Illustration by Fred Bernard of Dickens at work in a shoe-blacking factory after his father had been sent to the Marshalsea, published in the 1892 edition of Forster's Life of Dickens.
H.F. Chorley, Kate Dickens, Mary Dickens, Charles Dickens, C.A. Collins, and Georgina Hogarth pictured at the entrance to the author's Gads Hill Place home in Higham, Kent, circa 1860.
(The novel's main character Samuel Pickwick, Esquire is a ...)
The novel's main character Samuel Pickwick, Esquire is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, the founder and perpetual president of the Pickwick Club. He suggests that he and three other "Pickwickians" should make journeys to places remote from London and report on their findings to the other members of the club. Their travels throughout the English countryside by coach provide the chief subject matter of the novel.
(The story of Oliver Twist - orphaned, and set upon by evi...)
The story of Oliver Twist - orphaned, and set upon by evil and adversity from his first breath - shocked readers when it was published. After running away from the workhouse and pompous beadle Mr Bumble, Oliver finds himself lured into a den of thieves peopled by vivid and memorable characters - the Artful Dodger, vicious burglar Bill Sikes, his dog Bull's Eye, and prostitute Nancy, all watched over by cunning master-thief Fagin.
(The tale follows the fortunes of the young man Nicholas, ...)
The tale follows the fortunes of the young man Nicholas, the son of an imprudent gentleman who leaves his family without resources. Fiercely devoted to his mother and sisters, as well as his true friends, Nicholas is occasionally emotional and even violent, yet always idealistic. He seeks the aid of his villainous uncle, Ralph Nickleby, who comes to hate his nephew and wish him serious harm. Nicholas goes through more than one attempt at employment, being first disgusted by the abuse of the schoolmaster Squeers, later surprised by the acting and antics of Vincent Crummles, and finally assisted by the merchant Cheeryble brothers.
(Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old cur...)
Little Nell Trent lives in the quiet gloom of the old curiosity shop with her ailing grandfather, for whom she cares with selfless devotion. But when they are unable to pay their debts to the stunted, lecherous and demonic money-lender Daniel Quilp, the shop is seized and they are forced to flee, thrown into a shadowy world in which there seems to be no safe haven.
(Charles Dickens’s first historical novel–set during the a...)
Charles Dickens’s first historical novel–set during the anti-Catholic riots of 1780–is an unparalleled portrayal of the terror of a rampaging mob, seen through the eyes of the individuals swept up in the chaos. Those individuals include Emma, a Catholic, and Edward, a Protestant, whose forbidden love weaves through the heart of the story; and the simpleminded Barnaby, one of the riot leaders, whose fate is tied to a mysterious murder and whose beloved pet raven, Grip, embodies the mystical power of innocence. The story encompasses both the rarified aristocratic world and the volatile streets and nightmarish underbelly of London, which Dickens characteristically portrays in vivid, pulsating detail. But the real focus of the book is on the riots themselves, depicted with an extraordinary energy and redolent of the dangers, the mindlessness, and the possibilities–both beneficial and brutal–of the mob.
(When Charles Dickens set out for America in 1842 he was t...)
When Charles Dickens set out for America in 1842 he was the most famous man of his day to travel there - curious about the revolutionary new civilization that had captured the English imagination. His frank and often humorous descriptions cover everything from his comically wretched sea voyage to his sheer astonishment at the magnificence of the Niagara Falls, while he also visited hospitals, prisons and law courts and found them exemplary. American Notes is an illuminating account of a great writer's revelatory encounter with the New World.
(Imaginative and entertaining tale relates Ebenezer Scroog...)
Imaginative and entertaining tale relates Ebenezer Scrooge's eerie encounters with a series of spectral visitors. Journeying with them through Christmases past, present, and future, he is ultimately transformed from an arrogant, obstinate, and insensitive miser to a generous, warmhearted, and caring human being. Written by one of England's greatest and most popular novelists, A Christmas Carol has come to epitomize the true meaning of Christmas.
(Set partly in America, which Dickens had visited in 1842,...)
Set partly in America, which Dickens had visited in 1842, the novel includes a searing satire on the United States. Martin Chuzzlewit is the story of two Chuzzlewits, Martin and Jonas, who have inherited the characteristic Chuzzlewit selfishness. It contrasts their diverse fates of moral redemption and worldly success for one, with increasingly desperate crime for the other. This powerful black comedy involves hypocrisy, greed and blackmail, as well as the most famous of Dickens's grotesques, Mrs Gamp.
(Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens’s story of a powerful man...)
Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens’s story of a powerful man whose callous neglect of his family triggers his professional and personal downfall, showcases the author’s gift for vivid characterization and unfailingly realistic description.
(Based in part on the author's own life, David Copperfield...)
Based in part on the author's own life, David Copperfield is the epic story of a young man's journey of self-discovery - from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the memorable cast of characters he encounters along the way are his brutal stepfather, Mr Murdstone; bubbly Nurse Peggotty; his brilliant, but unworthy schoolmate Steerforth, his eccentric aunt, Betsy Trotwood, the scheming clerk Uriah Heep, the enchanting Dora and the magnificent Mr Macawber - a character much like Dickens' own father.
(As the interminable case of 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' grind...)
As the interminable case of 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels, with a range that extends from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums.
(If you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the l...)
If you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the left-hand upper corner of the Eastern Hemisphere, two Islands lying in the sea. They are England and Scotland, and Ireland. England and Scotland form the greater part of these Islands. Ireland is the next in size. The little neighbouring islands, which are so small upon the Map as to be mere dots, are chiefly little bits of Scotland, --broken off, I dare say, in the course of a great length of time, by the power of the restless water...
(In Coketown, England, wealthy retiree Thomas Gradgrind ha...)
In Coketown, England, wealthy retiree Thomas Gradgrind has founded a school based on his belief that life should be factual—not fanciful. Among his pupils are his children, Thomas and Louisa, who are raised on his teachings of rational self-interest and grow into loveless, despairing adults. As he bears witness to his children’s suffering, Gradgrind is forced to confront the dangers of his dispassionate, utilitarian philosophy.
(William Dorrit has been a resident of Marshalsea debtors'...)
William Dorrit has been a resident of Marshalsea debtors' prison for so long that his three children—snobbish Fanny, idle Edward and Amy (Little Dorrit)—have all grown up there, although they are free to pass in and out of the prison as they please. Amy, devoted to her father, has been supporting them both through her sewing.
(Unjustly imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille, Dr. Ale...)
Unjustly imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille, Dr. Alexandre Manette is reunited with his daughter, Lucie, and safely transported from France to England. It would seem that they could take up the threads of their lives in peace. As fate would have it though, the pair are summoned to the Old Bailey to testify against a young Frenchman — Charles Darnay — falsely accused of treason. Strangely enough, Darnay bears an uncanny resemblance to another man in the courtroom, the dissolute lawyer's clerk Sydney Carton. It is a coincidence that saves Darnay from certain doom more than once.
(Charles Dickens's Great Expectations charts the course of...)
Charles Dickens's Great Expectations charts the course of orphan Pip Pirrip's life as it is transformed by a vast, mysterious inheritance. A terrifying encounter with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decrepit Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella at Satis House; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor - these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble station as an apprentice to blacksmith Joe Gargery, beginning a new life as a gentleman.
(Our Mutual Friend centres on an inheritance - Old Harmon'...)
Our Mutual Friend centres on an inheritance - Old Harmon's profitable dust heaps - and its legatees, young John Harmon, presumed drowned when a body is pulled out of the River Thames, and kindly dustman Mr Boffin, to whom the fortune defaults. With brilliant satire, Dickens portrays a dark, macabre London, inhabited by such disparate characters as Gaffer Hexam, scavenging the river for corpses; enchanting, mercenary Bella Wilfer; the social-climbing Veneerings; and the unscrupulous street-trader Silas Wegg.
(Edwin Drood is contracted to marry orphan Rosa Bud when h...)
Edwin Drood is contracted to marry orphan Rosa Bud when he comes of age, but when they find that duty has gradually replaced affection, they agree to break off the engagement. Shortly afterwards, in the middle of a storm on Christmas Eve, Edwin disappears, leaving nothing behind but some personal belongings and the suspicion that his jealous uncle John Jasper, madly in love with Rosa, is the killer. And beyond this presumed crime there are further intrigues: the dark opium dens of the sleepy cathedral town of Cloisterham, and the sinister double life of Choirmaster Jasper, whose drug-fuelled fantasy life belies his respectable appearance. Dickens died before completing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, leaving its tantalising mystery unsolved and encouraging successive generations of readers to turn detective.
