Charles Dickens, 1812-1870
 |
Charles Dickens was one of the great figures in English
literature and has maintained his popularity to the present day because of his
breadth of appeal. Many of the characters he created have since passed into a
sort of modern mythology while many of his quotations have become part of
everyday language. His works have been translated into practically every
language and his novels have been adapted to plays, films, musicals, and so on.
Charles Dickens was one of the most popular writers of
his day as well. His unique blend of humour, pathos and humanitarianism resounds
throughout all his works, and made him wildly popular in his time. Over the
years he has received his fair share of praise, and today he is generally
regarded as a serious literary artist as well as a social analyst. His depiction
of Victorian society as being industrialized, greedy, and self important has
earned his a seat among the great morally and socially responsible writers of
history. |
Charles Dickens was born at Portsea on February 7, 1812.
His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and his mother was of middle class
origin. Dickens's earliest years were happy ones. He was considered a delicate
and imaginative boy, and spent much of his time wandering along the country of
the Thames and Medway estuaries. Indeed, this countryside was later to become
the setting of many scenes in his novels. He read Shakespeare, the Arabian
Nights, and many 18th Century novels he had found in his attic. At school he was
a quick learner and easily distinguished himself.
In 1822 the Dickens family relocated to London after his
father was transferred there. Charles had been left in Chatham to finish his
school term and later joined his family. When he arrived he found them living in
poverty. His father had run into financial difficulty, and now there was to be
no more schooling for Charles, only household chores. Now he roamed the London
streets, instead of the Thames and Medway estuaries. In February 1824 his father
was arrested for debts and taken to Marshalsea prison. Twelve year old Charles
was now sent to work in a blacking warehouse for a wage of six shillings a week
to support himself, as the rest of the Dickens family had relocated in the
Marshalsea. His father was released in May 1824, but let Charles continue
working for a few weeks more.
It was these months of humiliation and despair that were
to have a profound impact on Charles Dickens. It was this experience that
provided him with the relentless drive he was known for, and it was this
experience that inspired the creation of the suffering children and victims of
injustice so often found in his books.
Dickens studied for a few more years at Wellington House
Academy, and then at age fifteen he became an office boy at the law firm of
Ellis and Blackmore. Increasingly dissatisfied with this dull work, he
eventually turned to journalism. By 1832 he was general reporter for the True
Sun and also parliamentary reporter for his uncle's newspaper, the Mirror of
Parliament. He also began writing fictional stories for London magazines. These
stories attracted attention and in February 1836 a two volume collection was
published named Sketches By Boz.
At the same time Dickens's first novel, Pickwick Papers
(1836-1837) was being written. This coincided with his marriage to Catherine
Hogarth. Catherine bore him ten children in fifteen years, but their
relationship eventually deteriorated and they seperated in 1858.
In the meantime, Pickwick Papers brought Charles
Dickens fame. In the next eight years he produced five more novels,
miscellaneous stories, and several Christmas books, most notable of which was A
Christmas Carol, which was published in 1843 and quickly became one of the
world's classics. His many books on various themes earned Dickens a reputation
as a social reformer. His public, which he had once made laugh, he now made cry,
especially with the death of little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. The
character of Nell was based on his sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth, who at age
seventeen took ill and died in Dickens's arms. This sad memory was to haunt him
till the end of his days.
By 1849 Dickens had slowed in writing, but was reaching
the peak of his creative powers. Between 1849-1850 he wrote his most
autobiographical novel, David Copperfield. This was followed by Bleak
House (1852-1853), Hard Times (1854), and Little Dorrit
(1855-1857). In Little Dorrit there is a fusion of the autobiographical
and social criticism, as the Marshalsea debtors' prison is displayed as a symbol
of England's condition. This was followed by A Tale Of Two Cities (1859)
and Great Expectations (1860-1861).
These later novels showed a Dickens who was more somber
than before. This was partly a result of social disillusionment and partly of
personal and domestic circumstances. Despite his literary successes, Dickens was
not a happy man. His marriage was falling apart and in the spring of 1859 he and
his wife separated. The immediate reason for the breakup was Dickens's growing
attraction to the young actress Ellen Lawless Ternan.
Charles Dickens spent the last decade of his life in
increased personal unhappiness and failing health. He gained no real happiness
from his relationship with Ellen Ternan. Moreover, his sons, given all the
advantages he lacked, were not turning out as well as he had hoped. One or two
of them apparently had inherited their grandfather's attitude towards money
and it seemed they were destined for useless lives much in the manner of
the early Pip in Great Expectations.
From 1858 onward, Dickens spent much of his energy
giving a series of public readings from his own works. They were extremely
successful, and in 1867, despite poor health, he visited the United States where
his performances were a great success as well. He left the United States in
April 1868 in irreparably poor health. He continued to push himself, and was
halfway through his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, when he had a
stroke and died, at Glad's Hill, on June 9, 1870. He was buried five days later
in Westminster Abbey.
Selected Works of Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
A Tale Of Two Cities
David Copperfield
Great Expectations
Hard Times
Oliver Twist
Site Map
Charles Dickens Resources
The
Dickens House Museum
The Dickens Project
BBC: Charles Dickens
The Dickens Page
David Perdue's Charles Dickens
Page
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens - Gad's
Hill Place
National Art Library:
Conservation of Charles Dickens' manuscripts
Letters of
Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins (1892)
Dickens - The Sparkler of Albion
Spartacus: Charles
Dickens
The Dickens Fellowship:
Japan Branch
Filmography
The Rochester Dickens
Fellowship
Dickens Ireland
Dickens
and His Illustrators
Charles
Dickens Overview
A Journal of the Life of
Charles Dickens
The Life of Charles Dickens
Melbourne Dickens Fellowship
The Dickens, you say!
HyperHistory:
Dickens
The
Dickens Family Photographic Album
Catharton: Charles Dickens
The
Charles Dickens WebRing
Charles
Dickens
The
Inimitable-Boz
Dickens
Bibliography
Dickens on Disk
Charles
Dickens - Biographical Information
Literature
Network: Charles Dickens (1906)
Charles Dickens Heritage Foundation
Dickens's Journalistic
Career
PinkMonkey.com: Dickens
Chapter Summaries
Carlo Dickens
LiteratureClassics.com:
Charles Dickens
Wellerisms
in Dramatizations of Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers
A Division of
Labor: How Charles Dickens' Fiction and Journalism Work Together
"The
Perils of Certain English Prisoners": Dickens' Defensive Fantasy of
Imperial Stability
From Barnaby
Rudge to Martin Chuzzlewit: Dickens's Disillusionment with the United States
Charles
Dickens' Influence on Modern Entertainment
The Inimitable Becomes The
Inimical
Allreaders Charles
Dickens Spotlight
Charles
Dickens Campfire
Inimitable-Boz
Yahoo Group
Dickens
Message Board
Daily Dose of Dickens
Jest for Pun:
Humorous Quotes of Charles Dickens
Great
Quotations By Charles Dickens
World
Wide School: Charles Dickens
Bibliomania: Charles
Dickens
Literature Network: Charles
Dickens
Great Books Index: Charles
Dickens
Page By Page Books:
Charles Dickens
Classic Bookshelf:
Charles Dickens
Great
Literature Online: Charles Dickens
Poems By Charles Dickens
Colossus
Of Rhodes Minoan
Toronto Restaurants
Copyright 2003
CharlesDickens.biz