Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens
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(1812-1870)
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Who is Charles Dickens?
Charles Dickens was a British novelist, journalist, editor,
illustrator and social commentator who wrote such beloved
classic novels as Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas
Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great
Expectations.
Dickens is remembered as one of the most important and
influential writers of the 19th century. Among his
accomplishments, he has been lauded for providing a stark
portrait of the Victorian-era underclass, helping to bring about
social change.
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Biography
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Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffam Dickens) was born
in Landport, Portsmouth, on February 7, 1812. Charles was
the second of eight children to John Dickens (1786–1851),
a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, and his wife Elizabeth
Dickens (1789–1863). The Dickens family moved to London
in 1814 and two years later to Chatham, Kent, where
Charles spent early years of his childhood. Due to the
financial difficulties they moved back to London in 1822,
where they settled in Camden Town, a poor neighborhood
of London.
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The defining moment of Dickens's life occurred when he was 12 years old. His
father, who had a difficult time managing money and was constantly in debt, was
imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor's prison in 1824. Because of this, Charles
was withdrawn from school and forced to work in a warehouse that handled
'blacking' or shoe polish to help support the family. This experience left profound
psychological and sociological effects on Charles. It gave him a firsthand
acquaintance with poverty and made him the most vigorous and influential voice of
the working classes in his age.
After a few months Dickens's father was released from prison and Charles was
allowed to go back to school. At fifteen his formal education ended and he found
employment as an office boy at an attorney's, while he studied shorthand at night.
From 1830 he worked as a shorthand reporter in the courts and afterwards as a
parliamentary and newspaper reporter.

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Dickens`s early career
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After finishing his education, Dickens’s first job was as a law clerk.
His duties mainly included handling cash, delivering documents, and
running other errands. This didn’t last for long though, and after two
years he left this job to become a journalist.
As a journalist, Dickens reported on the government and elections for
the Morning Chronicle newspaper. This job worked well with his love
of writing, and before long he submitted his first literary work.
The short sketch called A Dinner at Poplar Walk was published in
December 1833 in a London literary magazine. Though this work
wasn’t particularly popular or well known, it was the beginning of a
very successful career for the writer.

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Charles Dickens Novels
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It didn’t take long before Dickens was becoming more popular as a novelist, and
his first serial novel, The Pickwick Papers, sold over 40,000 copies of its final
installment in 1836. As he was finishing this first novel, he started work on Oliver
Twist, which would become one of his most famous works. Dickens was writing
up to 90 pages a month at this time, and by 1838 the book was published,
becoming the first Victorian novel with a child as the lead character.
Dickens’s novels continued to be very successful, and he followed Oliver Twist
with other popular works such as Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39) and The Old
Curiosity Shop (1840-41).
In 1842, Dickens spent much of his time in the U.S. and Canada on a visit with
his wife. He attended a lot of talks and wrote about his experiences in a
travelogue. Once he returned to England he set about writing his first Christmas
story, A Christmas Carol. The book was published in 1843, and the story of
Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas became one of the most
famous of all time.

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Later in his career, Dickens’s books became more serious and focussed
on a lot of social issues that he saw at the time. His book David
Copperfield (1850) was partly based on his childhood, and along with the
novel Hard Times (1854), he spoke about the poor conditions in factories
and workhouses.
Some of Dickens’s last works became some of his most famous novels.
In 1859 he published A Tale of Two Cities, a novel based around the
French Revolution. The opening lines of this book are some of the most
recognizable of any novel. His last renowned novel was published in
1860, called Great Expectations. This story about an orphan named Pip
was incredibly popular and remains one of the most well known British
novels to this day.
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Charles Dickens’s
Legacy
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Dickens continued writing right up until his death on June 9, 1870, and he was
partway through publishing the novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Since he passed
away, Charles Dickens has remained an important figure in literary history, and his
books are still incredibly popular today.
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Thanks for
attention!
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