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CHARLES DICKENS. Childhood. Born in Portsmouth, England on Friday, Feb. 7, 1812. The second of 8 children born to John and Elizabeth Dickens. Dreams. Charles was taught that if he worked hard and earned an education he could have anything he wanted.
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Childhood • Born in Portsmouth, England on Friday, Feb. 7, 1812. • The second of 8 children born to John and Elizabeth Dickens
Dreams • Charles was taught that if he worked hard and earned an education he could have anything he wanted. • He dreamed of owning Gads Hill Place-the nicest house between Rochester and Gravesend.
Trouble Comes • In 1817 John Dickens moved his family to Chatham & Charles experienced the best part of his childhood. • In 1824 the family moved to London and John Dickens was sent to Southwark to Marshalsea debtors’ prison.
Charles Goes to Work • 12 year old Charles goes to work in Warren’s Blacking Factory--where he put labels on bottles of shoe polish. • He earned 6 shillings a week to help support his family--about 3 cents • He was disturbed to have been “cast out at such a young age.” • His novel David Copperfield is based on this experience.
Life Goes On • John Dickens is paroled when a family member dies and leaves a legacy. • Charles continues his education at Wellington House Academy • Gets a job as a court reporter in the Court of Doctor’s Commons and then at the Morning Chronicle.
A Career Begins… • December 1833 his first piece is published in The Monthly Magazine and it was followed by 9 more. • Eventually all of these were published together as Sketches by Boz. • He was writing under the pseudonym BOZ at this time.
Love and Marriage • April 2,1836 Charles marries Catherine Hogarth the daughter of George Hogarth , a fellow employee at the Morning Chronicle. • They have 10 children together before they separate in 1858.
Mary Hogarth • Catherine had a younger sister named Mary. She was beautiful and came to help the Dickens with housework shortly after they were married. Mary died at 17 in Charles’ arms-he wore her ring until his death. She was his ideal woman-innocent, young and beautiful.
Success • 1836 Dickens published The Pickwick Papers in 20 monthly installments. Each issue sold 40,000 copies.
Success • 1837-He begins to write Oliver Twist -this novel tells the story of Dickens’ life at the blacking factory. • It is his attack on a society that lets the poor suffer while the rich grow more wealthy.
Nicholas Nickleby • 1838 Dickens begins to write Nicholas Nickleby. It was a comedy that sold over 50,000.
A ChristmasCarol • December 1843 Dickens begins his most popular work: A Christmas Carol. • This story portrays a society saved by love and generosity.
David Copperfield • This is Dickens most autobiographical work. It was published from May 1849-November 1850 in 20 installments. • 1850 Dickens started The Guild of Literature and Art.
Other Works • A Tale of Two Cities • Great Expectations • His final work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood was never finished.
Death and Memory • Charles Dickens dies on June 9, 1870 and he was buried at Westminster Abbey in the Poet’s Corner. • His tombstone reads: He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering and the oppressed; and by his death , one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world.
Memory con’t • Dickens felt that society as a whole needed to take responsibility for the poor. All of his works reflect this idea. • Dickens was to Victorian England what Shakespeare was to Elizabethan England. • He wrote 15 major novels and countless short stories.
