Charlie Chaplin

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In this affectionate and probing biography - hailed widely as the definitive biography of this grand master of comedy - John McCabe has pieced together a magnificent portrait of this complex and elusive man.The previously published accounts of Charlie Chaplin's life - by himself and others - differ widely, and John McCabe has endeavoured to sift out the truth behind the endless legends, misconceptions and plain errors which have surrounded Chaplin's public and private odyssey. Drawing on many personal interviews with Chaplin's friends and contemporaries - including remarkable conversations with Stan Laurel, who knew Chpaplin in his formative years on the English music-hall stage - this is a warm and richly illuminating look at a true phenomenon of our times and an enormously complicated man who turned the straightforward craft of slapstick into an artform that astonished the world.