biography charles dickens

• History & Society
• Science & Tech
• Biographies
• Animals & Nature
• Geography & Travel
• Arts & Culture
• Games & Quizzes
• On This Day
• One Good Fact
• New Articles
• Lifestyles & Social Issues
• Philosophy & Religion
• Politics, Law & Government
• World History
• Health & Medicine
• Browse Biographies
• Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
• Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
• Environment
• Fossils & Geologic Time
• Entertainment & Pop Culture
• Sports & Recreation
• Visual Arts
• Demystified
• Image Galleries
• Infographics
• Top Questions
• Britannica Kids
• Saving Earth
• Space Next 50
• Student Center
• Introduction & Top Questions

Beginning of a literary career

Novels from the pickwick papers to martin chuzzlewit.

• The invention of the Christmas books
• The product of his age
• Dombey and Son and David Copperfield
• Novels from Bleak House to Little Dorrit
• Marital unhappiness: Catherine Dickens and Ellen Ternan
• Public readings
• Final novels: A Tale of Two Cities , Great Expectations , and Our Mutual Friend
• Farewell readings
• Critical opinion and scholarship

Why is Charles Dickens important?

What was charles dickens’s early life like.

Charles Dickens

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

• Spartacus Educational - Biography of Charles Dickens
• Historic UK - The Life of Charles Dickens
• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Charles Dickens
• Humanities LibreTexts - Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
• Australian Dictionary of Biography - Biography of Charles Dickens
• The Victorian Web - Biography of Charles Dickens
• Poetry Foundation - Biography of Charles Dickens
• Charles Dickens - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Charles Dickens - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

What did Charles Dickens write?

Among Charles Dickens’s many works are the novels The Pickwick Papers (1837),  Oliver Twist (1838),  A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), and  Great Expectations (1861). In addition, he worked as a journalist, writing numerous items on political and social affairs.

Charles Dickens is considered the greatest English novelist of the Victorian era. He enjoyed a wide popularity, his work appealing to the simple and the sophisticated. The range, compassion, and intelligence of his view of society and its shortcomings enriched his novels and made him one of the great forces in 19th-century  literature .

Charles Dickens’s father, a clerk, was well paid, but his failings often brought the family trouble. In 1824 Charles was withdrawn from school and did manual factory work, and his father went to prison for debt . Those shocks deeply affected Charles. After a brief return to the classroom, his schooling ended at age 15.

Charles Dickens (born February 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire , England—died June 9, 1870, Gad’s Hill, near Chatham, Kent) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era . His many volumes include such works as A Christmas Carol , David Copperfield , Bleak House , A Tale of Two Cities , Great Expectations , and Our Mutual Friend .

Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity during his lifetime than had any previous author. Much in his work could appeal to the simple and the sophisticated , to the poor and to the queen, and technological developments as well as the qualities of his work enabled his fame to spread worldwide very quickly. His long career saw fluctuations in the reception and sales of individual novels, but none of them was negligible or uncharacteristic or disregarded, and, though he is now admired for aspects and phases of his work that were given less weight by his contemporaries, his popularity has never ceased. The most abundantly comic of English authors, he was much more than a great entertainer. The range, compassion, and intelligence of his apprehension of his society and its shortcomings enriched his novels and made him both one of the great forces in 19th-century literature and an influential spokesman of the conscience of his age.

(Read G.K. Chesterton’s 1929 Britannica essay on Dickens.)

Early years

Dickens left Portsmouth in infancy. His happiest childhood years were spent in Chatham (1817–22), an area to which he often reverted in his fiction. From 1822 he lived in London , until, in 1860, he moved permanently to a country house, Gad’s Hill, near Chatham. His origins were middle class, if of a newfound and precarious respectability; one grandfather had been a domestic servant, and the other an embezzler. His father, a clerk in the navy pay office, was well paid, but his extravagance and ineptitude often brought the family to financial embarrassment or disaster. (Some of his failings and his ebullience are dramatized in Mr. Micawber in the partly autobiographical David Copperfield .)

In 1824 the family reached bottom. Charles, the eldest son, had been withdrawn from school and was now set to manual work in a factory, and his father went to prison for debt. These shocks deeply affected Charles. Though abhorring this brief descent into the working class, he began to gain that sympathetic knowledge of its life and privations that informed his writings. Also, the images of the prison and of the lost, oppressed, or bewildered child recur in many novels. Much else in his character and art stemmed from this period, including, as the 20th-century novelist Angus Wilson has argued, his later difficulty, as man and author, in understanding women: this may be traced to his bitter resentment against his mother, who had, he felt, failed disastrously at this time to appreciate his sufferings. She had wanted him to stay at work when his father’s release from prison and an improvement in the family’s fortunes made the boy’s return to school possible. Happily, the father’s view prevailed.

His schooling, interrupted and unimpressive, ended at 15. He became a clerk in a solicitor’s office, then a shorthand reporter in the lawcourts (thus gaining a knowledge of the legal world often used in the novels), and finally, like other members of his family, a parliamentary and newspaper reporter. These years left him with a lasting affection for journalism and contempt both for the law and for Parliament. His coming to manhood in the reformist 1830s, and particularly his working on the Liberal Benthamite Morning Chronicle (1834–36), greatly affected his political outlook. Another influential event now was his rejection as suitor to Maria Beadnell because his family and prospects were unsatisfactory; his hopes of gaining and chagrin at losing her sharpened his determination to succeed. His feelings about Beadnell then and at her later brief and disillusioning reentry into his life are reflected in David Copperfield ’s adoration of Dora Spenlow and in the middle-aged Arthur Clennam ’s discovery (in Little Dorrit ) that Flora Finching , who had seemed enchanting years ago, was “diffuse and silly,” that Flora, “whom he had left a lily, had become a peony.”

Much drawn to the theatre , Dickens nearly became a professional actor in 1832. In 1833 he began contributing stories and descriptive essays to magazines and newspapers; these attracted attention and were reprinted as Sketches by “Boz” (February 1836). The same month, he was invited to provide a comic serial narrative to accompany engravings by a well-known artist; seven weeks later the first installment of The Pickwick Papers appeared. Within a few months Pickwick was the rage and Dickens the most popular author of the day. During 1836 he also wrote two plays and a pamphlet on a topical issue (how the poor should be allowed to enjoy the Sabbath) and, resigning from his newspaper job, undertook to edit a monthly magazine , Bentley’s Miscellany , in which he serialized Oliver Twist (1837–39). Thus, he had two serial installments to write every month. Already the first of his nine surviving children had been born; he had married (in April 1836) Catherine, eldest daughter of a respected Scottish journalist and man of letters, George Hogarth.

For several years his life continued at this intensity. Finding serialization congenial and profitable, he repeated the Pickwick pattern of 20 monthly parts in Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39); then he experimented with shorter weekly installments for The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–41) and Barnaby Rudge (1841). Exhausted at last, he then took a five-month vacation in America, touring strenuously and receiving quasi-royal honours as a literary celebrity but offending national sensibilities by protesting against the absence of copyright protection. A radical critic of British institutions, he had expected more from “the republic of my imagination,” but he found more vulgarity and sharp practice to detest than social arrangements to admire. Some of these feelings appear in American Notes (1842) and Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44).

His writing during these prolific years was remarkably various and, except for his plays, resourceful. Pickwick began as high-spirited farce and contained many conventional comic butts and traditional jokes; like other early works, it was manifestly indebted to the contemporary theatre, the 18th-century English novelists, and a few foreign classics, notably Don Quixote . But, besides giving new life to old stereotypes , Pickwick displayed, if sometimes in embryo, many of the features that were to be blended in varying proportions throughout his fiction: attacks, satirical or denunciatory, on social evils and inadequate institutions; topical references; an encyclopaedic knowledge of London (always his predominant fictional locale); pathos; a vein of the macabre; a delight in the demotic joys of Christmas ; a pervasive spirit of benevolence and geniality; inexhaustible powers of character creation; a wonderful ear for characteristic speech, often imaginatively heightened; a strong narrative impulse; and a prose style that, if here overdependent on a few comic mannerisms, was highly individual and inventive. Rapidly improvised and written only weeks or days ahead of its serial publication, Pickwick contains weak and jejune passages and is an unsatisfactory whole—partly because Dickens was rapidly developing his craft as a novelist while writing and publishing it. What is remarkable is that a first novel , written in such circumstances, not only established him overnight and created a new tradition of popular literature but also survived, despite its crudities, as one of the best-known novels in the world.

His self-assurance and artistic ambitiousness appeared in Oliver Twist , where he rejected the temptation to repeat the successful Pickwick formula. Though containing much comedy still, Oliver Twist is more centrally concerned with social and moral evil (the workhouse and the criminal world); it culminates in Bill Sikes ’s murdering Nancy and Fagin ’s last night in the condemned cell at Newgate. The latter episode was memorably depicted in an engraving by George Cruikshank ; the imaginative potency of Dickens’s characters and settings owes much, indeed, to his original illustrators (Cruikshank for Sketches by “Boz” and Oliver Twist , “Phiz” [ Hablot K. Browne ] for most of the other novels until the 1860s). The currency of his fiction owed much, too, to its being so easy to adapt into effective stage versions. Sometimes 20 London theatres simultaneously were producing adaptations of his latest story, so even nonreaders became acquainted with simplified versions of his works. The theatre was often a subject of his fiction, too, as in the Crummles troupe in Nicholas Nickleby . This novel reverted to the Pickwick shape and atmosphere, though the indictment of the brutal Yorkshire schools (Dotheboys Hall) continued the important innovation in English fiction seen in Oliver Twist —the spectacle of the lost or oppressed child as an occasion for pathos and social criticism . This was amplified in The Old Curiosity Shop , where the death of Little Nell was found overwhelmingly powerful at the time, though a few decades later it became a byword for what would be referred to, broadly, as “Victorian sentimentality.” In Barnaby Rudge he attempted another genre , the historical novel . Like his later attempt in this kind, A Tale of Two Cities , it was set in the late 18th century and presented with great vigour and understanding (and some ambivalence of attitude) the spectacle of large-scale mob violence.

