to think about and believe in. I loved it! "
- Cedric Charles Dickens
“Keen observation on the part of Ms. Vinci - who weaves a fascinating tale, while presenting inexplicable parallels in the lives of these two men - invites us to look at reality in a new way. Frank Sinatra would be complimented by this comparison to Charles Dickens. This shared myth theory is probably the most original thing written about the singer since his death.”
- Frank Waters, a former editor at
The New York Herald Tribune
and The New York Times
About the Author
Patricia Vinci is President of The Philadelphia Branch of The Dickens Fellowship - the first woman to be elected to that office in its 95-year history. She writes and lectures and has garnered some repute from previous work on the original subject of this book, by presenting a paper at the Hofstra University Sinatra Symposium in November of 1998. Subsequent articles on the subject have appeared in the February 1999 issue of Harper's Magazine, the August-September 1999 issue of Perfectly Frank: The Journal of the Sinatra Music Society. London, and the Summer 2004 issue of The Dickensian.