Charles Dickens Biography

Charles Dicken was a British novelist, an illustrator, a journalist, an editor and a social critic who wrote some of the most famous classic novels like The Christmas Carols, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectation and the most popular David Copperfield. His works have been loved and grabbed unparallel recognition and popularity during his lifetime and by the 20th century, he was honoured by other critics, scholars and novelists as a literary genius. Even today his short stories as well as novels are equally popular and widely read by children as well as adults. He was very well known for his satires, humour and some serious Novels that was much deeper and darker reflecting the nuances of the contemporary society that also became widely famous. He was a very keen observer and use to design his fictional character from the real-life characters and society.

He was the only influential writer whose reader base was huge and soon with the improvement in technologies it spread worldwide. His writings attracted the literate lower-class readers to the privileged class, from the simpler reader to a sophisticated one and even soon became the flagbearer of one of the most influential writers of the 19th century. Though he underwent fluctuations in his career in terms of reception of his published novels they were never disregarded or never weigh less to his contemporaries as his popularity remains unchased. Through his range, depth of understanding, fluidity of writing and intelligence of comprehending the society and its shortcomings portrayed a sharp picture of the victorian era underclass that helped to bring to the notice the ill series of events a stride to change the society. That’s how his novels were enriched with a firm force of change in socio-political scenarios of the 19th century that had made him one of the conscious influential spokespersons of his era.  

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Image: Illustration of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens Early Life

Chares Dicken was born on February 7, 1812, in a palace situated to the south coast of England named Portsmouth and his name as a child was Charles Huffam Dickens. He was born to his father named John Dickens and his mother named Elizabeth Barrow who aspired to become a teacher and a school head. Even though his parents have put in their best efforts they struggle with their financial condition and remained poor for most of their lives. But they were happily residing in their native place until in 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent where he with his siblings roam around freely in the countryside and the old Castle situated in Rochester. He was the second of the eight siblings he had.

In 1822 they finally moved to a poor neighbourhood in London known as Camden Town. over a while their financial situation worsens as his father got a dangerous habit of spending to lead a life that is beyond their financial resources and compromised on his family.  Charles’ father was imprisoned in 1824 for the huge debt he was unable to pay. At that time Charles was just 12 years old. His father imprisonment had forced him to leave school and work to meet the family requirements. He started working in a boot-blacking factory that was situated near the Thames River. There he used to earn six shillings a week against his job of labelling pots of blacking. At the age of 12 that was the best effort, he put in to support his family through the crisis.

For most of his life, he felt abandoned and betrayed because of his strained childhood and tough experiences. He always felt let down by the adults who were supposed to take care of him at such tender age. These sentiments are later reflected in most of his themes of writings. But to his relief, as he was again permitted to go to school as his father later managed to pay back all his debts. But his education was pulled out once again when he was 15. In the year 1827, he dropped school and started working as an office boy to support his family once again through the financial crisis. He worked in the office of Ellis and Blackmore who were attorneys of Holborn court. He was appointed as Junior Clerk and worked from May 1827 to November 1828. Later on, he took up a job as a freelancing reporter through one of his relatives who was also a freelance reporter at Doctors’ Commons where he uses to report the legal proceedings for almost four years. His informal education about the law system and its shortfalls were vividly highlighted in Dickens’ later work like in Dombey and Sons and especially in Bleak house that helped enlightening common people of the law and order system. Even his work has inspired him to enrich the judgements of his view towards the burden forced on the poor to go through tough circumstances to “go to law”.

When he first met Maria Beadnell and fell in love with her, he created a character around her named Dora in the David Copperfield series but soon they were forced to separate as she was sent to Paris under the influence of her parents as they disagreed with their relationship.

Charles Dickens Life and Works

Journalism and His Early Novels

According to the early events mentioned in Charles Dickens short biography, as soon as he was hired as a freelance journalist, in the early days of his career, he began reporting at the law courts of London. Later he was taken up by two major Newspapers of London and started reporting for them. A while later in his career, he started freelancing the illustrations and various sketches to different Newspapers and magazines under the pet name “Boz”. in the year 1836, his first book was published under the name of “sketches by Boz” where the majority of his clippings were printed.

In the same year, he published a series under the name of “The Posthumous papers of Pickwick Club”. He originally started writing the captions for the humour sports-themed illustrations for the artist named Robert Seymour’s. Then with the popular demand, it went for monthly serial instalments. The Posthumous papers of Pickwick Club became very popular among the readers and Dickens captions gained much more attention than the illustrations that were the main theme of the journal. His most popular edited journals include Household Words and All the year-round which was founded by Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens eventually got married to Catherine Hogarth after his first book Sketches of Boz published and the couples were blessed with 10 children. But soon enough in the year 1850, the writer faced a great loss with the demise of his daughter and father. He was devastated at that time. After then he was even separated from his wife in 1858. He soon defamed Cathrine publicity and build up a relationship with a new and actress much younger than him named Nelly Ternana. Charles Dickens short biography also states that he went far to remove any documentation or traces that confirmed the presence of Nelly in his life. It is still unclear that his relationship with the actress started before or after he ended his marital life.