To create an artistic unity out of the wide range of moods and materials included in every novel, with often several complicated plots involving scores of characters, was made even more difficult by Dickens’s writing and publishing them serially. In Martin Chuzzlewit he tried “to resist the temptation of the current Monthly Number, and to keep a steadier eye upon the general purpose and design” (1844 Preface). Its American episodes had, however, been unpremeditated (he suddenly decided to boost the disappointing sales by some America-baiting and to revenge himself against insults and injuries from the American press). A concentration on “the general purpose and design” was more effective in the next novel, Dombey and Son (1846–48), though the experience of writing the shorter, and unserialized, Christmas books had helped him obtain greater coherence .

Charles Dickens

• Classic Literature
• Classic Authors

Charles Dickens Biography

Dickens, Charles John Huffam (1812-1870), probably the best-known and, to many people, the greatest English novelist of the 19th century. A moralist, satirist, and social reformer, Dickens crafted complex plots and striking characters that capture the panorama of English society.

Dickens's novels criticize the injustices of his time, especially the brutal treatment of the poor in a society sharply divided by differences of wealth. But he presents this criticism through the lives of characters that seem to live and breathe. Paradoxically, they often do so by being flamboyantly larger than life: The 20th-century poet and critic T. S. Eliot wrote, "Dickens's characters are real because there is no one like them." Yet though these characters range through the sentimental, grotesque, and humorous, few authors match Dickens's psychological realism and depth. Dickens's novels rank among the funniest and most gripping ever written, among the most passionate and persuasive on the topic of social justice, and among the most psychologically telling and insightful works of fiction. They are also some of the most masterful works in terms of artistic form, including narrative structure, repeated motifs, consistent imagery, juxtaposition of symbols, stylization of characters and settings, and command of language.

Dickens established (and made profitable) the method of first publishing novels in serial instalments in monthly magazines. He thereby reached a larger audience including those who could only afford their reading on such an instalment plan. This form of publication soon became popular with other writers in Britain and the United States.

II Early Years

Dickens was born in Portsmouth, on England's southern coast. His father was a clerk in the British Navy pay office a respectable position, but with little social status. His paternal grandparents, a steward (property manager) and a housekeeper, possessed even less status, having been servants, and Dickens later concealed their background. Dickens's mother supposedly came from a more respectable family. Yet two years before Dickens's birth, his mother's father was caught embezzling and fled to Europe, never to return.

The family's increasing poverty forced Dickens out of school at age 12 to work in Warren's Blacking Warehouse, a shoe-polish factory, where the other working boys mocked him as "the young gentleman." His father was then imprisoned for debt. The humiliations of his father's imprisonment and his labor in the blacking factory formed Dickens's greatest wound and became his deepest secret. He could not confide them even to his wife, although they provide the unacknowledged foundation of his fiction.

Soon after his father's release from prison, Dickens got a better job as errand boy in law offices. He taught himself shorthand to get an even better job later as a court stenographer and as a reporter in Parliament. At the same time, Dickens, who had a reporter's eye for transcribing the life around him, especially anything comic or odd, submitted short sketches to obscure magazines. The first published sketch, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk" (later retitled "Mr. Minns and His Cousin") brought tears to Dickens's eyes when he discovered it in the pages of The Monthly Magazine in 1833. From then on his sketches, which appeared under the pen name "Boz" (rhymes with "rose") in The Evening Chronicle, earned him a modest reputation. Boz originated as a childhood nickname for Dickens's younger brother Augustus.

Dickens became a regular visitor at the home of George Hogarth, editor of The Evening Chronicle, and in 1835 became engaged to Hogarth's daughter Catherine. Publication of the collected Sketches by Boz in 1836 gave Dickens sufficient income to marry Catherine Hogarth that year. The marriage proved unhappy.

III Literary Career

Soon after Sketches by Boz appeared, the fledgling publishing firm of Chapman and Hall approached Dickens to write a story in monthly instalments. The publisher intended the story as a backdrop for a series of woodcuts by the then-famous artist Robert Seymour, who had originated the idea for the story. With characteristic confidence, Dickens, although younger and relatively unknown, successfully insisted that Seymour's pictures illustrate his own story instead. After the first instalment, Dickens wrote to the artist he had displaced to correct a drawing he felt was not faithful enough to his prose. Seymour made the change, went into his backyard, and expressed his displeasure by blowing his brains out. Dickens and his publishers simply pressed on with a new artist. The comic novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, appeared serially in 1836 and 1837 and was first published in book form The Pickwick Papers in 1837.

The runaway success of The Pickwick Papers , as it is generally known today, clinched Dickens's fame. There were Pickwick coats and Pickwick cigars, and the plump, spectacled hero, Samuel Pickwick, became a national figure. Four years later, Dickens's readers found Dolly Varden, the heroine of Barnaby Rudge (1841), so irresistible that they named a waltz, a rose, and even a trout for her. The widespread familiarity today with Ebenezer Scrooge and his proverbial hard-heartedness from A Christmas Carol (1843) demonstrate that Dickens's characters live on in the popular imagination.

Dickens published 15 novels, one of which was left unfinished at his death. These novels are, in order of publication with serialization dates given first: The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836-1837; 1837); The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1837-1839; 1838); The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839; 1839); The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841; 1841); Barnaby Rudge (1841); Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844; 1844); Dombey and Son (1846-1848; 1848); The Personal History of David Copperfield (1849-1850; 1850); Bleak House (1852-1853; 1853); Hard Times (1854); Little Dorrit (1855-1857; 1857); A Tale of Two Cities (1859); Great Expectations (1860-1861; 1861); Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865; 1865); and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished; 1870).

Through his fiction Dickens did much to highlight the worst abuses of 19th-century society and to prick the public conscience. But running through the main plot of the novels are a host of subplots concerning fascinating and sometime ludicrous minor characters. Much of the humor of the novels derives from Dickens's descriptions of these characters and from his ability to capture their speech mannerisms and idiosyncratic traits.

A Early Fiction

Dickens was influenced by the reading of his youth and even by the stories his nursemaid created, such as the continuing saga of Captain Murderer. These childhood stories, as well as the melodramas and pantomimes he saw in the theater as a boy, fired Dickens's imagination throughout his life. His favorite boyhood readings included picaresque novels such as Don Quixote by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes and Tom Jones by English novelist Henry Fielding, as well as the Arabian Nights. In these long comic works, a roguish hero's exploits and adventures loosely link a series of stories.

The Pickwick Papers , for example, is a wandering comic epic in which Samuel Pickwick acts as a plump and cheerful Don Quixote, and Sam Weller as a cockney version of Quixote's knowing servant, Sancho Panza. The novel's preposterous characters, high spirits, and absurd adventures delighted readers.

After Pickwick, Dickens plunged into a bleaker world. In Oliver Twist , he traces an orphan's progress from the workhouse to the criminal slums of London. Nicholas Nickleby , his next novel, combines the darkness of Oliver Twist with the sunlight of Pickwick. Rascality and crime are part of its jubilant mirth.

The Old Curiosity Shop broke hearts across Britain and North America when it first appeared. Later readers, however, have found it excessively sentimental, especially the pathos surrounding the death of its child-heroine Little Nell. Dickens's next two works proved less popular with the public.

Barnaby Rudge , Dickens's first historical novel, revolves around anti-Catholic riots that broke out in London in 1780. The events in Martin Chuzzlewit become a vehicle for the novel's theme: selfishness and its evils. The characters, especially the Chuzzlewit family, present a multitude of perspectives on greed and unscrupulous self-interest. Dickens wrote it after a trip to the United States in 1842.

B Mature Fiction

Many critics have cited Dombey and Son as the work in which Dickens's style matures and he succeeds in bringing multiple episodes together in a tight narrative. Set in the world of railroad-building during the 1840s, Dombey and Son looks at the social effects of the profit-driven approach to business. The novel was immediately successful.

Dickens always considered David Copperfield to be his best novel and the one he most liked. The beginning seems to be autobiographical, with David's childhood experiences recalling Dickens's own in the blacking factory. The unifying theme of the book is the "undisciplined heart" of the young David, which leads to all his mistakes, including the greatest of them, his mistaken first marriage.

Bleak House ushers in Dickens's final period as a satirist and social critic. A court case involving an inheritance forms the mainspring of the plot, and ultimately connects all of the characters in the novel. The dominant image in the book is fog, which envelops, entangles, veils, and obscures. The fog stands for the law, the courts, vested interests, and corrupt institutions. Dickens had a long-standing dislike of the legal system and protracted lawsuits from his days as a reporter in the courts.

A novel about industry, Hard Times , followed Bleak House in 1854. In Hard Times , Dickens satirizes the theories of political economists through exaggerated characters such as Mr. Bounderby, the self-made man motivated by greed, and Mr. Gradgrind, the schoolmaster who emphasizes facts and figures over all else. In Bounderby's mines, lives are ground down; in Gradgrind's classroom, imagination and feelings are strangled.

The pervading image of Little Dorrit is the jail. Dickens's memory of his own father's time in debtors' prison adds an autobiographical touch to the novel. Little Dorrit also contains Dickens's invention of the Circumlocution Office, the archetype of all bureaucracies, where nothing ever gets done. Through this critique and others, such as the circular legal system in Bleak House , Dickens also investigated the ways in which art makes meaning and the workings of his own narrative style.

A Tale of Two Cities is set in London and Paris during the French Revolution (1789-1799). It stands out among the novels as a work driven by incident and event rather than by character and is critical both of the violence of the mob and of the abuses of the aristocracy, which prompted the revolution. The successful Tale of Two Cities was soon followed by Great Expectations , which marked a return to the more familiar Dickensian style of character-driven narrative. Its main character, Pip, tells his own story. Pip's "great expectations" are to lead an idle life of luxury. Through Pip, Dickens exposes that ideal as false.

