writing career of charles dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was a British author who penned the beloved classics Oliver Twist , A Christmas Carol , David Copperfield , and Great Expectations .

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Who Was Charles Dickens?

Charles Dickens was a British author, journalist, editor, illustrator, and social commentator who wrote the beloved classics Oliver Twist , A Christmas Carol , and Great Expectations . His books were first published in monthly serial installments, which became a lucrative source of income following a childhood of abject poverty. Dickens wrote 15 novels in total, including Nicholas Nickleby , David Copperfield , and A Tale of Two Cities . His writing provided a stark portrait of poor and working class people in the Victorian era that helped to bring about social change. Dickens died in June 1870 at age 58 and is remembered as one of the most important and influential writers of the 19 th century.

Quick Facts

Early life and education, life as a journalist, editor, and illustrator, personal life: wife and children, charles dickens’ books: 'oliver twist,' 'great expectations,' and more, travels to the united states, 'a christmas carol' and other works, pop culture adaptations.

FULL NAME: Charles John Huffam Dickens BORN: February 7, 1812 DIED: June 9, 1870 BIRTHPLACE: Portsmouth, England SPOUSE: Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1836-1870) CHILDREN: Charles Jr., Mary, Kate, Walter, Francis, Alfred, Sydney, Henry, Dora, and Edward ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth on the southern coast of England. He was the second of eight children born to John Dickens, a naval clerk who dreamed of striking it rich, and Elizabeth Barrow, who aspired to be a teacher and school director. Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor but nevertheless happy in the early days.

In 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent, where young Dickens and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore the old castle at Rochester. Dickens was a sickly child and prone to spasms, which prevented him from playing sports. He compensated by reading avidly, including such books as Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones , Peregrine Pickle , and The Arabian Nights , according to The World of Charles Dickens by Fido Martin.

In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London. By then, the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as Charles’ father had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means. Eventually, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old. He boarded with a sympathetic family friend named Elizabeth Roylance, who later inspired the character Mrs. Pipchin in Dickens’ 1847 novel Dombey and Son , according to Dickens: A Biography by Fred Kaplan.

Following his father’s imprisonment, Dickens was forced to leave school to work at a boot-blacking factory alongside the River Thames. At the run-down, rodent-ridden factory, Dickens earned 6 shillings a week labeling pots of “blacking,” a substance used to clean fireplaces. It was the best he could do to help support his family, and the strenuous working conditions heavily influenced his future writing and his views on treatment of the poor and working class.

Much to his relief, Dickens was permitted to go back to school when his father received a family inheritance and used it to pay off his debts. He attended the Wellington House Academy in Camden Town, where he encountered what he called “haphazard, desultory teaching [and] poor discipline,” according to The World of Charles Dickens by Angus Wilson. The school’s sadistic headmaster was later the inspiration for the character Mr. Creakle in Dickens’ semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield .

When Dickens was 15, his education was pulled out from under him once again. In 1827, he had to drop out of school and work as an office boy to contribute to his family’s income. However, as it turned out, the job became a launching point for his writing career. Within a year of being hired, Dickens began freelance reporting at the law courts of London. Just a few years later, he was reporting for two major London newspapers.

In 1833, he began submitting sketches to various magazines and newspapers under the pseudonym “Boz,” which was a family nickname. His first published story was “A Dinner at Poplar Walk,” which ran in London’s Monthly Magazine in 1833. Seeing his writing in print made his eyes “overflow with joy and pride,” according to Dickens: A Biography . In 1836, his clippings were published in his first book, Sketches by Boz.

Dickens later edited magazines including Household Words and All the Year Round , the latter of which he founded. In both, he promoted and originally published some of his own work such as Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities .

Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, soon after the publication of his first book, Sketches by Boz . She was the daughter of George Hogarth, the editor of the Evening Chronicle . Dickens and Hogarth went on to have 10 children between 1837 and 1852, according to biographer Fred Kaplan. Among them were magazine editor Charles Dickens Jr., painter Kate Dickens Perugini, barrister Henry Fielding Dickens, and Edward Dickens, who entered into politics after immigrating to the Australia.

