Charles Dickens: a short biography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Charles Dickens is, without a doubt, the most popular English writer of the 19th century, who found great love among readers during his lifetime. He rightfully occupies a leading place among the classics of world literature.

Family

Charles Dickens, whose brief biography is presented in this article, was born in 1812 in Landport. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles was the second of eight children in the family.

His father worked at the naval base of the Royal Navy, but was not a hard worker, but an official. In 1815 he was transferred to London, where he moved with his whole family. However, they did not live long in the capital. Chatham was waiting for them two years later.

Due to excessive expenses, inconsistent with the we alth of the family, John Dickens ended up in a debtor's prison in 1824, where his wife and children joined him on weekends. He was incredibly lucky, because after a few months he received an inheritance and was able to pay off his debts.

John was awarded a pension at the Admir alty and, in addition, the salary of a reporter, which he worked part-time in one of the newspapers.

Childhood and youth

Charles Dickens, biographywhich is of interest to lovers of literature, went to school in Chatham. Because of his father, he had to go to work early. It was a wax factory where the boy was paid six shillings a week.

After his father's release from prison, Charles remained in his service at the insistence of his mother. In addition, he began attending Wellington Academy, graduating in 1827.

In May of the same year, Charles Dickens got a job as a junior clerk in a law firm, and a year and a half later, having mastered shorthand, he began working as a freelance reporter.

In 1830 he was invited to the Moning Chronicle.

Career start

The novice reporter was immediately accepted by the public. His notes attracted the attention of many.

In 1836, the first literary experiments of the writer were published - the moralizing "Essays of Boz".

He mainly wrote about the petty bourgeoisie, its interests and state of affairs, drew literary portraits of Londoners and psychological sketches.

I must say that Charles Dickens, whose brief biography does not allow covering all the details of his life, began to publish his novels in newspapers in separate chapters.

The Pickwick Papers

The novel began to appear in 1836. As new chapters appeared, the readership of the writer only grew.

In this book, Charles Dickens shows old England from different angles. The focus is on the good-natured eccentric Mr. Pickwick, whose name eventually becamehousehold name.

Members of the club travel around England and observe the temperaments of different people, often getting into funny and ridiculous situations themselves.

Creating a novel is a very interesting chapter in its own right. Dickens received an offer once a month to compose a short story corresponding to one of the engravings of the artist Robert Seymour. Everyone discouraged the writer from this venture, but he seemed to feel that he was creating something great.

Seymour's imminent suicide changed everything. The editors had to find a new artist. They became Fiz, who later was an illustrator of many of Dickens' works. Now not the writer, but the artist was in the background, drawing pictures corresponding to the text.

The novel made an incredible sensation. The names of the heroes immediately began to be called dogs, giving nicknames, wearing hats and umbrellas like Pickwick's.

Other works

Charles Dickens, whose biography is known to every inhabitant of Foggy Albion, made the whole of England laugh. But this helped him to solve more serious problems.

His next work was the novel "The Life and Adventures of Oliver Twist". It is difficult to imagine a person now who does not know the story of the orphan Oliver from the London slums.

Charles Dickens portrayed a broad social picture in his novel, touching on the problem of workhouses and showing the life of the rich bourgeois in contrast.

In 1843, "A Christmas Carol" was released, which became one of the mostpopular and read stories about this magical holiday.

In 1848 the novel "Dombey and Son" is published, called the best in the writer's work.

His next work is "David Copperfield". To some extent, the novel is autobiographical. Dickens brings into the work the spirit of protest against capitalist England, the old foundations of morality.

Charles Dickens, whose works are mandatory on every Englishman's shelf, has been writing exclusively social novels in recent years. For example, "Hard Times". The historical work "A Tale of Two Cities" allowed the writer to express his thoughts on the French Revolution.

The novel "Our Mutual Friend" attracts with its versatility, in which the writer takes a break from social topics. And this is where his style of writing changes. It continues to transform in the next works of the author, unfortunately, not finished.

The life of Charles Dickens was extraordinary. The writer died in 1870 from a stroke.

Interesting facts

Dickens assured that he sees and hears the characters in his works. They, in turn, constantly get in the way, do not want the writer to do anything other than them.

Charles very often fell into a trance, which his comrades noticed more than once. He was constantly haunted by a sense of deja vu.

Since 1836, the writer was married to Katherine Hogarth. The couple had eight children. From the outside, their marriage seemed happy, but Dickens was depressed by ridiculous quarrels with his wife, worries about painful children.

In 1857, he fell in love with the actress Ellen Ternan, whom he dated until his death. Of course, it was a secret relationship. Contemporaries called Ellen "the invisible woman".