Dickens's last complete novel is the dark and powerful Our Mutual Friend . A tale of greed and obsession, it takes place in an ill-lit and dirty London, with images of darkness and decay throughout. Only 6 of the 12 intended parts of Edwin Drood had been completed by the time Dickens died. He intended it as a mystery story concerning the disappearance of the title character.

IV Final Years

The end of Dickens's life was emotionally scarred by his separation from his dutiful wife, Catherine, as the result of his involvement with a young actress, Ellen Ternan. Catherine bore him ten children during their 22-year marriage, but he found her increasingly dull and unsympathetic. Against the advice of editors, Dickens published a letter vehemently justifying his actions to his readers, who would otherwise have known nothing about them.

Following the separation, Dickens continued his hectic schedule of novel, story, essay, and letter writing (his collected letters alone stretch thousands of pages); reform activities; amateur theatricals and readings; in addition to nightly social engagements and long midnight walks through London. His energy had always seemed to his friends inhuman, but he maintained this activity in his later years in disregard of failing health. Dickens died of a stroke shortly after his farewell reading tour, while writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood .

V Achievement

Dickens's social critique in his novels was sharp and pointed. As his biographer Edgar Johnson observed in Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph (1952), Dickens's criticism was aimed not just at "the cruelty of the workhouse and the foundling asylum, the enslavement of human beings in mines and factories, the hideous evil of slums where crime simmered and proliferated, the injustices of the law, and the cynical corruption of the lawmakers" but also at "the great evil permeating every field of human endeavour: the entire structure of exploitation on which the social order was founded."

British writer George Orwell felt that Dickens was not a revolutionary, however, despite his criticism of society's ills. Orwell points out that Dickens "has no constructive suggestions, not even a clear grasp of the nature of the society he is attacking, only an emotional perception that something is wrong." That instinctive feeling becomes so moving in the novels because Dickens made the injustices he hated concrete and specific, not abstract and general. His readers feel the abuses of 19th-century society as real through the life of his characters. Underlying and reinforcing that illusion of reality, however, is a rich and complicated system of symbolic imagery resulting from superb artistry.

Through his characters, Dickens also touched a range of readers, which was perhaps his greatest talent. As his friend John Forster wrote, his stories enthralled "judges on the bench and boys in the street" alike. The illiterate, often too poor to buy instalments themselves, pooled their pennies and got someone to read aloud to them.

Near the end of the serialization of The Old Curiosity Shop , crowds thronged to a New York pier to await the ship from London carrying the latest instalment. As it came to the dock people roared, "Is Little Nell dead?" The pathetic death of the novel's child-heroine, Nell Trent, became one of the most celebrated scenes in 19th-century fiction. Such public concern over Little Nell's end guaranteed that Dickens's social message would be heard, not only by his avid readers, but also by those in power.

Dickens was a careful craftsman, with a strong sense of design; his books were strictly outlined. Any current notions that Dickens's novels are long because he was paid by the word, or sloppy because he wrote them under pressure of monthly deadlines, are simply untrue. What organizes Dickens's stories is sometimes not apparent at first glance, although it makes sense in novels that emphasize character. It is the logic of psychology, the tensions and contradictions of our drives and emotions, which Dickens plumbed, laying side by side the best and the worst of the human heart. This is a very different logic from the order of realism that rests on common sense. Dickens detested common sense, seeing in its seeming obviousness a form of tyranny.

The theater was a crucial influence on Dickens's work. As a young man Dickens tried to go on stage, but he missed his audition because of a cold. Not only did Dickens later write comic plays, melodramas, and libretti (words for musical dramas), he was also often involved in amateur theatricals for good causes, and spent his last two decades reading his own stories to packed audiences. Dickens's readings were as much a sensation in England and America as was his writing, and they proved as profitable. The readings revealed the part of the man that made him a practiced magician and hypnotist as well.

Dickens's love of the theatrical makes his works lend themselves readily to media adaptations. Motion-picture or television versions exist for almost every one of them. A Christmas Carol was one of the earliest to be adapted, first appearing as the silent film Scrooge (1901), directed by Walter R. Booth. The most notable adaptations include A Christmas Carol (1938), directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Reginald Owen, and, probably the most famous of all, A Christmas Carol (1951), directed by Brian Desmond Hart and starring Alastair Sim. A later production titled Scrooged (1988) was directed by Richard Donner and starred Bill Murray. David Lean directed the most famous of the many versions of Great Expectations (1946). The film Oliver! (1968), a musical based on Oliver Twist and directed by Carol Reed, won six Academy Awards. Nowadays people are probably more familiar with the many BBC television miniseries productions of Dickens's works.

Contributed By: Laurie Langbauer, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Professor of English, University of North Carolina. Author of Novels of Everyday Life: The Series in English Fiction, 1850-1930.

JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED. Please enable JavaScript on your browser to best view this site.

Charles Dickens Info

The life and work of charles dickens.

• A Christmas Carol
• Daily Quote by Charles Dickens
• Random Charles Dickens Quote
• Quotes by Title
• Quotes by Topic
• Browse Charles Dickens Quotes
• About Us and Citation
• Books About Charles Dickens
• Books About the Victorian Era
• Book Reviews
• Links and Bibliography

Charles Dickens Biography

Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) was a Victorian author whose novels include A Christmas Carol , Oliver Twist , and Great Expectations .

This short biography tells about his work and little-known aspects of his life.

Table of Contents

The Childhood of Charles Dickens 1812 – 1824

Dickens enters the workforce 1827 – 1831, marriage and fame 1833 – 1854, the later years 1856 – 1870.

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth.  The city is located in Hampshire, England and is about 70 miles southwest of London.

Birthplace of Charles Dickens located in Portsmouth, England

His father, John Dickens was a clerk in a payroll office of the navy.  John Dickens was the inspiration for the character of Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield .

John Dickens, the father of Charles Dickens

His mother, Elizabeth (Barrow) Dickens inspired the characters of Mrs. Nickleby in Nicholas Nickleby and Mrs. Micawber in David Copperfield .

Elizabeth Dickens, the mother of Charles Dickens

Charles was the second of the couple’s eight children.

Finances were a constant concern for the family.  John and Elizabeth were an outgoing, social couple.  The costs of entertaining along with the expenses of having a large family were too much for John’s salary. When Charles was just four months old the family moved to a smaller home to cut costs.

Despite the family’s financial struggles, young Charles dreamed of becoming a gentleman.  In 1824, when he was 12, it looked like his dreams would never come true.

That year, the family sent Charles to work in a blacking or shoe-polish factory. Charles was deeply marked by these experiences. He rarely spoke of that time of his life.

Illustration by Fred Bernard of young Charles Dickens at work in a shoe-blacking factory. (from the 1892 edition of Forster’s Life of Dickens)

Happily, John Dickens was able to come to an agreement with his creditors within a few months of his imprisonment. Shortly after that, he ended his son’s employment at the blacking factory and enrolled him in Wellington House Academy instead.

Learn more about the childhood of Charles Dickens including the influence of Mary Weller and the betrayal by his mother.

In May of 1827 Dickens left Wellington House Academy and entered the workforce as a law clerk at the firm of Ellis and Blackmore. His duties included keeping the petty cash fund, delivering documents, running errands and other sundry tasks.

In 1829 he changed careers and became a court stenographer. To qualify for that position Dickens had to learn the Gurney system of shorthand writing.

Example of Gurney Shorthand

In 1831 he became a shorthand reporter with the Mirror of Parliament.  The publication gave accounts of the activity in the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

During this time Dickens considered becoming an actor. He was so serious about the matter that he arranged for an audition at the Lyceum Theater. However, he was ill on the day of his audition and could not go.

In December 1833 Charles Dickens’s first literary effort was published. It was a sketch or essay entitled A Dinner at Poplar Walk . Other sketches soon followed.

In 1834 Dickens met Catherine Hogarth, the woman who would become his wife.  They became engaged in 1835 and were married in April of 1836. In January of 1837 the first of their ten children was born.

Learn more about the children of Charles Dickens . The eldest went bankrupt and was later hired by his father. “Chickenstalker” joined the Canadian Mounted Police. The youngest became a Member of Parliament in New South Wales.

The Pickwick Papers   was the first novel of Charles Dickens.  It was published in monthly installments from March of 1836 until November 1837.

Charles Dickens was the author of 15 novels. He also wrote short stories, essays, articles and novellas. See a list of work by Charles Dickens .

In June of 1837 something happened that only occurred once in Dickens’s career.  He missed a deadline.  He was writing two serialized novels at once, The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist .  However in June of 1837 there was no Pickwick .  There was no Oliver Twist .  Instead there was a funeral.

At that time, Dickens’s sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth was living with Charles and Catherine.  Mary was a favorite with the couple and was like a little sister to Charles.  On the evening of May 6th Mary went with the couple to the St. James Theatre.  Everything seemed fine. The group returned late in the evening and Mary retired for the night.  Shortly after that Dickens heard a cry from Mary’s room.  She was ill.  Despite her doctor’s care Mary passed away in Dickens’s arms the next day.

Dickens would relive this sad incident in his life while writing The Old Curiosity Shop .  He was traumatized by the death of Little Nell in that novel.  Dickens wrote to a friend about Little Nell’s death, “Old wounds bleed afresh when I think of this sad story.”

Nicholas Nickleby ,  the third novel of Charles Dickens, was published in installments starting in 1838.  One of Dickens’s goals in writing Nicholas Nickleby was to expose the ugly truth about Yorkshire boarding schools.

In 1841 Charles and Catherine traveled to Scotland and Barnaby Rudge was published.

Charles Dickens’s sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth in later years

Charles and Catherine traveled to America in 1842.  While on tour Dickens often spoke of the need for an international copyright agreement . The lack of such an agreement enabled his books to be published in the United States without his permission and without any royalties being paid.

The United States left quite an impression on Dickens, a very unfavorable impression.

Dickens was horrified by slavery, appalled by the common use of spitting tobacco and indignant about his treatment by the press.