In 1851, Dickens suffered two devastating losses: the deaths of his infant daughter, Dora, and his father, John. He also separated from his wife in 1858. Dickens slandered Catherine publicly and struck up an intimate relationship with a young actor named Ellen “Nelly” Ternan. Sources differ on whether the two started seeing each other before or after Dickens’ marital separation. It is also believed that he went to great lengths to erase any documentation alluding to Ternan’s presence in his life. These major losses and challenges seeped into Dickens’ writing in his “dark novel” period.

Best known for his fiction writing, Dickens wrote a total of 15 novels between 1836 and 1870. His first was The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club , and his last was The Mystery of Edwin Drood , which went unfinished due to his death.

Dickens’ books were originally published in monthly serial installments that sold for 1 shilling each. The affordable price meant everyday citizens could follow along, though wealthier readers, such as Queen Victoria , were also among Dickens’ fans. Once complete, the stories were published again in novel form.

Dickens’ books provided a stark portrait of poor and working class people in the Victorian era that helped to bring about social change. In the 1850s, following the death of his father and infant daughter, as well as his separation from his wife, Dickens’ novels began to express a darkened worldview. His so-called dark novels are Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854), and Little Dorrit (1857). They feature more complicated, thematically grim plots and more complex characters, though Dickens didn’t stray from his typical societal commentary.

Read more about each of Charles Dickens’ novels below:

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Serial Publication: April 1836 to November 1837 Novel Publication: 1837

In 1836, the same year his first book of illustrations released, Dickens started publishing The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club . His series, originally written as captions for artist Robert Seymour’s humorous sports-themed illustrations, took the form of monthly serial installments. It was wildly popular with readers, and Dickens’ captions proved even more popular than the illustrations they were meant to accompany.

Oliver Twist

Serial Publication: February 1837 to March 1839 Novel Publication: November 1838

While still working on The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club , Dickens began Oliver Twist, or The Parish Boy’s Progress , which would prove to be one of his most popular novels. The book follows the life of an orphan living in the streets of London, where he must get by on his wits and falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the dastardly Fagin.

Oliver Twist unromantically portrayed the mistreatment of London orphans, and the slums and poverty described in the novel made for biting social satire. Although very different from the humorous tone of the Pickwick Papers , Oliver Twist was extremely well-received in both England and America, and dedicated readers eagerly anticipated each next monthly installment, according to the biography Charles Dickens by Harold & Miriam Maltz. Even the young Queen Victoria was an avid reader of  Oliver Twist , describing it as “excessively interesting.”

Nicholas Nickleby

Serial Publication: April 1838 to October 1839 Novel Publication: 1839

As Dickens was still finishing Oliver Twist , he again began writing his follow-up work in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby . It tells the story of the title character, who must support his mother and sister following the loss of their comfortable lifestyle when his father dies and the family loses all of their money.

The Old Curiosity Shop

Serial Publication: April 1840 to February 1841 Novel Publication: 1841

Taking a few months between projects this time, Dickens’ next serial was The Old Curiosity Shop . Protagonist Nell Trent lives with her grandfather, whose gambling costs them the titular shop. The pair struggles to survive after into hiding to avoid a money lender.

Barnaby Rudge

Serial Publication: February to November 1841 Novel Publication: 1841

Right on the heels of The Old Curiosity Shop came Barnaby Rudge . The historical fiction novel, Dickens’ first, follows Barnaby and depicts the chaos of mob violence. The author originated the idea years prior but is thought to have temporarily abandoned it due to a dispute with his publisher.

Martin Chuzzlewit

Serial Publication: January 1843 to July 1844 Novel Publication: 1844

After his first American tour, Dickens wrote The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit . The story is about a man’s struggle to survive on the ruthless American frontier.

Dombey and Son

Serial Publication: October 1846 to April 1848 Novel Publication: 1848

After an uncharacteristic break, Dickens returned with Dombey and Son , which centers on the theme of how business tactics affect a family’s personal finances. Published as a novel in 1848, it takes a dark view of England and is considered pivotal to Dickens’ body of work in that it set the tone for his future novels.

David Copperfield

Serial Publication: May 1849 to November 1850 Novel Publication: November 1850

Dickens wrote his most autobiographical novel to date with David Copperfield by tapping into his own personal experiences in his difficult childhood and his work as a journalist. The book follows the life of its title character from his impoverished childhood to his maturity and success as a novelist. It was the first work of its kind: No one had ever written a novel that simply followed a character through his everyday life.