(In this charming, simple retelling of the life of Jesus C...)
In this charming, simple retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, adapted from the Gospel of St. Luke, Dickens hoped to teach his young children about religion and faith.
Charles Dickens was an English author and social critic. He wrote fourteen full novels as well as sketches, travel, and Christmas books. Almost all of Dickens's novels display his comic gift, his deep social concerns, and his talent for creating vivid characters. Many of his creations, most notably Ebenezer Scrooge, have become familiar English literary stereotypes, and today many of his novels are considered classics.
Background
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812; the second of eight children born to Elizabeth Barrow Dickens and John Dickens. His elder sister Fanny proved to be his best friend and had a profound influence on Charles his entire life.
John Dickens was a clerk at the navy pay office of Portsmouth when Charles was born, but the growing family moved often due to John's frequent transfers. In January 1815, John Dickens was called back to London, and the family moved to Norfolk Street, Fitzrovia. When Charles was four, they relocated to Sheerness, and thence to Chatham, Kent, where he spent his formative years until the age of 11.
Education
Charles began his education at William Giles's school in Chatham, Kent. When his father was transferred to London in 1822, the family once again packed up and moved on. By 1824 John Dickens had fallen behind with his creditors. He was arrested and sent to debtors prison, often referred to simply as The Marshalsea. At age twelve Charles found work at Warren's Blacking Factory wrapping bottles of black shoe polish. Six months later an inheritance provided enough money for John to leave prison and Charles resumed his education at a nearby private school, Wellington House Academy. When his father again fell into financial difficulties in 1827, young Charles left the academy and found employment as a clerk for the law firm of Ellis and Blackmore. Although he disliked the work, Charles enjoyed what was to become a lifelong habit of walking the streets of London in the late night hours gathering characters to inhabit his stories.
By 1832 Charles Dickens had become a reporter for two London newspapers and, in the following year, began to contribute a series of impressions and sketches to other newspapers and magazines, signing some of them "Boz." These scenes of London life went far to establish his reputation and were published in 1836 as Sketches by Boz, his first book.
In 1836 Dickens also began to publish in monthly installments The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. This form of serial publication became a standard method of writing and producing fiction in the Victorian period and affected the literary methods of Dickens and other novelists. Pickwick became one of the most popular works of the time, continuing to be so after it was published in book form in 1837.
During the years of Pickwick's serialization, Dickens became editor of a new monthly, Bentley's Miscellany. When Pickwick was completed, he began publishing his new novel, Oliver Twist, in this magazine - a practice he continued in his later magazines, Household Worlds and All the Year Round.
Dickens was now embarked on the most consistently successful career of any 19th-century author after Sir Walter Scott. He could do no wrong as far as his faithful readership was concerned; yet his books for the next decade were not to achieve the standard of his early triumphs. These works include Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839), still cited for its exposé of brutality at an English boys' school, Dothe boys Hall; The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841), still remembered for reaching a high (or low) point of sentimentality in its portrayal of the sufferings of Little Nell; and Barnaby Rudge (1841), still read for its interest as a historical novel, set amid the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780.
In 1842 Dickens, who was as popular in America as he was in England, went on a 5-month lecture tour of the United States, speaking out strongly for the abolition of slavery and other reforms. On his return he wrote American Notes, sharply critical of the cultural backwardness and aggressive materialism of American life. He made further capital of these observations in his next novel, Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844), in which the hero retreats from the difficulties of making his way in England only to find that survival is even more trying on the American frontier. During the years in which Chuzzlewit appeared, Dickens also published two Christmas stories, A Christmas Carol and The Chimes, which became as much part of the season as plum pudding.
After a year abroad in Italy, in response to which he wrote Pictures from Italy (1846), Dickens began to publish Dombey and Son, which continued till 1848. This novel established a new standard in the Dickensian novel and may be said to mark the turning point in his career. If Dickens had remained the author of Pickwick, Oliver Twist, and The Old Curiosity Shop, he might have deserved a lasting reputation only as an author of cheerful comedy and bathetic sentiment. But Dombey, while it includes these elements, is a realistic novel of human life in a society which had assumed more or less its modern form. As its full title indicates, Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son is a study of the influence of the values of a business society on the personal fortunes of the members of the Dombey family and those with whom they come in contact. It takes a somber view of England at mid-century, and its elegiac tone becomes characteristic of Dickens's novels for the rest of his life.
