With his trademark bowler hat, baggy trousers, and impertinent mustache, the Little Tramp dazzled audiences and catapulted Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) to an incendiary degree of fame and international iconography. This astute biography of Chaplin’s life and times delves into his childhood, career, and often controversial relationships with four wives and a slew of mistresses to illuminate his elusive genius and cinematic output, as well as his sometimes reprehensible personal behavior.