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Charles Dickens This
greatest of Victorian writers was born in Landport,
Portsmouth, on February 7, 1812. His father John worked as a clerk in the
Navy Payroll Office in Portsmouth. The elder Dickens was transfered
several times, first to London, then to Chatham, and finally, in 1822, back
to London, where the family lived in Camden Town. John
Dickens was constantly in debt, and in 1824 he was imprisoned in Marshalsea debtor's prison (Southwark).
Charles was forced to leave school at the age of 12 and go to work in a
bootblack factory to help support the Dickens family.
It was his
personal experience of factory work and the living conditions of the poor
that created in Dickens the compassion which was to mark his literary works
such as Oliver Twist. Dickens
was released from the purgatory of Warren's Blacking Factory when his father
received a legacy from a relative, and could finally pay his debts and be set
free from Marshalsea. Charles went to Wellington
House Academy for two years, then took work at
Gray's Inn as a clerk. Dickens
worked as a Parliamentary reporter before finally moving on to The Morning
Chronicle in 1834. His first published work appeared in Monthly
Magazine in December 1833, and he followed it with nine more, penning his
name as "Boz" to the last two articles.
The pseudonym "Boz" was drawn from a pet
name for his younger brother when they were children. In 1836 his articles
were compiled and published as "Sketches by Boz". Shortly
after Boz was published, Dickens married, to
Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of a co-worker at the Morning Chronicle newspaper.
Together they had 10 children before they separated in 1858, but it was not
Catherine but her younger sister, Mary, who was to prove the inspiration for
many of Dicken's literary heroines. She remained to
him an ideal of womanhood that found expression in his characters such as
Rose Maylie (Oliver Twist), and Agnes Wickfield (David Copperfield). Dickens
followed up "Sketches" with his first commercial success,
"Pickwick Papers" (more properly The Posthumous Papers of
the Pickwick Club). This collection of 20 short stories was appeared in
monthly installments and it became a publishing phenomenon - easily the most
widely read literary work in English to that date. Although
the series was largely humorous, it also dealt with the grim social iniquities
of the time, and it was this awareness and concern for the plight of the
lower classes that was to mark much of Dickens' life work. Dickens
was working on another serialised novel while Pickwick
Papers was running. This work proved to be one of his most enduring, a
tale of innocence amid the squalor of London's criminal classes, Oliver
Twist, which was published from 1837-38. Dickens
kept up his prodigious output, and Nicholas Nickleby
followed quickly on the heels of Oliver Twist. In his new work Dickens
tried to combine the humour of Pickwick with the
cry for social reforms of Oliver. It worked, and sales of Nicholas Nickleby reached 50,000 copies evey
month. Dickens
started his own magazine, a weekly titled Master Humphrey's Clock. In
MHC he introduced the tragic heroine, Little Nell, in the serialised
tale of The Old Curiosity Shop. It was this work which gave him
international fame, and the name of Charles Dickens spread to the USA, where
he was enormously popular. In
December 1843 Dickens wrote one of his most enduring works, the short story
entitled A Christmas Carol. Lesser known Christmas tales followed in
subsequent years, such as The Chimes (1844) and The Cricket and the
Hearth (1845). In these stories and his longer works Dickens constantly
returned to themes of social inequality and oppression of the poor. The
largely autobiographical David Copperfield followed in 1850. In that
year he also helped found the Guild of Literature and Arts to assist
struggling artists. The Guild raised money through public theatrical
performances, and Dickens was a regular performer at Guild events. He loved
the stage, and it was this love of dramatic performance which he brought to
public readings of his works. Dickens
literary output remained prolific, with later works including A Tale of
Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-61), and Our Mutual
Friend (1864-5). Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870 and was buried at
Westminster Abbey. Principle Works by Charles
Dickens Sketches by Boz - 1836 |
© http://www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/dickens.htm
Other biographies: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Academic year
2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© María Vergara Martínez
maverma@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press