Dickens's next novel, David Copperfield (1849-1850), combined broad social perspective with a very strenuous effort to take stock of himself at the midpoint of his literary career. This autobiographical novel fictionalized elements of Dickens's childhood degradation, pursuit of a journalistic and literary vocation, and love life. Its achievement is to offer the first comprehensive record of the typical course of a young man's life in Victorian England. Copperfield is not Dickens's greatest novel, but it was his own favorite among his works, probably because of his personal engagement with the subject matter.
In 1850 Dickens began to "conduct" (his word for edit) a new periodical, Household Words. The weekly magazine was a great success and ran to 1859, when Dickens began to conduct a new weekly, All the Year Round. In both these periodicals he published some of his major novels.
In 1851 Dickens was struck by the death of his father and one of his daughters within 2 weeks. Partly in response to these losses, he embarked on a series of works which have come to be called his "dark" novels and which rank among the greatest triumphs of the art of fiction. The first of these, Bleak House (1852-1853), has perhaps the most complicated plot of any English novel, but the narrative twists serve to create a sense of the interrelationship of all segments of English society. Indeed, it has been maintained that this network of interrelations is the true subject of the novel, designed to express Thomas Carlyle's view that "organic filaments" connect every member of society with every other member of whatever class. The novel provides, then, a chastening lesson to social snobbery and personal selfishness.
Dickens's next novel is even more didactic in its moral indictment of selfishness. Hard Times (1854) was written specifically to challenge the prevailing view of his society that practicality and facts were of greater importance and value than feelings and persons. In his indignation at callousness in business and public educational systems, Dickens laid part of the charge for the heartlessness of Englishmen at the door of the utilitarian philosophy then much in vogue. But the lasting applicability of the novel lies in its intensely focused picture of an English industrial town in the heyday of capitalist expansion and in its keen view of the limitations of both employers and reformers.
Little Dorrit (1855-1857) has some claim to be regarded as Dickens's greatest novel. In it he provides the same range of social observation that he had developed in previous major works.
Dickens began to give much of his time and energies to public readings from his novels, which became even more popular than his lectures on topical questions.
In 1859 Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities, a historical novel of the French Revolution, which is read today most often as a school text. It is, while below the standard of the long and comprehensive "dark" novels, a fine evocation of the historical period and a moving tale of a surprisingly modern hero's self-sacrifice. Besides publishing this novel in the newly founded All the Year Round, Dickens also published 17 articles, which appeared as a book in 1860 entitled The Uncommercial Traveller.
Dickens's next novel, Great Expectations (1860-1861), must rank as his most perfectly executed work of art. The next work in the Dickens canon had to wait for the (for him) unusual time of 3 years, but in 1864-1865 he produced Our Mutual Friend, which challenges Little Dorrit and Bleak House for consideration as his masterpiece.
In the closing years of his life Dickens worsened his declining health by giving numerous readings from his works. He never fully recovered from a railroad accident in which he had been involved in 1865 and yet insisted on traveling throughout the British Isles and America to read before tumultuous audiences. He broke down in 1869 and gave only a final series of readings in London in the following year. He also began The Mystery of Edwin Drood but died in 1870, leaving it unfinished. His burial in Westminster Abbey was an occasion of national mourning.
Dickens's parents were Anglican, but entirely uninterested in the dogmas of the Church of England. As a small boy in Chatham, Dickens seems to have attended services at a nearby Baptist chapel. It is evident at the time of his first American trip in 1842 that he was hopeful of finding in the United States political and religious institutions more progressive and effective than Parliament and the Church of England. At the time he looked enthusiastically to the new nation's ideals of liberty and equality as promoting a future that might reward merit and free itself of ancient and hidebound class prejudices. He was, moreover, attracted by the separation of church and state in the United States, and, while he was soon to be profoundly disappointed in American politics, he was very taken by the Unitarian circle that he encountered in Boston.