 His feelings came out in American Notes and later in Martin Chuzzlewit .

As Washington may be called the head-quarters of tobacco-tinctured saliva, the time is come when I must confess, without any disguise, that the prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expectorating began about this time to be anything but agreeable, and soon became most offensive and sickening.  In all the public places of America, this filthy custom is recognised.  In the courts of law, the judge has his spittoon, the crier his, the witness his, and the prisoner his; while the jurymen and spectators are provided for, as so many men who in the course of nature must desire to spit incessantly. ~ American Notes by Charles Dickens

Sketch of Charles Dickens in 1842 (Small image on the bottom left is his sister, Fanny)

In 1842 Catherine’s sister, Georgina, came to live with the couple. Georgina helped with the children and the house. She remained part of the Dickens household until the death of her brother-in-law.

In September of 1843 Dickens visited the Field Lane Ragged School. In a letter to his friend, Miss Coutts, he described what he saw at the school:

 I have very seldom seen, in all the strange and dreadful things I have seen in London and elsewhere anything so shocking as the dire neglect of soul and body exhibited in these children.  And although I know; and am as sure as it is possible for one to be of anything which has not happened; that in the prodigious misery and ignorance of the swarming masses of mankind in England, the seeds of its certain ruin are sown.

In October of that year Dickens began work on A Christmas Carol .  It was published on December 19, 1843.

Publication of Dombey and Son began in 1846.  It was Dickens’s seventh novel.

1851 was a difficult year.  John Dickens, the father of Charles Dickens, died in March.  Catherine Dickens suffered a nervous collapse.  Later Dora Dickens , the youngest daughter of Charles and Catherine, died when she was only eight months old.  

There were also bright spots in 1851. It was the year that Dickens moved into Tavistock House.  It was there that he wrote Bleak House , H ard Times and Little Dorrit .

Dickens bought Gad’s Hill Place in 1856.  He would own the home for the rest of his life.

The above photo shows Dickens at Gad’s Hill in 1862. The back row from left to right is; H.F. Chorley, Kate Dickens, Mamie Dickens and Charles Dickens. Seated are C.A. Collins and Georgina Hogarth.

In 1857 Dickens met the woman who was to be his companion until his death, Ellen Ternan.

Dickens had already become disenchanted with his wife. He wrote to a friend, “Poor Catherine and I are not made for each other, and there is no help for it. It is not only that she makes me uneasy and unhappy, but that I make her so too—and much more so.”

Meeting Ellen stressed the differences between the marriage Dickens had and the relationship that he wanted. Later in 1857 Charles and Catherine took separate bedrooms. In 1858 they legally separated.

In 1858 Charles Dickens began giving professional readings.  The readings were a combination of oratory and passionate acting.  They were very popular and Dickens continued to give them throughout his life.

“Charles Dickens as he appears when reading.” Illustration in Harper’s Weekly, December 1867.

Charles Dickens founded the weekly publication  All the Year Round.   The first issue was printed in April of 1859.  Dickens served as editor and publisher.  One feature of the publication was its serialization of novels.  The first novel serialized in  All the Year Round  was  A Tale of Two Cities .

Publication of Great Expectations began in 1860.  It was also serialized in  All the Year Round.

In June of 1865 Charles Dickens had a brush with death.  Dickens, Ellen Ternan and her mother were involved in the Staplehurst railway accident .  The train’s first seven carriages went off a bridge that was being repaired. 

Dickens was uninjured and helped people that were hurt in the accident.  When help finally arrived and the accident scene was being evacuated Dickens remembered something. He made his way back into the wrecked train one last time to retrieve the latest installment of Our Mutual Friend , the novel he was writing at the time.

It would be the last novel he ever completed.

Dickens returned to America in 1867 for an extensive reading tour. 

In 1869 Dickens’s doctor advised him against giving further public readings. The events were popular, but the strain to his system was too great.

In October of 1869, at Gad’s Hill Place, Dickens began work on The Mystery of Edwin Drood . He would never finish it.

Dickens arranged a farewell tour and gave his last reading in March of 1870. It is thought that the effects of the readings was one of the factors leading to his death.

On June 9, 1870 Dickens died at Gad’s Hill Place.

Five of the Best Books about Charles Dickens

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

From detailed biographies of Dickens to ground-breaking works of literary criticism, there have been hundreds of books published about Charles Dickens ‘s life and work. Here are five of our favourites – five of the finest books about Dickens for the reader seeking to negotiate their way through the great novelist’s work.

Disclaimer: as an Amazon Associate, we get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

This is still one of the best biographies – perhaps  the  best biography – of Charles Dickens out there. True, the biography written by Dickens’s friend John Forster and published shortly after Dickens’s death is a hugely important source of information about the novelist’s life, but Ackroyd’s detailed picture of Victorian England and Dickens’s development as, effectively, a chronicler of his time is gripping and absorbing.

The full version of Ackroyd’s biography runs to over 1,000 pages, but is also recommended for the Dickens aficionado.

One of the finest critical studies of Dickens’s fiction, and probably the funniest ever written. First published in the early 1970s and written by one of the greatest living critics, John Carey’s  The Violent Effigy examines Dickens’s work thematically, paying particular attention to the childlike worldview Dickens retained throughout his life. One of those books to read and reread for its wisdom, and its (laugh-out-loud) wit.

Published in 1941, House’s study of Dickens’s novels in their Victorian context was a groundbreaking work of historically-informed criticism, and is a valuable analysis of the various intersections between Dickens’s fiction and the period in which it was written.

A more recent biography, written by a leading biographer of other writers including Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, and Samuel Pepys. Tomalin is especially good on Dickens’s later years, including the breakdown of his marriage to Catherine and his relationship with the actress Ellen Ternan. Offers a nice complementary read alongside Ackroyd’s biography.

In this recent critical biography of Dickens, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst takes the innovative approach of focusing solely on Dickens’s early years and the beginning of his career, examining how Dickens’s failed attempts to become a stage actor fed into his writing, and how his apprenticeship as a journalist and reporter helped him to learn his distinctive style. Douglas-Fairhurst writes beautifully and virtually every page of his biography yields a fabulous and astute critical insight into Dickens’s work.

Are there any really good and informative books about Charles Dickens that we’ve left off this list? What, for your money, is the best book about Dickens’s life and work?

Continue to explore the world of Charles Dickens with our discussion of his forgotten history book for children and our pick of his best novels .

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email…

7 thoughts on “Five of the Best Books about Charles Dickens”

I did go to hear Clare Tomalin speak about her Dickens bio at the Sydney Writers’ Festival last year and really enjoyed the talk. Bought the book, which is still in my pile along with a few of Dickens novels, which she inspired me to read. I am currently reading Roald Dahl’s bio and I absolutely love it. Don’t ask me who wrote it but I found excerpts of it online and had to read it. When it arrived, I was a bit freaked out to find it is 600 pages long but it’s a great read. He was an incredible man who survived such incredible adversity. He is a real inspiration to me. xx Rowena

Reblogged this on zsyed272 .

Reblogged this on Truth Troubles: Why people hate the truths' of the real world .

Reblogged this on Janet’s thread .

Talent and a lovely💞💖 heart

Reblogged this on Jude's Threshold and commented: Always a favorite!

I must disagree with at least one of your choices.

Michael Slater’s “Charles Dickens” from a few years ago is the best overall life of the lot written in the last twenty years. Slater uses Dickens’s journalism as a point of entry to many of the biographical details of his later life to great success. Slater is probably the world’s most renowned living Dickens expert.

If you want to read Tomalin, read her ground-breaking “The Invisible Woman,” which brought Ellen Ternan’s story out into the full light of day. Or read her bio of Thomas Hardy, better than her book on Dickens in just about every way.

“Becoming Dickens” is superb.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Learn more about Charles Dickens:

• Dickens Fast Facts
• Dickens Biography
• Dickens' Novels
• Dickens' Characters
• Illustrating Dickens
• Dickens' London
• Mapping Dickens
• Dickens & Christmas
• Family and Friends
• Dickens in America
• Dickens' Journalism
• Dickens on Stage
• Dickens on Film
• Reading Dickens
• Dickens Glossary
• Dickens Quotes
• Bibliography
• Dickens Collection
• About this Site

Dickens Timelines

Discover Dickens' life and work depicted graphically .

Catherine Dickens

Catherine (Hogarth) Dickens (1815-1879) - Charles Dickens' wife, with whom he fathered 10 children. She was born in Scotland on May 19, 1815 and came to England with her family in 1834. Catherine was the daughter of George Hogarth , editor of the Evening Chronicle where Dickens was a young journalist. They were married on April 2, 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea and honeymooned in Chalk, near Chatham.

Charles was undoubtably in love at the outset but his feelings for Catherine wained as the family grew. With the birth of their last child in 1852 Dickens found Catherine an increasingly incompetent mother and housekeeper ( Johnson, 1952, p. 905-909 ) . Their separation, in 1858, was much publicized and rumors of Dickens unfaithfulness abounded, which he vehemently denied in public. Dickens and Catherine had little correspondence after the break, Catherine moving to a house in London with oldest son, Charley , and Dickens retreating to Gads Hill in Kent with Catherine's sister, Georgina , and all of the children except Charlie remaining with him. On her deathbed in 1879 she gave her collection of Dickens' letters to daughter Kate instructing her to " Give these to the British Museum, that the world may know he loved me once " ( Schlicke, 1999, p. 153-157 ) .

Katherine is buried at Highgate Cemetery , London.

Read a letter from Dickens to John Forster concerning separation from Catherine.

What Shall We Have for Dinner?

Around 1850 Catherine released a collection of recipes and bills of fare for dinners for from two to eighteen people. The book, published by Bradbury and Evans, was called What Shall We Have for Dinner? and was written under the pen name Lady Maria Clutterbuck. Charles Dickens wrote the introduction using Maria's voice ( Nayder, 2011, p. 186-189 ) . The book is referred to as the source of Christmas dinner in Thomas Keneally's novel The Dickens Boy .

