This specially edited shorter edition takes the reader into the life of one of the world's greatest writers. Here, Ackroyd attempts to peel away the mask of a man whose life was outwardly a picture of Victorian rectitude, but whose love life was as complicated (and unconventional) as any modern writer's.

Why should one half be free to live, while the other is doomed to watch silently from the sidelines? In this collection, the author leads us on a transformative journey through the liberating powers of the mind.