Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was a British novelist, journalist, editor, illustrator and social commentator.

During his lifetime, his works enjoyed great popularity. He is now considered a literary genius because he created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

Throughout his career, Dickens published a total of 15 novels. His most well-known works include:

Oliver Twist (1837-1838), 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.

In 1843, Dickens published A Christmas Carol. The book tells about Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser, who, with the help of ghosts, finds the Christmas spirit. The novel was intended as a social criticism, to bring attention to the hardships faced by England’s lower classes.

The book was a success. One American entrepreneur gave his employees an extra day’s holiday after reading it. The book remains one of Dickens’ most well-known and beloved works.

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.

David Copperfield (1849 to 1850) was the first work of its kind: No one had ever written a novel that simply followed a character through his everyday life.

Dickens wrote about his own personal experiences, from his difficult childhood to his work as a journalist.

Although David Copperfield is not considered Dickens’ best work, it was his personal favorite.

Following the death of his father and daughter and separation from his wife, Dickens’ novels began to express a darkened worldview.

'Hard Times' (1854), ‘Bleak House' (1853) and Little Dorrit (1857), were written during that period.

Coming out of his “dark novel” period, in 1859 Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities, a historical novel that takes place during the French Revolution in Paris and London.

Great Expectations (1861) is widely considered Dickens’ greatest literary work.

The story, is narrated in the first person, focuses on the lifelong journey of moral development for the novel’s main hero, 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.

Other Novels

From 1838 to 1841, he published The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge.

His early life

Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England. His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk who dreamed of becoming rich and his 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 Charles and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore the old castle at Rochester.

But the family’s financial situation had grown worse because John Dickens used to spend money beyond the family’s means. Consequently, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old.

After his father's imprisonment, Charles Dickens left school to work at a boot-blacking factory alongside the River Thames. 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.

Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an incredible letter writer, and campaigned hard for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Looking back on the experience, Dickens saw it as the moment he said goodbye to his youthful innocence. He felt betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take care of him.

Dickens was permitted to go back to school when his father received a family inheritance and used it to pay off his debts. But when Dickens was 15, he had to drop out of school and work as an office boy to contribute to his family’s income. As it turned out, the job became a starting point for his writing career.

Children

Charles Dickens married Catherine Hogarth soon after his first book, Sketches by Boz, was published. The couple had 10 children.

During the 1850s, Dickens suffered two losses: the deaths of his daughter and father. He also separated from his wife in 1858.

Journalist, Editor and Illustrator

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. The book was wildly popular with readers.

He later edited magazines including Household Words and All the Year Round, the latter of which he founded.

Travels to the United States and Italy

In 1842, Dickens and his wife, Catherine, started on a five-month lecture tour of the United States.

Around this time, he wrote American Notes for General Circulation and The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, where he criticized the American society and materialism.

During the tour Dickens spoke of his opposition to slavery. His lectures, which began in Virginia and ended in Missouri, were widely attended.

Biographer J.B. Priestly wrote that during the tour, Dickens enjoyed "the greatest welcome that probably any visitor to America has ever had.”

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.

Dickens also spent significant time in Italy, resulting in his 1846 travelogue Pictures from Italy.

How Did Charles Dickens Die?

After suffering a stroke, Dickens died at age 58 on June 9, 1870, at Gad’s Hill Place, his country home in Kent, England.

In 1865, Dickens was 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. 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.