Amazon.com: The Other Dickens: A Life of Catherine Hogarth by Lillian Nayder

The Life of Charles Dickens

An illustrated hypertext biography of charles dickens, childhood and education.

• The Law and Early Jounalism
• Early Novels
• Middle Years
• Later Years

At this point the family consisted of Charles, older sister Fanny , younger brothers Alfred and Frederick , and younger sister Letitia . Everyone except Charles and Fanny went to live in the Marshalsea with their parents. Fanny was boarding at the Royal Academy of Music, and Charles initially lodged with a landlady in Camden Town in north London. This proved to be too long a walk every day to the blacking factory and his family in the Marshalsea, so a room was found for him on Lant Street in Southwark near the prison.

Young Charles, who dreamed of growing up a gentleman, found these dreams dashed working alongside common boys at the blacking factory and later wrote "It is wonderful to me how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age." Dickens shared this painful part of his childhood through the story of David Copperfield although no one realized it was autobiographical until related by biographer John Forster after Dickens' death ( Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 22-39 ) .

Charles was to further his education at Wellington House Academy , a school run by the harsh schoolmaster William Jones , a man who delighted in corporal punishment and who Dickens later described as " by far the most ignorant man I have ever had the pleasure to know ". Charles would spend nearly three years, aged 12-15, at Wellington House, leaving in the spring of 1827 ( Slater, 2009, p. 25-27 ) . Many of his experiences at school, and the masters who taught there, would later find their way into his fiction.

The Law and Early Journalism

Charles had been fascinated with the theatre since childhood and often attended the theatre to break the monotony of reporting on parliamentary proceedings. He wrote to George Bartley, manager of the Covent Garden Theatre, in 1832 asking for an audition, which was granted. On the day of the audition Charles was ill with a bad cold and inflammation of the face and missed the appointment. He wrote to Bartley explaining the illness and that he would apply for another audition next season. He would later marvel at how near he came to a very different sort of life ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 139-140 ) .

Dickens, writing feverishly, as well as holding down the job of a reporter, now found himself in the throes of romance. He became a regular visitor to the Hogarth household and soon proposed marriage, which Catherine quickly accepted ( Slater, 2009, p. 47 ) . They were married at St. Luke's church, Chelsea on April 2, 1836. Two months previous his collection of short stories was published in book form by John Macrone entitled Sketches by Boz with illustrations by popular artist George Cruikshank ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 174 ) . Dickens' pseudonym Boz came from his younger brother Augustus's through-the-nose pronunciation of his own nickname, Moses.

The Early Novels

Upon returning home he penned the promised travel book, American Notes , a rather unflattering description of America, and followed that with Martin Chuzzlewit , published in monthly parts, in which the protagonist goes to America and is subjected to the same sort of puffed up, mercenary people Dickens found there. The story was not well received and did not sell well ( Patten, 1978, p. 133 ) . Neither had Barnaby Rudge ( Schlicke, 1999, p. 33 ) , and Dickens felt that perhaps his lamp had gone out.

Dickens found himself in dire financial straits. He had borrowed heavily from his publishers for the American trip and his family continued to grow with their fifth child, son Francis , on the way. His feckless father was borrowing money in Charles' name behind his back. He needed an idea for a new book that would satisfy his pecuniary problems ( Slater, 2009, p. 215-220 ) .

The seeds for the story that became A Christmas Carol were planted in Dickens' mind during a trip to Manchester to deliver a speech in support of education. Thoughts of education as a remedy for crime and poverty, along with scenes he had recently witnessed at the Field Lane Ragged School , caused Dickens to resolve to " strike a sledge hammer blow " for the poor ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 408-409 ) . As the idea for the story took shape and the writing began in earnest, Dickens became engrossed in the book. He wrote that as the tale unfolded he " wept and laughed, and wept again' and that he 'walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed " ( Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 326 ) . Dickens was at odds with Chapman and Hall over the low receipts from Martin Chuzzlewit and decided to self-publish the book, overspending on color illustrations and lavish binding and then setting the cost low so that everyone could afford it ( Slater, 2009, p. 220 ) . The book was an instant success but royalties were low after production costs were paid .

Serialization of Martin Chuzzlewit came to a conclusion in July, 1844, and Dickens conceived of the idea of another travel book; this time he would go to Italy ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 426 ) . The family spent a year in Italy, first in Genoa, and then traveling through the southern part of the country. He wrote the second of his Christmas Books, The Chimes ( Slater, 2009, p. 230-231 ) , while in Genoa and sent his adventures home in the form of letters which were published in the Daily News . These were collected into a single volume entitled Pictures from Italy in May, 1846 ( Davis, 1999, p. 318 ) .

During the 1840s Dickens, with a troupe of friends and family in tow, began acting in amateur theatricals in London and across Britain. Charles worked tirelessly as actor and stage manager and often adjusted scenes, assisted carpenters, invented costumes, devised playbills, and generally oversaw the entire production of the performances ( Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 436 ) . The Dickens' amateur troupe even performed twice for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert ( Davis, 1999, p. 4 ) .

The Middle Years

In 1839 the Dickens family moved from Doughty Street to a larger home at Devonshire Terrace near Regent's Park . The family continued to grow with the addition of sons Alfred (1845), Sydney (1847), and Henry (1849).

Dickens continued to write a book for the Christmas season every year. After A Christmas Carol (1843), and The Chimes (1844), he followed with The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848). All of these sold well at the time of publication but none endured as A Christmas Carol has ( Schlicke, 1999, p. 97 ) .

Dickens had begun writing an autobiography in the late 1840s that he shared with his friend and future biographer, John Forster ( Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 22 ) . He found the writing too painful and opted instead to work his story into the fictional account of David Copperfield , which he later described as his personal favorite among his novels ( David Copperfield , p. xii ) . The story was serialized from May 1849 until November 1850. During the writing of Copperfield the tireless Dickens began another venture, a weekly magazine called Household Words . Charles worked as editor as well as contributor with additional pieces supplied by other writers. Also during the writing of Copperfield Catherine gave birth to a daughter, named for David Copperfield's wife Dora ( Slater, 2009, p. 312 ) . Dora , sickly from birth, died at 8 months old ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 627-628 ) .

Dickens followed David Copperfield with what many consider one of his finest novels, Bleak House ( Davis, 1999, p. 35 ) . Dickens used his previous experience as a court reporter to tell the story of a prolonged case in the Courts of Chancery. During the writing of Bleak House Catherine gave birth to a son, Edward (1852), nicknamed Plorn. Edward would be last of Charles and Catherine's children and the family moved again, this time to Tavistock House . Following Bleak House Dickens serialized his next book, Hard Times , in his weekly magazine, Household Words . Following Hard Times Dickens returned to the painful childhood memory of his father's imprisonment for debt with the story of Little Dorrit . Amy Dorrit's father, William , was a prisoner in the Marshalsea debtor's prison and Amy was born there.

During the 1850s Charles and Catherine's marriage started to show signs of trouble. Dickens grew increasingly dissatisfied with Catherine whom, after giving birth to ten children, had grown quite stout and lethargic. She was increasingly unable to keep up with her energetic husband ( Schlicke, 1999, p. 155 ) . The problem came to a head when Dickens became enthralled with a young actress he met during one of his amateur theatricals, Ellen Ternan . Charles and Catherine were separated in 1858 and caused a public stir mostly contributed to by Dickens' desire to exonerate himself ( Johnson, 1952, p. 922-925 ) . All of the Dickens children, with exception of Charley , would live with their father, as would Catherine's sister, Georgina . The relationship with Ternan, the depth of which is still being debated ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 914-918 ) , would continue the rest of Dickens' life.

Dickens and his children now moved into the mansion Gads Hill Place in Kent that he had purchased in 1856 near his childhood home of Chatham. As a boy, Dickens would walk by the impressive house, built in 1780, with his father who told him that with hard work he could someday live in such a splendid mansion ( Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 6 ) . In 1864 Dickens received, from actor friend Charles Fechter, a two-story Swiss chalet that Dickens had installed across the road from Gads Hill with a tunnel under the road for access ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 955-956 ) . Dickens wrote his his final works in his study on the top floor of the chalet.

The separation with Catherine also caused a rift between Dickens and his publishers, Bradbury and Evans . Bradbury and Evans also published the popular magazine Punch . When they refused to publish Dickens' personal statement , his explanation for the recent separation, Charles was furious and refused to have further dealings with them. He ceased publication of his weekly magazine, Household Words , continuing it under a new name, All the Year Round , and with his old publishers, Chapman and Hall ( Kaplan, 1988, p. 395-401 ) .

In the 1850s Dickens began reading excerpts of his books in public, first for charity, and, beginning in 1858, for profit. These readings proved extremely popular with the public and Dickens continued them for the rest of his life. The readings included excerpts from his Christmas books , David Copperfield , and Nicholas Nickleby , with A Christmas Carol , for which he wrote a condensed verion , and The Trial from Pickwick being the most popular ( Davis, 1999, p. 328 ) . He later included the dramatic murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist , the performance of which took a toll on Dickens' fragile health ( Johnson, 1952, p. 1144 ) .

The Later Years

In May, 1864, Dickens began publication of what would be his last completed novel. Published in monthly installments, Our Mutual Friend touches the familiar theme of the evils and corruption that the love of money brings. Poor health causing perhaps a stutter in his usual creative genius, Dickens found beginning the novel difficult, he wrote to Forster "Although I have not been wanting in industry, I have been wanting in invention" ( Letters, 1998, v. 10, p. 414 ) . After finally finding his footing, the monthly installments did not sell well despite a massive advertising blitz ( Patten, 1978, p. 307-308 ) .

On the 9th of June, 1865, traveling back from France with Ellen Ternan and her mother, and with the latest installment of Our Mutual Friend , the train in which they were traveling was involved in an accident in Staplehurst, Kent. Many were killed but Dickens and his companions escaped serious injury although Dickens was severely shaken. Three years later he wrote that he still experienced " vague rushes of terror even riding in hansom cabs " ( Johnson, 1952, p. 1018-1021 ) .

