Charles Dickens Works & Literature

About Charles Dickens

Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire on February 7th, 1812, Charles Dickens grew up amidst the wondrous world of his imagination and the harsh circumstances of poverty. When his father was imprisoned for debt, Dickens was sent to work in Warren’s boot-blackening factory at the age of 12. When inheritances from his father’s side brightened the family’s financial situation, Dickens resented the fact that his mother did not remove him from the factory immediately. His experiences there deeply affected Dickens’ view on the conditions of working-class people in society and would serve as the major theme in his works. In early 1827, Dickens began work as a law clerk but soon gave up the profession to become a journalist. In his early twenties, he acquired considerable attention with his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. Dickens’ most famous works include Oliver Twist (1837), A Christmas Carol (1843), and Great Expectations (1860). Dickens married Catherine Thompson Hogarth in 1836 and the couple had 10 children together. Dickens separated from his wife in 1858, but because divorce was unheard of in the Victorian era, his relationships after had to be kept secret. On the June 9, 1865, while returning from France to see Ellen Ternan, who was probably his mistress, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash in which the first six carriages of the train plunged off of a bridge that was being repaired. Although Dickens was spared in the crash, his writing never really recovered its fervent zest. Dickens spent the rest of his life giving public readings from his best-loved novels. Dickens died from a stroke on June 9, 1870.

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