Middle years

Charles Dickens became the editor of a liberal newspaper that is based in London known as daily news. He wanted to utilize the platform for voicing and advocating for the principals to progress and improve the society, for equality in legislation with liberation and equality in education, religion and civil prospects. He also chose to volunteer his contribution with the radical economist Thomas Hodgskin and with another social reformer Douglas William Jerrold who strongly voiced against the Corn Rule in their self-published paper. Dickens used his platform in Household Words to win over the Reform Association. He also mortified the foreign affairs by declaring his support toward Guiseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini and joined hands in raising funds to unite Italy to stop Louis Napolian. During Indian Mutiny that took place in 1857, he raised his voice criticizing and shaming the strategies and implementation of East India Company.

Last Years

While he was travelling from Paris by train, he meets with an accident where the entire train gets derailed and the first seven carriages hit the cast-iron bridge that was under repair except the first class in which he was travelling. Prior to the arrival of the rescuers, he nursed and comforted the people with injuries. Later on in his life, the trauma of that incident is reflected in many of his novels as he shared his own experience in “The Single Man” who determined his own death due to a train crash and stories that involved several trains crashes like in Clayton Tunnel Rail Crash published in 1861.  

Charles Dickens Books

In his entire lifetime, he published 15 novels out of which few are discussed here that is inspired by the 5 major facts of Charles Dickens and the incidences that took place in his life that are described in Charles Dickens biography. Some of his other novels include The Life and Adventure of Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and some of the dark period novels comprised of Charles Dickens The Life of our Lords and Little Dorrit that came out in 1857 portraying the clash of human values with the world’s brutality.

1. Oliver Twist (1837 -1838): It was inspired by the tragic childhood of Charles. This novel is a reflection of Charles feeling of betrayal as a poor, poverty-stricken child who was forced to work at a tender age out of his will to earn his keep for his family and himself.  This Novel was Published in two instalments initially between February 1837 and April 1838 and the full version of the novel was published in November the same year. 

2. A Christmas Carol (1843): this was one of his most popular books where the protagonist named Ebenezer Scrooge who was a bad-tempered old miser finds the Christmas spirit with the help of the ghosts. He penned it in six weeks. Though it attracted a lot of criticism to highlight the conditions of the poor in England it sold more than 6000 copies as soon as it was published. 

3. Dealing with the Firm of Dombay and Sons (1846-48): it was initially published in monthly instalments and the book was finally published in the year 1848. It is a novel that involves how the tactics in businesses deteriorate personal and family finances. It was considered as Dickens one of the critical pieces of work that later became the tone of his other writings.

4. David Copperfield (1849-50): many of the writers and novelists feel that David Copperfield is actually Charles Dickens autobiography as no other writer or novelist has published such a novel that comprises of a day to day nuances of a character. This book has been a reflection of his hardships in the journey of life. It comprises of Charles Dickens childhood facts and struggles to his journey as a novelist and as a journalist through his famous character David Copperfield. It was his personal favourite and one of his best works.

5. Bleak House (1852-53): this book was published in instalments in the years 1852 to 1853 post the death of his father and daughter. This took a turn on his tone of writing where he now focused more to bring into the spotlight the darkening part of the society. Even in this novel, he criticised the hypocrisy that was intertwined within British society. It is considered one of his most complex novels. 

6. The Tail of Two Cities (1859): it is one of the historical novels that came out in the year 1859 in the periodicals of a journal that he introduced named All The Year Round. It is also considered as one of his “Dark novels” that was based on the French revolution that took place in Paris and London.

7. Great Expectations (1861): it is considered one of his finest and greatest accomplishments as a novelist. It was initially published in series from December 1860 to August 1861 and was finally published as a novel in October 1861.  
   
   

Visit the United States

In the first tour of Charles with his wife on a five monthly lecture program that he attended along with his wife in the year 1852, he ended up writing a book after finishing his tour to the States. He penned American Notes for General Circulation that was a satirical writeup criticizing the American materialistic outlooks and culture. He also wrote The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit that tells the real-life story of a man who struggles to survive on a ruthless American frontier. During the first tour, he strongly opposed slavery and voiced for the change in the existing reforms. After he faced a lot of heated criticism from the people of America he decided for a second tour in the years 1867 and 1868 put things right with the people there.    

Death and Legacy

He suffered a stroke on June 9, 1870, while he was residing at his Grad’s hill place which was his country home in Kent, England. He died at the age of 58. He experienced a severe train accident and since then he couldn’t fully recover from its impact on his mind and body. Though he suffered a lot of weakness, still he managed to tour even a few days before his demise. He was buried at Westminster Abbey’s writer’s corner and thousand of people gathered around his grave to mourn the demise of the greatest writer of all times.