In the late 1850s Dickens began to contemplate a second visit to America , tempted by the money he could make by extending his public readings there. Despite pleas not to go from friends and family because of increasingly ill health ( Johnson, 1952, p. 1070 ) , he finally decided to go and arrived in Boston on November 19, 1867. The original plan called for a visit to Chicago and as far west as St. Louis. Because of ill health and bad weather this idea was scrapped and Dickens did not venture from the northeastern states ( Slater, 2009, p. 580 ) . He stayed for 5 months and gave 76 extremely popular performances for which he earned, after expenses, an incredible £19,000 ( Schlicke, 1999, p. 17 ) .

Dickens returned home in May, 1868, somewhat revitalized during the sea voyage, to a full load of work. He immediately plunged back into editing All the Year Round and, in October, began a farewell reading tour of Britain that included a new, very passionate, and physically taxing, performance of the murder of Nancy from Oliver Twist ( Davis, 1999, p. 353 ) .

Monthly publication of what was to be his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood , began in April, 1870. On the evening of June 8, 1870, Dickens, after working on the latest installment of Drood that morning in the chalet at Gads Hill , suffered a stroke and died the next day ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 1076-1079 ) . The Mystery of Edwin Drood was exactly half finished and the mystery is unsolved to this day .

Dickens had wished to be buried, without fanfare, in a small cemetery in Rochester, but the Nation would not allow it. He was laid to rest in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, the flowers from thousands of mourners overflowing the open grave ( Forster, 1899, v. 2, p. 513 ) .

Affiliate Links Disclosure The Charles Dickens Page is a member of affiliate programs at Amazon and Zazzle. This means that there are links that take users to sites where products that we recommend are offered for sale. If purchases are made on these sites The Charles Dickens Page receives a small commission.

At the height of his popularity, Dickens travelled to the United States on a lecture tour. He was genuinely interested in learning about America and its institutions, but he was dismayed by social conditions, the excessive attention that was the product of America's celebrity culture, and the brazen wholesale pirating of his books by American publishers. Upon his return he gave America a less than favorable review in his American Notes.

When Charles Dickens made the decision to separate from his wife, it set off a scandal with allegation of an adulterous affair between the Middle Aged Dickens and an 18 year old actress named Ellen Ternan. To add to the scandal, there were whispers that there was also something unusual about Dickens' relationship with his sister in law.

It's not easy growing up in the shadow of a famous father. Dickens' children had to deal with their parents' acrimonious separation, Dickens haphazard parenting, and the heavy burden of trying to succeed on their own terms. Most of his children had tragic lives.

Updated: May 3, 2020

Charles Dickens online

Charles dickens biography.

Charles Dickens Biography

Birthday: February 7 , 1812 ( Aquarius )

Born In: Landport, Hampshire, England

One of the most widely read English authors of all time Charles Dickens is famous for his novels that touch upon the sensitive issues of poverty, child labour, and slavery. During a time, when depravity and oppression were the norms of English society, this talented writer had the courage to voice his opinions against these conditions. Gathering inspiration from his childhood experiences of poverty and insecurity, his novels are usually semi-autobiographical. This author was gifted with a powerful memory, and most of the characters in his novels are based on people he met and got acquainted with. This includes his own parents, who were the models for characters Mr. and Mrs. Micawber in the famous novel ‘David Copperfield’. The characters created by this novelist are popular because of their idiosyncrasies and quirky names. Some of his popular novels are 'Oliver Twist', 'A Christmas Carol', and 'Hard Times', amongst many more. Though known for his social commentary on the prevalent conditions in England, the literary works of novelist gained popularity amongst readers, editors and publishers alike. His books have seen more than 200 adaptations for the big screen, including 'The Pickwick Papers', a silent movie made in the early 20th century.

Recommended For You

British Celebrities Born In February

Nick Name: Boz, Dickens

Also Known As: Charles John Huffam Dickens

Died At Age: 58

Spouse/Ex-: Catherine Dickens

father: John Dickens

mother: Elizabeth Dickens

siblings: Alfred Allen Dickens, Alfred Lamert Dickens, Augustus Dickens, Frances Dickens, Frederick Dickens, Harriet Dickens, Letitia Dickens

children: Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, Charles Dickens Jr., Dora Annie Dickens, Edward Dickens, Francis Dickens, Henry Fielding Dickens, Kate Perugini, Mary Dickens, Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens, Walter Landor Dickens

Born Country: England

Novelists British Men

Died on: June 9 , 1870

place of death: Gads Hill Place, England

Cause of Death: Stroke

City: Hampshire, England

Humanitarian Work: Founded the 'Urania Cottage'

You wanted to know

What are some famous works by charles dickens.

Some of Charles Dickens' most famous works include "Great Expectations," "A Christmas Carol," "Oliver Twist," "David Copperfield," and "A Tale of Two Cities."

What was the writing style of Charles Dickens?

Charles Dickens is known for his vivid and descriptive writing style, often incorporating humor, social commentary, and rich character development in his novels.

How did Charles Dickens influence Victorian literature?

Charles Dickens had a significant impact on Victorian literature by shedding light on social issues, advocating for social reform, and creating memorable characters that reflected the realities of the time.

What inspired Charles Dickens to write "A Christmas Carol?"

Charles Dickens was inspired to write "A Christmas Carol" by his concern for the plight of the poor and his desire to bring attention to the issues of poverty and social inequality during the Victorian era.

What was the social impact of Charles Dickens' novels?

Charles Dickens' novels had a profound social impact by raising awareness about the harsh realities of poverty, child labor, and social injustices prevalent during the Victorian era, ultimately leading to public outcry and calls for reform.

Recommended Lists:

Charles Dickens had a pet raven named Grip, which inspired Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem "The Raven."

Dickens was known for his eccentric writing habits, such as writing in a specific blue ink and facing north while he worked.

See the events in life of Charles Dickens in Chronological Order

How To Cite

People Also Viewed

Also Listed In

© Famous People All Rights Reserved

Charles Dickens

• Born February 7 , 1812 · Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK
• Died June 9 , 1870 · Gad's Hill, Rochester, Kent, England, UK (cerebral hemorrhage)
• Birth name Charles John Huffam Dickens
• Height 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
• Charles Dickens' father was a clerk at the Naval Pay Office, and because of this the family had to move from place to place: Plymouth, London, Chatham. It was a large family and despite hard work, his father couldn't earn enough money. In 1823 he was arrested for debt and Charles had to start working in a factory, labeling bottles for six shillings a week. The economy eventually improved and Charles was able to go back to school. After leaving school, he started to work in a solicitor's office. He learned shorthand and started as a reporter working for the Morning Chronicle in courts of law and the House of Commons. In 1836 his first novel was published, "The Pickwick Papers". It was a success and was followed by more novels: "Oliver Twist" (1837), "Nicholas Nickleby" (1838-39) and "Barnaby Rudge" (1841). He traveled to America later that year and aroused the hostility of the American press by supporting the abolitionist (anti-slavery) movement. In 1858 he divorced his wife Catherine, who had borne him ten children. During the 1840s his social criticism became more radical and his comedy more savage: novels like "David Copperfield" (1849-50), "A Tale of Two Cities" (1959) and "Great Expectations" (1860-61) only increased his fame and respect. His last novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", was never completed and was later published posthumously. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Mattias Thuresson <[email protected]>
• Spouse Catherine Hogarth (April 2, 1836 - 1858) (separated, 10 children)
• Children Child Child
• Parents John Dickens Elizabeth Dickens
• Relatives Brian Forster (Great Grandchild) Monica Dickens (Great Grandchild)
• Liked to write about spartan London life.
• Is said to have been inspired to create possibly his most famous character Ebenezer Scrooge by 18th-century MP John Elwes. At one point Elwes was worth 800,000 pounds (about $100 million in 2010 money). Despite being set for life, he refused to spend a penny on luxuries like candles, a fireplace, or a roof for his bedroom (to the horror of relatives visiting when it rained). He even refused to buy clothes regularly and often wore ones that had been discarded by the homeless. Unlike Scrooge, Elwes was known for being extremely generous with his money, often loaning it to friends and never asking for it back unless they volunteered it.
• For many historians, the success of the classic story "A Christmas Carol" directly redefined the modern Western conception of Christmas and its sentiments, in effect creating the modern version of the holiday itself.
• He and his wife, Catherine Hogarth, had ten children: Charles Culliford Boz Dickens, born 1837; Mary Dickens, born 1838; Kate Macready Dickens, born 1839; Walter Savage Landor Dickens, born 1841; Francis Jeffrey "Frank" Dickens, born 1844; Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, born 1845; Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens, born 1847; Henry Fielding Dickens, born 1849; Dora Annie Dickens, born 1850; and Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, born 1852.
• Suffered from asthma. He found relief from his "chest troubles" only with opium, a popular asthma remedy of his day. Mr. Omer, one of the asthmatic characters in his autobiographical novel "David Copperfield", reflects Dickens' own suffering.
• His personal experience as a labeler in a bottle factory inspired him to write a horrific scene of child labor in "Oliver Twist".
• Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that.
• A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.
• Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which of all men have some.
• [on babies] Every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.
• [on choice] We forge the chains we wear in life.

Contribute to this page

• Learn more about contributing

More from this person

• View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro

More to explore

Recently viewed.

[ Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Authors —> Charles Dickens —> Biography —> Works ]

In 1829 he became a free-lance reporter at Doctor's Commons Courts, and in 1830 he met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker. By 1832 he had become a very successful shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons, and began work as a reporter for a newspaper.

