CHARLES DICKENS
                                        
 

          Charles John Huffam Dickens was born 7 February 1812, second child of John and Elizabeth Dickens.
               The family would eventually number seven children, plus a son who died in infancy, and since neither
               parent seemed able to economize, things were generally very hard financially for the family. Charles
               attended school for a time in Kent, where the happiest days of his childhood were spent, but when the
              family moved to London in 1822, Charles was simply never re-enrolled in school, and was left to wander
              London largely unattended. When the oldest child, Fanny, was sent to the Royal Academy of Music for
              training as a pianist, Charles, then 12, was deemed old enough to work to help pay the family expenses.
           So, for six months, he worked in a factory pasting labels onto containers of shoe polish. While there,   John
              Dickens was thrown into debtor's prison, and released a few months later under the Insolvency Act3.

           It was a feud between John Dickens and the factory owner that eventually got Charles out of the factory
              and back in school, though Elizabeth tried her best to make him go back, which Charles never quite
              forgave her for. The factory experience will show up again and again in Charles' novels, and it also left
              him with something of a phobia about being dirty. In 1827, Charles left school again, more voluntarily this
           time, and took work as a law clerk, and then a parliamentary reporter. Though he also toyed with the   idea
              of taking the stage (he loved amateur theatricals all his life), he eventually starts writing sketches for two
              of the London newspapers4, publishing them under the name 'Boz'.

           In 1835, now quite well-established in his sketch-writing, Charles proposed to Catherine Hogarth,     daughter
              of George Hogarth, who had been advisor to Sir Walter Scott. They married in April of 18365, and the
              sweet-tempered Catherine generally allowed Charles to take charge of everything, including even the
              eventual naming of their children. That same year, Charles's began writing The Pickwick Papers, and
              suddenly he was famous. Imitations of Pickwick appeared everywhere.

         The now firmly upper-middle-class Charles still has many family problems, however. His father is still in
              debt more often than not, even going so far as to try to borrow money using his son's name, and Charles
              ends up paying most of John's debts. Charles himself would have four children after four years of
              marriage6, and continually disciplines himself to work like a madman to avoid debt of his own. With A
           Christmas Carol in 1843, Charles created his own literary sub-genre, the Christmas story. He would   write
              one for almost every Christmas for the rest of his life.

           In 1851, his next to last child, Dora7, died, not yet a year old. It was about this time that his dissatisfaction
              with his marriage became clear. By 1856, when Charles was working on a play he had written that was
              about to hit the public stage, he hired professional actresses to play the parts that his daughters and
              sister-in-law, Georgina, had been playing. He hired Frances Ternan and two of her daughters, Maria and
            Ellen. This was when the trouble really started. It was not long before Charles was completely in love  with
            Ellen Ternan8, though Charles worked exceptionally hard to keep their relationship quiet. By 1858, he and
              Catherine were officially separated.

             Rumor had it that Charles was having an affair with Catherine's sister Georgina, which would have been
              considered incestuous9. But she had been helping care for the family for the last sixteen years, and
              brooked the rumors and her family's displeasure to remain there. Charles gave 'incompatibility' and
              Catherine's 'incompetence in managing a household' as the official reasons for the separation, and would
              deal quite harshly with any friends who he felt were taking Catherine's side10.

         Charles was generally rather worried about his children and their prospects. His younger daughter, Katie,
              married Charles Collins, brother of novelist Wilkie Collins, though Charles suspected that was more
             because she wanted to leave the house than because she loved him. His second son, Walter, died while in
              the Army in India, leaving fairly large debts behind for his father to pay. Charles Jr., after once filing for
              bankruptcy, began working with his father on a journal that the elder Charles had started called All the
             Year Round, and did fairly well; while second youngest son Henry excelled as a scholar, but the other five
              children seemed more inclined to debt than prosperity.

           Though Charles' health was poor11, he continued, almost until his death, to do series after series of
              readings from his work, which earned him a great deal of money while at the same time satisfying his
               longtime urge to perform onstage. His last reading was on 15 March 1870, and Charles died, probably
               from a severe stroke, on 9 June 1870. According the the wishes laid out in his will, made just the month
              before, Charles was buried in an extremely private ceremony in Westminster Abbey. Aside from his
              doctor and his lawyer, the only attendees were eight members of his family (Catherine was noticeably
              absent) Wilkie Collins; and John Forster, Charles' oldest friend and fellow literary man. Ellen Ternan, as
              usual, was nowhere to be seen at this family gathering.

          By the terms of his will, Ellen Ternan received £100012 outright, while the bulk of his estate was divided
              evenly among all his surviving children, probably amounting to £6000 to £8000 each13. Left unfinished
              (in fact, exactly half done) at the time of his death, was the infamous Mystery of Edwin Drood, leaving
              Dickensian scholars with a nice, though difficult puzzle to wrestle with. Still, Charles was one of only a
              relatively few authors who received the praise and adulation of their contemporaries14.
 

               Kaplan, Fred. Dickens: A Biography. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1988.