His Life – His WorksHis Life – His Works

Charles John Huffan Charles John Huffan DickensDickensearly alias: Boz

Born: February 7, 1812 Portsmouth England

The Life of Charles Dickens

 

Dickens was born in London, England on February 7, 1812. He lived in poverty and suffered greatly. When he was 12, his father, a gambler who liked to live beyond his means, was jailed for debt. Charles had to go to work.  

Charles worked long hours in a shoe polish factory. He worked 40-60 hours per week putting labels on bottles of shoe polish. He was paid poorly for this.

This experience was so influential on Dickens that his literary work reflects how it effected him. This experience was also enough to make Charles take the side of the underdog (the person not expected to win, for example, the poor). Many of his characters are children who suffer from poverty. 

Oliver Twist asking the orphanage governor for more food.

 

Victorian London was the largest, most spectacular city in the world. Britain was

experiencing the Industrial Revolution, its capital was reaping the benefits and suffering the

consequences. In 1800 London’s population was around a million,

by 1880 4.5 million.

Dickens’ London:was a London of rapid change. Important transportation and manufacturing advancements were made each year. Products could be made faster and people could travel farther and more quickly.

This had its problems!-mostly women and children were laborers in factories-pollution began to choke the city-the government and other people became corrupt by greed

Working and living conditions deteriorated in London. The judicial system was corrupt, sanitation was not widely practiced, and members of the lower class were treated poorly.

This picture shows typical housing for the poor-many people crammed into small quarters where disease and fires were devastating.

City streets—people & places -A time of contradictions.

Imagine yourself in the

London of the early 19th century.

Homes of the upper and middle class

exist in close proximity to areas of unbelievable poverty and filth.

Street sweepers attempt to keep the streets clean of manure,

the result of thousands of horse-drawn vehicles.

Child Labor

Children as young as 5 were often set to work begging or sweeping chimneys in London, England the nineteenth century.

You would most likely be working a 12 to 16 hour shift for a very low salary, maybe one pence.

The city's thousands of chimney pots are belching coal smoke, resulting in soot which seems to settle everywhere.

In many parts of the city raw sewage flows in gutters that empty into the Thames (tɛmz).

These works all relate to a deteriorating human condition. Dickens realistically portrays people and the city of London.

Young boys working in the coal mines.

A political cartoon depicting how unsanitary the drinking water was for the poor. It came directly from the Thames River, where raw sewage was dumped. Many died from drinking it.

Dickens became angered with these changes. His later novels are laced with satire about education, government, greed, sanitation, and the treatment of children and the poor. Because Dickens works criticize the treatment of women, children and the poor. He helped to change he way they were treated. He is now known as an important social reformer.

This picture of “street boys” was a common sight. These boys, as young as 4, lived on the streets and begged for food (and tried to steal it). 

Charles Dickens

Married: Catherine (Hogarth) DickensApril 2, 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea 10 Children

Dickens– His WorksDickens– His Works

Dickens– Early WorksDickens– Early Works

• The Pickwick Papers - April 1836 to November 1837

• Oliver Twist - February 1837 to April 1839

• Nicholas Nickleby - April 1838 to October 1839

• The Old Curiosity Shop - 25 April 1840 to 6 February 1841

• Barnaby Rudge - 13 February 1841, to 27 November 1841

Dickens– Christmas Dickens– Christmas StoriesStories

• A Christmas Carol – 1843 (ghost)

• The Chimes – 1844 (goblin)

• The Cricket on the Hearth – 1845 (fairy tale)

• The Battle of Life – 1846

• The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain – 1848 (ghost)

All were done as complete novels, not serials.

Dickens– Later WorksDickens– Later Works

• David Copperfield - May 1849 to November 1850

• Bleak House - March 1852 to September 1853

• Little Dorrit - December 1855 to June 1857

• A Tale of Two Cities - 30 April 1859, to 26 November 1859

• Great Expectations - 1 December 1860 to 3 August 1861

Dickens major novels were published serially-monthly or weekly. A full length

novel cost 31 shillings. In 1836, 6 to 20 shillings were earned per week. A monthly

installment (32 pages with 2 illustrations and advertisements) could be sold for a

shilling.

““Dickens’ greatest friendship Dickens’ greatest friendship was, from the beginning, with his was, from the beginning, with his

audience.”audience.”

English literature, English literature, his creativity is his creativity is rivaled only by rivaled only by Shakespeare's.”Shakespeare's.”

““In all ofIn all of

Dickens' cherished little Christmas story, the best loved and most read of all of his books,

began life as the result of the author's desperate need of money, expecting their fifth

child. Published (5 shillings - affordable to nearly everyone) during the week before

Christmas 1843 it was an instant sensation. Dickens work was instantly the victim of

pirated editions. Copyright laws in England were often loosely enforced.

“..it was the Christmas stories of Dickens that

rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America.”

“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book….

to raise the Ghost of an Idea…

May it haunt their houses pleasantly,

And no one wish to lay it down.”And no one wish to lay it down.”

Charles DickensCharles DickensA Christmas CarolA Christmas Carol

Literary Quotes

Bah Bah Humbug!Humbug!

““I wear the chains I forged in life.”I wear the chains I forged in life.”

Date of Death: Thursday, June 9, 1870 (stroke) Burial: Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, London

•Charles Dickens http://www.clovisusd.k12.ca.us/learn/curriculum/language/dickens/Dickens%20Intro.ppt

•David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens

•TNT’s A Christmas Carol http://tnt.turner.com/movies/tntoriginals/xmascarol/

•Charles Dickens Gad’s Hill Place http://www.perryweb.com/Dickens/

•Charles Dickens Victorian Web Sitehttp://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/dickens/dickensov.html

•Victoriana http://www.victoriana.com/welcome/

•The World of Charles Dickens http://www.geocities.com/pdubelbeis/

Works CitedWorks Cited