In 1833 his relationship with Maria Beadnell ended, probably because her parents did not think him a good match (a not very flattering version of her would appear years later in Little Dorrit). In the same year his first published story appeared, and was followed, very shortly thereafter, by a number of other stories and sketches. In 1834, still a newspaper reporter, he adopted the soon to be famous pseudonym "Boz." His impecunious father (who was the original of Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield , as Dickens's mother was the original for the querulous Mrs. Nickleby) was once again arrested for debt, and Charles, much to his chagrin, was forced to come to his aid. Later in his life both of his parents (and his brothers) were frequently after him for money. In 1835 he met and became engaged to Catherine Hogarth.

After the success of Pickwick , Dickens embarked on a full-time career as a novelist, producing work of increasing complexity at an incredible rate, although he continued, as well, his journalistic and editorial activities. Oliver Twist was begun in 1837, and continued in monthly parts until April 1839. It was in 1837, too, that Catherine's younger sister Mary, whom Dickens idolized, died. She too would appear, in various guises, in Dickens's later fiction. A son, Charles, the first of ten children, was born in the same year.

Nicholas Nickleby got underway in 1838, and continued through October 1839, in which year Dickens resigned as editor of Bentley's Miscellany . The first number of Master Humphrey's Clock appeared in 1840, and The Old Curiosity Shop , begun in Master Humphrey , continued through February 1841, when Dickens commenced Barnaby Rudge , which continued through November of that year. In 1842 he embarked on a visit to Canada and the United States in which he advocated international copyright (unscrupulous American publishers, in particular, were pirating his works) and the abolition of slavery. His American Notes , which created a furor in America (he commented unfavorably, for one thing, on the apparently universal — and, so far as Dickens was concerned, highly distasteful — American predilection for chewing tobacco and spitting the juice), appeared in October of that year. Martin Chuzzlewit , part of which was set in a not very flatteringly portrayed America, was begun in 1843, and ran through July 1844. A Christmas Carol , the first of Dickens's enormously successful Christmas books — each, though they grew progressively darker, intended as "a whimsical sort of masque intended to awaken loving and forbearing thoughts" — appeared in December 1843.

In that same year, Dickens and his family toured Italy, and were much abroad, in Italy, Switzerland, and France, until 1847. Dickens returned to London in December 1844, when The Chimes was published, and then went back to Italy, not to return to England until July of 1845. 1845 also brought the debut of Dickens's amateur theatrical company, which would occupy a great deal of his time from then on. The Cricket and the Hearth , a third Christmas book, was published in December, and his Pictures From Italy appeared in 1846 in the "Daily News," a paper which Dickens founded and of which, for a short time, he was the editor.

In 1847, in Switzerland, Dickens began Dombey and Son , which ran until April 1848. The Battle of Life appeared in December of that year. In 1848 Dickens also wrote an autobiographical fragment, directed and acted in a number of amateur theatricals, and published what would be his last Christmas book, The Haunted Man , in December. 1849 saw the birth of David Copperfield , which would run through November 1850. In that year, too, Dickens founded and installed himself as editor of the weekly Household Words , which would be succeeded, in 1859, by All the Year Round , which he edited until his death. 1851 found him at work on Bleak House , which appeared monthly from 1852 until September 1853.

In 1853 he toured Italy with Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins , and gave, upon his return to England, the first of many public readings from his own works. Hard Times began to appear weekly in Household Words in 1854, and continued until August. Dickens's family spent the summer and the fall in Boulogne. In 1855 they arrived in Paris in October, and Dickens began Little Dorrit , which continued in monthly parts until June 1857. In 1856 Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated on a play, The Frozen Deep , and Dickens purchased Gad's Hill, an estate he had admired since childhood.

The Dickens family spent the summer of 1857 at a renovated Gad's Hill. Hans Christian Anderson , whose fairy tales Dickens admired greatly, visited them there and quickly wore out his welcome. Dickens's theatrical company performed The Frozen Deep for the Queen, and when a young actress named Ellen Ternan joined the cast in August, Dickens fell in love with her. In 1858, in London, Dickens undertook his first public readings for pay, and quarreled with his old friend and rival, the great novelist Thackeray. More importantly, it was in that year that, after a long period of difficulties, he separated from his wife. They had been for many years "tempermentally unsuited" to each other. Dickens, charming and brilliant though he was, was also fundamentally insecure emotionally, and must have been extraordinarily difficult to live with.

In 1859 his London readings continued, and he began a new weekly, All the Year Round . The first installment of A Tale of Two Cities appeared in the opening number, and the novel continued through November. By 1860, the Dickens family had taken up residence at Gad's Hill. Dickens, during a period of retrospection, burned many personal letters, and re-read his own David Copperfield , the most autobiographical of his novels, before beginning Great Expectations , which appeared weekly until August 1861.

1861 found Dickens embarking upon another series of public readings in London, readings which would continue through the next year. In 1863, he did public readings both in Paris and London, and reconciled with Thackeray just before the latter's death. Our Mutual Friend was begun in 1864, and appeared monthly until November 1865. Dickens was in poor health, due largely to consistent overwork.

In 1865, an incident occurred which disturbed Dickens greatly, both psychologically and physically: Dickens and Ellen Ternan, returning from a Paris holiday, were badly shaken up in a railway accident in which a number of people were injured.

A tribute to Dickens in the Hornet , 15 June 1870. Click on the image to enlarge it and for more details.

1866 brought another series of public readings, this time in various locations in England and Scotland, and still more public readings, in England and Ireland, were undertaken in 1867. Dickens was now really unwell but carried on, compulsively, against his doctor's advice. Late in the year he embarked on an American reading tour, which continued into 1868. Dickens's health was worsening, but he took over still another physically and mentally exhausting task, editorial duties at All the Year Round .

During 1869, his readings continued, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, until at last he collapsed, showing symptoms of mild stroke. Further provincial readings were cancelled, but he began upon The Mystery of Edwin Drood .

• Dickens's 1842 Reading Tour: Launching the Copyright Question in Tempestuous Seas
• Dickens's 1867-68 Reading Tour: Re-Opening the Copyright Question

Last modified March 2004

Biography of Charles Dickens

The history of charles dickens, charles john huffam dickens was an english writer and social critic. he is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the victorian era. his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. his novels and short stories are widely read today..

By Therese Porter, Director, Workshop Leader & Performer at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair

By 1857, when Charles Dickens met the young actress Ellen Ternan, he had been one of England’s most famous men for the past two decades.

To his legions of fans, who gobbled up best-selling serialized novels like The Pickwick Papers , Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol , Dickens seemed like the ultimate Victorian-era family man. Born poor, he had lifted himself up through hard work and was living out his professed ideals of domesticity and moral rectitude with his wife, Catherine, and their large brood of children.

But the truth, as always, turned out to be more complicated. Within a year, Dickens’ infatuation with the then-18-year-old Ternan — known as Nelly — would lead to the messy breakup of his marriage, and launch a relationship that would last the remainder of his life.

Dickens first met Ternan when he cast her in a play

Indulging his lifelong passion for theater and acting, Dickens was appearing in an amateur production of his friend Wilkie Collins’ play The Frozen Deep during that summer of 1857, when he decided to enlist professional actresses to take on the roles previously played by his friends and family. Through a theater friend, he hired Mrs. Fanny Ternan (née Jarman), who had been an acclaimed leading lady in England, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States in her younger days, and two of her three daughters, Maria and Nelly, to appear in the production.

Nelly had acted since was a child, but always in the shadow of her oldest sister, Fanny, who had been considered a prodigy. In her book The Invisible Woman , Claire Tomalin described the blonde, blue-eyed Nelly as she appeared at the time, just a few months before she met Dickens: “Everything about her signaled innocence and vulnerability. In her neat little dresses and ringlets, she could have stepped out of a fairy story.”

READ MORE: Charles Dickens Wrote A Christmas Carol in Only Six Weeks

He had a nasty breakup with his wife

By the mid-1850s, Dickens seems to have already been unhappy in his marriage, according to letters he wrote at the time . In 1855, he began writing to his first love, Maria Beadnell, whom he had courted unsuccessfully before meeting his wife, Catherine. But when the two met in person, she failed to live up to his romantic memories; he later wrote to an admirer that she had grown “extremely fat.”

After he met Nelly, things deteriorated quickly between Dickens and Catherine. They separated in May 1858, and Catherine moved out of both of the family’s houses. Dickens even used his paternal right to sole custody to cut off contact between her and their younger children. Catherine’s younger sister Georgina Hogarth, who had long lived with the family, took Dickens’ side, claiming that Catherine had neglected her own children.

As rumors flew that Dickens had left his wife for a younger woman (or even an incestuous love affair with Georgina), the novelist attempted some damage control. “Some domestic trouble of mine, of long-standing, on which I will make no further remark than that it claims to be respected, as being of a sacredly private nature, has lately been brought to an arrangement,” Dickens wrote in a statement published in the Times. “By some means...this trouble has been made the occasion of misrepresentations, most grossly false, most monstrous, and most cruel.”

In 2012, a long-lost letter surfaced that confirmed Dickens’ attitude toward Catherine at the end of their marriage, as well as his eagerness to get out of the situation and move on. In it, he instructs his lawyer to provide Catherine with £600 per year, or the equivalent of some £25,000 today. As biographer Michael Slater told the Telegraph at the time, “The tone of [the letter] is a man just desperate to get this separation business finished at almost any price and as fast as possible. It was generating bad publicity for him and he clearly found the marriage intolerable.”

Dickens and Teran had a 13-year relationship

Much of the gossip surrounding his marriage drama soon died down, thanks to Dickens’ determined efforts to hide Nelly’s growing importance in his life. In 1859, she moved into a London townhouse bought in her sisters’ names, presumably by Dickens. Nelly soon retired from acting and would remain largely isolated, aside from her mother and sisters, for the length of her relationship with Dickens. (Her father, also an actor, had died in an insane asylum when Nelly was young, possibly leaving her with a need for a father figure that Dickens, then in his mid-40s, fulfilled.)

As Dickens continued his prolific writing career in the 1860s, including his novels A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend , Nelly disappeared almost completely from view for several years. According to Tomalin, the evidence suggests she lived in France during this period, and may even have given birth to a child around 1862 to 1863, but that child died in infancy.

