1. CHARLES DICKENS INTERESTING FACTS AND INFORMATION The writer of poverty, injustice, comedy and crime.

2. CHARLES DICKENS: THE QUINTESSENTIAL V I C T O R I A N AU T H O R Charles Dickens was born on the 7th February 1812 in Portsmouth.

3. VICTORIAN ENGLAND The Victorian age in British history is named after Queen Victoria, who was Britain's queen from 1837 until 1901. What was life like for Victorian children? There were big differences in homes, schools, toys and entertainments. No TV, no computers, no central heating, no cars only horse and carriage (until the last few years of Victoria's reign). No air travel - unless you went up in a balloon! Many children went to work, not to school.

4. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The Industrial Revolution (the era of rapid and great change in industry and manufacturing with the growth of factories- 1700) changed Britain from a land of small towns, villages and farms to a land of cities, large towns and factories. The population grew from 16 million in 1801 to over 41 million in 1901. Cities grew fast as people moved from the countryside to work in factories. Men, women and children worked in factories and in coal mines. Factory and mine owners became rich but workers were very poor. They were paid low wages and lived in unhealthy, overcrowded slums.

5. THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS Charles Dickens came from a poor family but he was lucky enough to attend school. Unfortunately, his father was jailed for having bad debts so Dickens was forced to leave school early and start working in a boots polish factory. He worked here for three years and the conditions were very bad resulting in Dickens suffering with lonliness as a young boy.

6. DICKENS CAREER At the beginning Dickens called himself Boz, this was his penname. Dickens started to write as a journalist. He contributed articles to journals called The Mirror of Parliamentand The True Sun. In 1833 he was employed as a parliamentary reporter for a newspaper and started to produce a series of sketches. Later in 1836, a story by Dickens The Pickwick Paperswas published as a seriel. This became very popular and Dickens began to become famous. In 1836 Dickens also married Catherine Hogarth who was the daughter of one of his editors.

7. DICKENS WORK Charles Dickens went on to produce a massive amount of material during his lifetime. He published fifteen novels, wrote hundreds of short stories and non-fiction pieces, lectured and performed both in England and in the United States, wrote plays, wrote thousands of letters and edited two journals.

8. OFFSPRING AND DEATH After having ten children together, Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth separated in 1858. Charles Dickens died on 9th June 1870. He suffered a stroke after completing a full days work on his novel in progress, Edwin Drood. He was buried in Poets Corner of Westminister Abbey.

9. WHAT THE DICKENS ? RANDOM FACTS Dickens was interested in the paranormal. He was a member of The Ghost Club. In 1865 Charles Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst Rail Crash. His was the only first class carriage to avoid running off the tracks. Apparently, Dickens helped many of the wounded passengers before rescuers arrived. Charles Dickens has appeared on the British 10 note.

10. Dickens kept a pet raven called Grip, which he had stuffed when he died in 1841. He was eccentric and was an obessive compulsive, reportedly always re- arranging his hotel furniture and having to sleep with his head facing north. He supported the use of hypnotism and attempted to use it to cure his wife and children. In his study he had a secret door which was designed like a bookcase filled with fake books. Dickens had almost demonic energy. Often unable to sleep, he would take long night walks through the streets of London.

11. CHARLES DICKENS NOVELS The Pickwick Papers The Adventures of Oliver Twist The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby The Old Curiosity Shop Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty A Christmas Carol The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit The Chimes The Cricket on the Hearth The Battle of Life Dombey and Son The Haunted Man and the Ghosts Bargain David Copperfield Bleak House Hard Times: For These Times Little Dorrit A Tale of Two Cities Great Expectations Our Mutual Friend The Mystery of Edwin Drood (never completed by Dickens)

12. NICHOLAS NICKLEBY Nicholas Nickleby is an early novel of Charles Dickens and is a melodramatic tale of the adventures of a young man as he struggles to find fortune in Victorian England. The novel critises societys bad treatment of children and the cruelty of the education system. This book was originally published in 20 monthly installments under BozDickens pen-name and came out as a book in 1839.

13. BRIEF OVERVIEW The story of Nicholas Nickleby is about a 19 year old boy whose father dies. When this happens his uncle, Ralph Nickleby who is a mean-spirited money lender , makes him become an assistant teacher at Dotheboys Hall. The school is run by the Head Teacher Wackford Squeers who is very unkind and is very creul to the children that attend the school. Angry by Squeers bad treatment of the boys, Nickleby attacks Squeers and then runs away, taking the little boy who is the main victim Smike with him. Nickleby and Smike become involved in lots of adventures while Ralph Nicklby makes evil plots against Nicholas his nephew. The book uses comedy and dark subject matters and is a sharp and moving social critique.

14. NICHOLAS NICKLEBY FILM TRAILER Listen to the plot overview, what can you hear?