David Copperfield is considered one of Dickens’ masterpieces, and it was his personal favorite of his works; he wrote in the book’s preface, “Like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield.” It also helped define the public’s expectations of a Dickensian novel. In The Life of Charles Dickens , biographer John Forster wrote “Dickens never stood so high in reputation as at the completion of Copperfield ,” and biographer Fred Kaplan called the novel “an exploration of himself through his art more direct, more honest, more resolute than in his earlier fiction.”

Bleak House

Serial Publication: 1852 to 1853 Novel Publication: 1853

His next work, Bleak House , dealt with the hypocrisy of British society. The first of his “dark novels,” it was considered his most complex novel yet. Drawing upon his brief experiences as a law clerk and court reporter, the novel is built around a long-running legal case involving several conflicting wills and was described by biographer Fido Martin as “England’s greatest satire on the law’s incompetence and delays.” Dickens’ satire was so effective that it  helped support  a successful movement toward legal reform in the 1870s.

Serial Publication: April to August 1854 Novel Publication: 1854

Dickens followed Bleak House with Hard Times , which takes place in an industrial town at the peak of economic expansion. Hard Times focuses on the shortcomings of employers as well as those who seek change.

Little Dorrit

Serial Publication: December 1855 and June 1857 Novel Publication: 1857

Another novel from Dickens’ darker period is Little Dorrit , a fictional study of how human values conflict with the world’s brutality.

A Tale of Two Cities

Serial Publication: April to November 1959 Novel Publication: 1859

Coming out of his “dark novel” period, Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities in the periodical he founded, All the Year Round . The historical novel takes place during the French Revolution in Paris and London. Its themes focus on the need for sacrifice, the struggle between the evils inherent in oppression and revolution, and the possibility of resurrection and rebirth.

A Tale of Two Cities was a tremendous success and remains Dickens’ best-known work of historical fiction. Biographer Fido Martin called the novel “pure Dickens, but essentially a Dickens we have never seen before. This is a Dickens who has at last captured in prose fiction the stage heroics he adored.”

Great Expectations

Serial Publication: December 1860 to August 1861 Novel Publication: October 1861

Many people consider Great Expectations Dickens’ greatest literary accomplishment. The story—Dickens’ second that’s narrated in the first person—focuses on the lifelong journey of moral development for the novel’s protagonist, an orphan named Pip. With extreme imagery and colorful characters, the well-received novel touches on wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and good versus evil. The novel was a financial success and received nearly universal acclaim, with readers responding positively to the novel’s themes of love, morality, social mobility, and the eventual triumph of good over evil.

Our Mutual Friend

Serial Publication: May 1864 to November 1865 Novel Publication: 1865

In June 1865, Dickens was a passenger on a train that plunged off a bridge in Kent, according to biographer Fred Kaplan. He tended to the wounded and even saved the lives of some passengers before assistance arrived, and he was able to retrieve his unfinished manuscript for his next novel, Our Mutual Friend , from the wreckage. That book, a satire about wealth and the Victorian working class, wasn’t received as well as Dickens’ other works, with some finding the plot too complex and disorganized.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Serial Publication: April 1870 Novel Publication: 1870

Dickins’ final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood , began its monthly serialized publication in April 1870. However, Dickens died less than two months later, leaving the novel unfinished. Only six of a planned 12 installments of his final work were completed at the time of his death, according to biographer Fido Martin.

In 1842, Dickens and his wife, Catherine, embarked on a five-month lecture tour of the United States. Dickens spoke of his opposition to slavery and expressed his support for additional reform. His lectures, which began in Virginia and ended in Missouri, were so widely attended that ticket scalpers gathered outside his events. Biographer J.B. Priestley wrote that during the tour, Dickens enjoyed “the greatest welcome that probably any visitor to America has ever had.”

“They flock around me as if I were an idol,” bragged Dickens, a known show-off. Although he enjoyed the attention at first, he eventually resented the invasion of privacy. He was also annoyed by what he viewed as Americans’ gregariousness and crude habits, as he later expressed in American Notes for General Circulation (1842). The sarcastic travelogue, which Dickens’ penned upon his return to England, criticized American culture and materialism.

After his criticism of the American people during his first tour, Dickens later launched a second U.S. tour from 1867 to 1868, where he hoped to set things right with the public and made charismatic speeches promising to praise the United States in reprints of American Notes for General Circulation and Martin Chuzzlewit , his 1844 novel set in the American frontier.