When she returned to England after 1865, Dickens installed Nelly in Slough, a town outside London, and saw her frequently between work and time at his family home in Gad’s Hill. Historians have pieced together clues to his complicated comings-and-goings from a pocket diary kept by Dickens for much of 1867 that was lost during his tour of the United States later that year.

Dickens’ veiled references to personal unhappiness in his correspondence near the end of his life led Tomalin to speculate that Nelly was unsatisfied with her life as the much-younger, secret mistress of the great man, even as she might have been financially (and otherwise) dependent upon him. Even if this was so, they remained attached until Dickens died in 1870, at the age of 58.

Even after Dickens' death, his affair was kept a secret

Georgina became the chief protector of her brother-in-law’s legacy and took care to keep his secret. It helped that Nelly launched a new life after Dickens’ death, shaving more than a decade off her age and marrying a much younger man, George Wharton Robinson, with whom she had two children.

Nelly and Dickens apparently destroyed all correspondence between them, and though rumors resurfaced in the 1890s, more definitive evidence of their relationship didn’t come out until long after her death in 1914 . Dickens’ daughter Katey confided the truth about her parents’ separation to a friend, Gladys Storey, who published her book Dickens and Daughter in 1939 after Katey and all of Dickens’ children had died.

Even as more historians and biographers investigated the relationship between Dickens and Nelly Ternan in the 1950s and beyond, others continued to argue that it was platonic, or merely an infatuation on Dickens’ part. But with the publication of Tomalin’s 1990 book and its film adaptation , released in 2013, Nelly Ternan’s story has grabbed the spotlight again, revealing the real woman at the heart of a Victorian icon’s scandalous private life.

Famous Authors & Writers

How Did Shakespeare Die?

A Huge Shakespeare Mystery, Solved

Shakespeare Wrote 3 Tragedies in Turbulent Times

The Mystery of Shakespeare's Life and Death

Was Shakespeare the Real Author of His Plays?

20 Shakespeare Quotes

William Shakespeare

The Ultimate William Shakespeare Study Guide

Suzanne Collins

Alice Munro

Agatha Christie

September 4, 2024

Life Story of Famous People

Short Bio » Writer » Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was an English writer . He is regarded as one of the finest writers in English language. He is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian Period. He is renowned for creating some of the finest fictional characters ever. The Pickwick Papers , Oliver Twist , David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol are few of his notable literature. Charles Dickens is one of the most famous novelists of all time.

Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812. He was born to John Dickens and Elizabeth Dickens from Landport, Hampshire, England. His father was thrown in Debtors Prison when he was a child. For this reason, Charles Dickens had to leave school. She started to work in factories from an early age. At age 20 he wanted to become an entertainer. He was full of energy and did mimicry at the time. He landed an acting audition but missed it due to cold. Before Charles Dickens got another shot at fame in acting he had already set out to become a writer. Charles Dickens rose to fame with “The Pickwick Papers” in 1836. He was using the pseudonym Boz as the time. Most of his novels used to come out in shilling installments before being published as a full volume. This helped him to edit characters to readers and his best interests. His success as a novelist continued with the release of “Oliver Twist” in 1838. Oliver Twist is one of Charles Dickens greatest works. A young Queen Victoria at the time read both of his novels and was quite fond of them. He was by then an internationally famous writer. His later works in Dombey and Son” and “David Copperfield” were better written and serious themed than his earlier work. David Copperfield became one of his greatest works ever.

Charles Dickens married Catherine Dickens in 1936. The couple had 10 children born to them. Charles and Catherine separated in 1858. Charles Dickens was the believer in Christianity. But he had issues with institutions and their rules of religions. On 9 June 1870 at the age of 58 Charles Dickens died of a stroke.

Fans Also Viewed

Published in Writer

More Celebrities

• Trip Advisor TripAdviser

10 Surprising Facts About Charles Dickens!

You have no items in your basket

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

3.5 h total length

“It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”

The best authors open our eyes to truths that we would otherwise miss. They teach us to see the world anew and to catch the importance of things that are lost in our daily routine.

Charles Dickens had this gift, and A Christmas Carol is one of his best expressions of it. 

This Christmas, we invite you to join Professor Dwight Lindley as he leads us through the mysterious world of Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley, the Ghosts of Christmas, and Tiny Tim in our newest online course, “Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol . ”

The course includes six lectures, each approximately 30 minutes long. You will receive a certificate for the course by completing the lectures and short quizzes. You can also access supplementary Q and A videos, study guides, and a discussion board. The best part is that you can do all of this at your own pace and in a manner that best fits your schedule.

By taking this course, you’ll learn profound lessons from the Ghosts of Christmas, explore the true meaning of Christmas through Scrooge’s surprising encounters, and discover how to open yourself to life’s many joys and blessings.

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the beauty of Christmas by enrolling in “Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol . ”

Expand Course Details

Lessons in this course.

Introduction: “A Ghost Story of Christmas”

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843 in response to a report on children’s working conditions in London. This musical ghost story will open any reader's heart, even one like Ebenezer Scrooge.

Marley’s Ghost: “Bah! Humbug!”

Scrooge is a cold, “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone,” who curses his own nephew for wishing him a “Merry Christmas!" But there is hope for Scrooge, as his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, pays him a ghostly visit and foretells of three hauntings to follow.

Christmas Past: “His Poor Forgotten Self”

Memories of his younger self—a lonely boy left at school, a young clerk, a greedy young man left by his fiancé—awaken Scrooge’s sympathy. To open himself to love others once again, he must first learn to love a lost version of himself.

Christmas Present: “An Odious, Stingy, Hard, Unfeeling Man”

Scrooge sees the celebrations of Christmas all around him and begins to realize the simple joys denied by his own choices. The love and joy of Christmas spill over in abundance and reveal the gift in the smallest aspects of life.

Christmas Future: “I Hope to Live to Be Another Man”

The lonely, pathetic deathbed on which Scrooge finds himself is a stark contrast with the mourning Cratchit family, who still find joy and comfort in one another after the death of Tiny Tim. After seeing these bitter Christmases to come, Scrooge begs for a chance to make amends.

The End of It: “God Bless Us, Every One!”

Scrooges’ conversion is complete. He has learned that at the heart of Christmas is the ability to open oneself up like a child to the joy of the smallest things and the love and charity toward our fellow man.

View All Lessons

Watch the course trailer.

Enroll in “Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol ” by entering your email below.

What Current Students Are Saying

This course pulls you deeper into a book you thought you knew well and provides background and insight that greatly enriches this powerful ghost story. I completed it in one morning. It was so compelling that like a good book, I couldn't put it down.

Create your FREE account today!

All you need to access our courses and start learning today is your email address.

• International
• Education Jobs
• Schools directory
• Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search

Ebenezer Scrooge Biography Writing Unit | Year 3 or Year 4

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

27 August 2024

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

A Christmas biography writing unit about the life of the fictional character from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge. The NO PREP unit has been split into four separate lessons and is perfect for students in Year 3 or Year 4. Students will learn about the famous figure whilst working on their comprehension skills and developing their creative writing.

Included in this PDF printable resource:

• Three fact sheets which students need to cut out and sort into paragraphs
• Writing templates for four draft paragraphs
• Two prompt sheets for students to write their introduction and conclusion
• A template for students to write up their neat biography text
• A crossword puzzle and wordsearch activity to consolidate learning

⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻

This resource is great for:

• In class learning
• Independent work
• Creative writing sessions
• Assessment practice
• Emergency sub plans

The first lesson is interactive and involves students cutting out facts, and then sorting these facts into paragraphs. In the second lesson the students need to use these facts to write four paragraphs. Then, in the third lesson children need to choose the most important facts and include these in an introduction; after this they need to answer several questions on a prompt sheet before writing up their conclusion. In the final lesson students need to check their draft paragraphs for mistakes before writing up their work on to a neat copy on the template provided.

⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚

Please check out my store, Creative Primary Literacy , for more resources.

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 42%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

LKS2 Emergency Substitution Plans | Christmas Bundle

These easy to use, no prep, Christmas substitution plans give you an ideal back up plan to have ready in your classroom just in case. The bundle contains three reading comprehension activities about Christmas Around the World, Santa Claus and Ebenezer Scrooge, as well as two biography writing units and one informational writing unit. Ideal for emergency sub plans in Year 3 or Year 4. 14 Lessons, or 14 hours of activities, with NO PREP needed! ⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻ Firstly, there are three reading comprehension activities, or informational texts, about: * Christmas Around the World * Santa Claus * Ebenezer Scrooge These activities require NO PREP and have a body of text that students need to read through thoroughly; then they can use the text to find the comprehension and grammar answers. All texts then have an extension activity for those fast finishers. Answers, for teacher use, are on the final page of each document. Then, there are two biography writing units about Santa Claus and Ebenezer Scrooge, and one informational writing unit about the traditions of Christmas around the world. The units have been split into three or four separate lessons which will take students approximately 40-50 minutes each. Good luck, I hope you find the resource useful! ⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚ For more great resources check out my store ⇉⇉ [CLICK HERE](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/CreativePrimaryLit)

LKS2 Literacy - Ebenezer Scrooge Reading Comprehension & Biography Bundle

Two great activities that would span five lessons about the life of the fictional character from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge. The resource is perfect for a fun Christmas activity for students in Year 3 or Year 4. NO PREP is needed! Firstly, there is a reading comprehension activity - children need to read through an informational text, and then answer comprehension and grammar questions, before completing an extension activity. Secondly, there is a biography writing unit. The unit has been split into four separate lessons which will take students approximately 40-50 minutes each. Good luck, I hope you get some great results! We specialize in play scripts, we have a William Shakespeare collection with Richard III, Macbeth and Hamlet. We also have a good selection of Christmas play scripts including Elf, The Santa Clause and A Christmas Carol. For more great activities check out [Creative Primary Literacy](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Irvine109)!

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource: