Charles Dickens

(1812–1870)
• Charles Dickens was a British
novelist, journalist, editor,
illustrator and social
commentator who wrote such
beloved classic novels
as Oliver Twist, A Christmas
Carol, Nicholas
Nickleby, David Copperfield, A
Tale of Two Cities and Great
Expectations. 
• Dickens is remembered as one of the most important and influential
writers of the 19th century. Among his accomplishments, he has been
lauded for providing a stark portrait of the Victorian-era underclass,
helping to bring about social change.
Dickens was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on February 7, 1812,
in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England.

• The famed British

author was the second
of eight children. His
father, John Dickens,
was a naval clerk who
dreamed of striking it
rich. Charles' mother,
Elizabeth Barrow,
aspired to be a teacher
and school director.
Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor. Nevertheless, they were
happy in the early days. In 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent, where young Dickens
and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore the old castle at
Rochester.
• In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden
Town, a poor neighborhood in London. By then
the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as
John Dickens had a dangerous habit of living
beyond the family’s means. Eventually, John was
sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was
just 12 years old.
• Following his father’s imprisonment, Dickens was
forced to leave school to work at a boot-blacking
factory alongside the River Thames. At the run-
down, rodent-ridden factory, Dickens earned six
shillings a week labeling pots of “blacking,” a
substance used to clean fireplaces. It was the best
he could do to help support his family.
• Within a year of being hired, Dickens began freelance reporting at the law courts of London. Just a few
years later, he was reporting for two major London newspapers.
In 1833, he began submitting sketches to various magazines and newspapers under the pseudonym
“Boz.” In 1836, his clippings were published in his first book, Sketches by Boz.
In the same year, Dickens started publishing The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. His series,
originally written as captions for artist Robert Seymour’s humorous sports-themed illustrations, took the
form of monthly serial installments.
• The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was
wildly popular with readers. In fact, Dickens’
captions were even more popular than the
illustrations they were meant to accompany.
He later edited magazines including Household
Words and All the Year Round, the latter of which
he founded.
• Dickens married Catherine Hogarth soon after his first book, Sketches by Boz, was published. The couple had
a brood of 10 children.During the 1850s, Dickens suffered two devastating losses: the deaths of his daughter
and father. He also separated from his wife in 1858. Dickens slandered Catherine publicly, and struck up an
intimate relationship with a young actress named Ellen "Nelly" Ternan.
• In 1842, Dickens and his wife, Catherine,
embarked on a five-month lecture tour of the
United States. Upon their return, Dickens
penned American Notes for General Circulation,
a sarcastic travelogue criticizing American
culture and materialism.Around this time he
also wrote The Life and Adventures of Martin
Chuzzlewit, a story about a man’s struggle to
survive on the ruthless American frontier.
• During his first U.S. tour, in 1842, Dickens
spoke of his opposition to slavery and expressed
his support for additional reform. His lectures,
which began in Virginia and ended in Missouri,
were so widely attended that ticket scalpers
gathered outside his events. Biographer J.B.
Priestley wrote that during the tour, Dickens
enjoyed "the greatest welcome that probably
any visitor to America has ever had.”
After his criticism of the American people during his first
tour, Dickens launched a second U.S. tour, from 1867 to
1868, hoping to set things right with the public. 
This time, he made a charismatic speech promising to
praise the United States in reprints of American Notes for
General Circulation and The Life and Adventures of Martin
Chuzzlewit. His 75 readings netted an estimated $95,000,
which, in the Victorian era, amounted to approximately
$1.5 million in current U.S. dollars.
Back at home, Dickens had become so famous that people
recognized him all over London as he strolled around the
city, collecting the observations that would serve as
inspiration for his future work.
Dickens also spent significant time in Italy, resulting in his
1846 travelogue Pictures from Italy.
'Oliver Twist' (1837-1838)
• Oliver Twist, Dickens first novel, follows the life of
an orphan living in the streets. The book was
inspired by how Dickens felt as an impoverished
child forced to get by on his wits and earn his own
keep. 
• As publisher of a magazine called Bentley’s
Miscellany, Dickens began publishing Oliver
Twist in installments between February 1837 and
April 1838, with the full book edition published in
November 1838. 
• Dickens continued showcasing Oliver Twist in the
magazines he later edited, including Household
Words and All the Year Round. The novel was
extremely well-received in both England and
America. Dedicated readers of Oliver Twist eagerly
anticipated the next monthly installment
'Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son' (1846 to 1848)

• From October 1846 to April 1848,

Dickens published, in monthly
installments, Dealings with the Firm of
Dombey and Son. The novel, which was
published in book form in 1848, centers
on the theme of how business tactics
affect a family’s personal
finances. Taking a dark view of England,
it is considered pivotal to Dickens’ body
of work in that it set the tone for his
other novels.
'Bleak House' (1852 to 1853)

• Following the death of his father

and daughter and separation from
his wife, Dickens’ novels began to
express a darkened worldview. 
In Bleak House, published in
installments from 1852 to 1853,
he deals with the hypocrisy of
British society. It was considered
his most complex novel to date.
Great Expectations' (1861)
• Great Expectations, published in serial
form between December 1860 to August
1861 and in novel form in October 1861,
is widely considered Dickens’ greatest
literary accomplishment. 
• The story, Dickens’ second to be narrated
in the first person, focuses on the lifelong
journey of moral development for the
novel’s protagonist, an orphan named Pip.
With extreme imagery and colorful
characters, the well-received novel’s
themes include wealth and poverty, love
and rejection, and good versus evil.
• Many of Dickens’ major works have been
adapted for movies and stage plays, with
some, like A Christmas Carol, repackaged in
various forms over the years.
• Hollywood introduced another twist to the
author's celebrated holiday work with the
November 2017 release of The Man Who
Invented Christmas, starring Dan Stevens as
Dickens and Christopher Plummer as his
famed fictional character of Ebenezer
Scrooge.
After suffering a stroke, Dickens died at age 58 on June 9, 1870, at Gad’s
Hill Place, his country home in Kent, England.Five years earlier, Dickens
had been in a train accident and never fully recovered. Despite his
fragile condition, he continued to tour until shortly before his
death.Dickens was buried in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey, with
thousands of mourners gathering at the beloved author’s
gravesite. Scottish satirical writer Thomas Carlyle described Dickens’
passing as “an event worldwide, a unique of talents suddenly extinct.”
At the time of his death, his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood,
was unfinished.
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