On December 19, 1843, Dickens published A Christmas Carol , one of his most timeless and beloved works. The book features the famous protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly old miser who—with the help of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come—finds the holiday spirit. Dickens penned the book in just six weeks, beginning in October and finishing just in time for Christmas celebrations. Like his earlier works, it was intended as a social criticism, to bring attention to the hardships faced by England’s poorer classes.

The book was a roaring success, selling more than 6,000 copies upon publication. Readers in England and America were touched by the book’s empathetic emotional depth; one American entrepreneur reportedly gave his employees an extra day’s holiday after reading it. Despite its incredible success, the high production costs and Dickens’ disagreements with the publisher meant he received relatively few profits for A Christmas Carol , according to Kaplan, which were further reduced when Dickens was forced to take legal action against the publishers for making illegal copies.

A Christmas Carol was Dickens’ most popular book in the United States, selling more than two million copies in the century after its first publication there, according to Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin. It is also one of Dickens’ most adapted works, and Ebenezer Scrooge has been portrayed by such actors as Michael Caine, Albert Finney, Patrick Stewart, Tim Curry, and Jim Carrey .

Dickens published several other Christmas novellas following A Christmas Carol , including The Chimes (1844) The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost ’s Bargain (1848). In 1867, he wrote a stage play titled No Thoroughfare .

On June 8, 1870, Dickens had a stroke at his home in Kent, England, after a day of writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood . He died the next day at age 58.

At the time, Edwin Drood had begun its serial publication; it was never finished. Only half of the planned installments of his final novel were completed at the time of Dickens’ death, according to Fido.

Dickens was buried in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey , with thousands of mourners gathering at the beloved author’s gravesite.

When 48 Doughty Street in London—which was Dickens’ home from 1837 to 1839—was threatened with demolition, it was saved by the Dickens Fellowship and renovated, becoming the Dickens House Museum . Open since 1925, it appears like a middle-class Victorian home exactly as Dickens lived in it, and it houses a significant collection related to Dickens and his works.

Many of Dickens’ major works have been adapted for movies and stage plays, with some, like A Christmas Carol , repackaged in various forms over the years. Reginald Owen portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in one of the earliest Hollywood adaptations of the novella in 1938, while Albert Finney played the character alongside Alec Guinness as Marley’s ghost in the 1970 film Scrooge .

Some adaptations have taken unique approaches to the source material. Michael Caine portrayed Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), with members of the Muppets playing other characters from the story, and Gonzo the Great portraying Dickens as a narrator. Bill Murray played a version of Scrooge in a modern-day comedic take on the classic story. Several animated versions of A Christmas Carol have also been adapted, with Jim Carrey playing Scrooge in a 2009 computer-generated film that used motion-capture animation to create the character.

Several more of Dickens’ works have been similarly adapted. Famed director David Lean made celebrated adaptations of both Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). The latter novel was also adapted into a successful 1960 stage musical called Oliver! , and a 1968 movie version—directed by Carol Reed—of that same musical won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Director.

More recently, The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) put a comedic spin on Dickens’ personal favorite of his own works, with Dev Patel performing the title role. Barbara Kingsolver also adapted the novel in her Pulitzer Prize winner Demon Copperhead (2022).

• The English are, as far as I know, the hardest worked people on whom the sun shines. Be content if in their wretched intervals of leisure they read for amusement and do no worse.
• I write because I can’t help it.
• Literature cannot be too faithful to the people, cannot too ardently advocate the cause of their advancement, happiness, and prosperity.
• An author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him forever.
• Nobody has done more harm in this single generation than everybody can mend in 10 generations.
• If I were soured [on writing], I should still try to sweeten the lives and fancies of others; but I am not—not at all.
• Well, the work is hard, the climate is hard, the life is hard: but so far the gain is enormous.
• Who that has ever reflected on the enormous and vast amount of leave-taking there is in life can ever have doubted the existence of another?
• I never knew what it was to feel disgust and contempt, till I traveled in America.
• My great ambition is to live in the hearts and homes of home-loving people and to be connected with the truth of the truthful English life.

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Biography of Charles Dickens, English Novelist

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Charles Dickens (February 7, 1812–June 9, 1870) was a popular English novelist of the Victorian era, and to this day he remains a giant in British literature. Dickens wrote numerous books that are now considered classics, including "David Copperfield," "Oliver Twist," "A Tale of Two Cities," and "Great Expectations." Much of his work was inspired by the difficulties he faced in childhood as well as social and economic problems in Victorian Britain.

Fast Facts: Charles Dickens

• Known For : Dickens was the popular author of "Oliver Twist," "A Christmas Carol," and other classics.
• Born : February 7, 1812 in Portsea, England
• Parents : Elizabeth and John Dickens
• Died : June 9, 1870 in Higham, England
• Published Works : Oliver Twist (1839), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1850), Hard Times (1854), Great Expectations (1861)
• Spouse : Catherine Hogarth (m. 1836–1870)
• Children : 10

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsea, England. His father had a job working as a pay clerk for the British Navy, and the Dickens family, by the standards of the day, should have enjoyed a comfortable life. But his father's spending habits got them into constant financial difficulties. When Charles was 12, his father was sent to debtors' prison, and Charles was forced to take a job in a factory that made shoe polish known as blacking.

Life in the blacking factory for the bright 12-year-old was an ordeal. He felt humiliated and ashamed, and the year or so he spent sticking labels on jars would be a profound influence on his life. When his father managed to get out of debtors' prison, Charles was able to resume his sporadic schooling. However, he was forced to take a job as an office boy at the age of 15.

By his late teens, he had learned stenography and landed a job as a reporter in the London courts. By the early 1830s , he was reporting for two London newspapers.

Early Career

Dickens aspired to break away from newspapers and become an independent writer, and he began writing sketches of life in London. In 1833 he began submitting them to a magazine, The Monthly . He would later recall how he submitted his first manuscript, which he said was "dropped stealthily one evening at twilight, with fear and trembling, into a dark letter box, in a dark office, up a dark court in Fleet Street."

When the sketch he'd written, titled "A Dinner at Poplar Walk," appeared in print, Dickens was overjoyed. The sketch appeared with no byline, but soon he began publishing items under the pen name "Boz."

The witty and insightful articles Dickens wrote became popular, and he was eventually given the chance to collect them in a book. "Sketches by Boz" first appeared in early 1836, when Dickens had just turned 24. Buoyed by the success of his first book, he married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of a newspaper editor. He settled into a new life as a family man and an author.

Rise to Fame

"Sketches by Boz" was so popular that the publisher commissioned a sequel, which appeared in 1837. Dickens was also approached to write the text to accompany a set of illustrations, and that project turned into his first novel, "The Pickwick Papers," which was published in installments from 1836 to 1837. This book was followed by "Oliver Twist," which appeared in 1839.

Dickens became amazingly productive. "Nicholas Nickleby" was written in 1839, and "The Old Curiosity Shop" in 1841. In addition to these novels, Dickens was turning out a steady stream of articles for magazines. His work was incredibly popular. Dickens was able to create remarkable characters, and his writing often combined comic touches with tragic elements. His empathy for working people and for those caught in unfortunate circumstances made readers feel a bond with him.

As his novels appeared in serial form, the reading public was often gripped with anticipation. The popularity of Dickens spread to America, and there were stories told about how Americans would greet British ships at the docks in New York to find out what had happened next in Dickens' latest novel.

Visit to America

Capitalizing on his international fame, Dickens visited the United States in 1842 when he was 30 years old. The American public was eager to greet him, and he was treated to banquets and celebrations during his travels.

In New England, Dickens visited the factories of Lowell, Massachusetts, and in New York City he was taken to the see the Five Points , the notorious and dangerous slum on the Lower East Side. There was talk of him visiting the South, but as he was horrified by the idea of enslavement he never went south of Virginia.

Upon returning to England, Dickens wrote an account of his American travels which offended many Americans.

'A Christmas Carol'

In 1842, Dickens wrote another novel, "Barnaby Rudge." The following year, while writing the novel "Martin Chuzzlewit," Dickens visited the industrial city of Manchester, England. He addressed a gathering of workers, and later he took a long walk and began to think about writing a Christmas book that would be a protest against the profound economic inequality he saw in Victorian England. Dickens published " A Christmas Carol " in December 1843, and it became one of his most enduring works.

Dickens traveled around Europe during the mid-1840s. After returning to England, he published five new novels: "Dombey and Son," "David Copperfield," "Bleak House," "Hard Times," and "Little Dorrit."