It was at this time that Dickens first felt the need to impart some religious instruction to his children and, significantly, undertook to do this himself by writing a simplified version of the gospels designed for reading aloud. Dickens stresses is Christ as model, teacher, and healer - the comforter of the distressed rather than the saviour of mankind through the crucifixion and atonement.
Politics
In his books, Dickens refers to businessmen as "villains" and "schemers" and his famous work, A Tale of Two Cities, paints the lower-class discontents as heroes and martyrs. It is for these reasons that many consider Dickens a socialist.
Views
Dickens’ novels portray a true concern for the poor. He supported charities that helped to uplift poor women and children and rallied for the English government to step in to handle poverty. His writings inspired others, in particular journalists and political figures, to address such problems of class oppression.
Dickens criticized the capitalist utopia that was 19th Century America. He was particularly critical of the institution of slavery, and the fact that there was no tax to import foreign publications.
Quotations:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."
"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."
"Please, sir, I want some more."
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."
"What greater gift than the love of a cat."
"Reflect upon your present blessings - of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
"A loving heart is the truest wisdom."
Membership
Dickens furthered his interest in the paranormal, becoming one of the early members of The Ghost Club.
Personality
Dickens had an excellent memory of people and events, which he used in his writing.
The author went to theatres obsessively - he claimed that for at least three years he went to the theatre every single day. His favourite actor was Charles Mathews, and Dickens learnt his monopolylogues, (farces in which Mathews played every character), by heart.
Physical Characteristics:
Dickens was a gifted mimic and impersonated those around him: clients, lawyers, and clerks.
Quotes from others about the person
"In its attitude towards Dickens the English public has always been a little like the elephant which feels a blow with a walking-stick as a delightful tickling... he seems to have succeeded in attacking everybody and antagonising nobody." – George Orwell
Interests
taxidermy, supernatural, mesmerism
Connections
On April 2, 1836, Charles married Catherine Thomson Hogarth, the eldest daughter of his friend, journalist George Hogarth. Katherine gave birth to ten children: seven sons - Charles Culliford Boz, Walter Landor, Francis Jeffrey, Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson, Sydney Smith Haldimand, Henry Fielding and Edward Bulwer Lytton, and three daughters - Catherine Elizabeth Macready, Dora Annie and Mary. But the family life of Dickens was not quite successful. Misunderstanding with his wife, some complicated relations with her family, fear for sick children made the family a source of constant worries and torment for Dickens. In 1857, Charles met the 18-year-old actress Ellen Ternan and immediately fell in love. He rented an apartment for her and for many years visited Ellen. Their romance lasted until the death of the writer.
Dickens was 45 when he made the decision to separate from his wife, Catherine. When Catherine left, she took with her one child, leaving the other children to be raised by her sister Georgina.
Unequal Partners: Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Victorian Authorship
In the first book centering on the collaborative relationship between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Lillian Nayder places their coauthored works in the context of the Victorian publishing industry and shows how their fiction and drama represent and reconfigure their sometimes strained relationship. She challenges the widely accepted image of Dickens as a mentor of younger writers such as Collins, points to the ways in which Dickens controlled and profited from his literary "satellites," and charts Collins's development as an increasingly significant and independent author.
2002
Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist
Becoming Dickens tells the story of how an ambitious young Londoner became England's greatest novelist. In following the twists and turns of Charles Dickens's early career, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst examines a remarkable double transformation: in reinventing himself Dickens reinvented the form of the novel. It was a high-stakes gamble, and Dickens never forgot how differently things could have turned out. Like the hero of Dombey and Son, he remained haunted by "what might have been, and what was not."
2011
Ready to Trample on All Human Law: Finance Capitalism in the Fiction of Charles Dickens
This book explores the relationship between Dickens’s novels and the financial system. Elements of Dickens’s work form a critique of financial capitalism. This critique is rooted in the difference between use-value and exchange-value, and in the difference between productive circulations and mere accumulation. In a money-based society, exchange-value and accumulation dominate to the point where they infect even the most important and sacred relationships between parts of society and individuals.
2005
Charles Dickens
This long-awaited biography, twenty years after the last major account, uncovers Dickens the man through the profession in which he excelled. Drawing on a lifetime’s study of this prodigiously brilliant figure, Michael Slater explores the personal and emotional life, the high-profile public activities, the relentless travel, the charitable works, the amateur theatricals and the astonishing productivity.