Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens1812-1870

Charles John Huffam Dickens

1.Dickenss lifeCharles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portse, England. His father was a Navy Pay clerk and was horrible at handling finances. At the age of 12, Dickens was sent to work at the Warrens Blacking Factory, where he hated working. His father rescued him from work and was able to send him to day school in London from 1824 to 1827.

1.Dickenss lifeAt age fifteen Charles found employment as an office boy for an attorney. In 1829 he became a reporter at Doctor's Commons Courts. By 1832 he became a shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons and a reporter for a newspaper and adopted his famous name Boz.

Success with autobiographical novels: Oliver Twist (1838), David Copperfield (184950), Little Dorrit (1857). Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854), Great Expectations (1860-61) set against the background of social issues. Busy editor of magazines. Died in 1870.

He wrote a series of texts called Sketches by Boz, which were published in 1836. He was also hired to write short texts called The Pickwick Papers to accompany humorous sports illustrations designed by artist Robert Seymour.

The Pickwick Papers were published through November 1837 and became an enormous success.

Dickens became a fulltime novelist after the success of The Pickwick Papers. In 1837 he started writing Oliver Twist and it continued in monthly parts through April of 1839. In 1838 he began Nicholas Nickleby and it was completed in 1841. In July of 1844, A Christmas Carol was published and proved to be another successful work.

A few works were published between A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield. In 1859 parts of A Tale of Two Cities was published in his weekly paper All the Year Round. At about the same time Great Expectations also appeared weekly until August of 1861.

Last yearsOn 9 June 1865, while returning from Paris with Ellen Ternan, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash. The train's first seven carriages plunged off a cast iron bridge that was under repair. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling. Before rescuers arrived, Dickens tended and comforted the wounded and the dying with a flask of brandy and a hat refreshed with water, and saved some lives. Before leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for Our Mutual Friend, and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it.Dickens later used this experience as material for his short ghost story, "The Signal-Man", in which the central character has a premonition of his own death in a rail crash. He also based the story on several previous rail accidents, such as the Clayton Tunnel rail crash of 1861. Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquest to avoid disclosing that he had been travelling with Ternan and her mother, which would have caused a scandal.Notable worksDickens published more than a dozen major novels, a large number of short stories, including a number of Christmas-themed stories, a handful of plays, and several non-fiction books. Dickens's novels were initially serialised in weekly and monthly magazines, then reprinted in standard book formats.The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (Monthly serial, April 1836 to November 1837)[165]The Adventures of Oliver Twist (Monthly serial in Bentley's Miscellany, February 1837 to April 1839)The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Monthly serial, April 1838 to October 1839)A Christmas Carol (1843)Dombey and Son (Monthly serial, October 1846 to April 1848)David Copperfield (Monthly serial, May 1849 to November 1850)Bleak House (Monthly serial, March 1852 to September 1853)Hard Times: For These Times (Weekly serial in Household Words, 1 April 1854, to 12 August 1854)Little Dorrit (Monthly serial, December 1855 to June 1857)A Tale of Two Cities (Weekly serial in All the Year Round, 30 April 1859, to 26 November 1859)Great Expectations (Weekly serial in All the Year Round, 1 December 1860 to 3 August 1861)Our Mutual Friend (Monthly serial, May 1864 to November 1865)