By the late 1850s , Dickens was spending more time giving public readings. His income was enormous, but so were his expenses, and he often feared he would be plunged back into the sort of poverty he had known as a child.

Charles Dickens, in middle age, appeared to be on top of the world. He was able to travel as he wished, and he spent summers in Italy. In the late 1850s, he purchased a mansion, Gad's Hill, which he had first seen and admired as a child.

Despite his worldly success, though, Dickens was beset by problems. He and his wife had a large family of 10 children, but the marriage was often troubled. In 1858, a personal crisis turned into a public scandal when Dickens left his wife and apparently began a secretive affair with actress Ellen "Nelly" Ternan, who was only 19 years old. Rumors about his private life spread. Against the advice of friends, Dickens wrote a letter defending himself, which was printed in newspapers in New York and London.

For the last 10 years of his life, Dickens was often estranged from his children, and his relationships with old friends suffered.

Though he hadn't enjoyed his tour of America in 1842, Dickens returned in late 1867. He was again welcomed warmly, and large crowds flocked to his public appearances. He toured the East Coast of the United States for five months.

He returned to England exhausted, yet continued to embark on more reading tours. Though his health was failing, the tours were lucrative, and he pushed himself to keep appearing onstage.

Dickens planned a new novel for publication in serial form. "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" began appearing in April 1870. On June 8, 1870, Dickens spent the afternoon working on the novel before suffering a stroke at dinner. He died the next day.

The funeral for Dickens was modest, and praised, according to a New York Times article, as being in keeping with the "democratic spirit of the age." Dickens was accorded a high honor, however, as he was buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, near other literary figures such as Geoffrey Chaucer , Edmund Spenser , and Dr. Samuel Johnson.

The importance of Charles Dickens in English literature remains enormous. His books have never gone out of print, and they are widely read to this day. As the works lend themselves to dramatic interpretation, numerous plays, television programs, and feature films based on them continue to appear.

• Kaplan, Fred. "Dickens: a Biography." Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
• Tomalin, Claire. "Charles Dickens: a Life." Penguin Press, 2012.
• A Brief History of English Literature
• Why Dickens Wrote 'A Christmas Carol'
• A Review of 'David Copperfield'
• How Can You Stretch a Paper to Make it Longer?
• Discussion Questions for 'A Christmas Carol'
• A Summary of 'A Christmas Carol'
• The History of Christmas Traditions
• Where Did the Term 'Humbug' Originate?
• The Most Important Quotes From Charles Dickens's 'Oliver Twist'
• Notable Authors of the 19th Century
• 'Great Expectations' Review
• Life of Wilkie Collins, Grandfather of the English Detective Novel
• Dickens' 'Oliver Twist': Summary and Analysis
• "A Tale of Two Cities" Discussion Questions
• The Haunted House (1859) by Charles Dickens
• 'A Christmas Carol' Quotations

ARTS & CULTURE

The essentials: charles dickens.

What are the must-read books written by and about the famed British author?

Megan Gambino

Senior Editor

One of the most-read authors of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens wrote over a dozen novels in his career, as well as short stories, plays and nonfiction. He is probably best known for his memorable cast of characters, including Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.

Becoming Dickens , a biography released in 2011 in time for the 200th anniversary of his birth, chronicles the writer’s meteoric rise from relative obscurity as a journalist to one of England’s most adored novelists. Here, the book’s author, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, recommends five novels by Dickens and five additional books that offer insight into the writer and his work.

The Pickwick Papers (1836)

In Charles Dickens’ first novel, The Pickwick Papers , Samuel Pickwick, the founder of the Pickwick Club in London, and three of the group’s members—Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass and Tracy Tupman—travel around the English countryside. Sam Weller, a cockney who speaks in proverbs, joins the party as Mr. Pickwick’s assistant, adding more comedy to their adventures, which include romances, hunting outings, a costume party and jail stays.

From Douglas-Fairhurst: This started out as a collection of monthly comic sketches and only slowly developed into something more like a novel. A huge craze at the time of its original publication in 1836-37—it produced as many commercial spinoffs as any modern film—it still has the power to reduce a reader to tears of laughter. As a comic double-act, Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller are as immortal as Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello.

Oliver Twist (1837-39)

When orphan Oliver Twist loses a bet and brazenly asks for more gruel, he is kicked out of his workhouse and sent to serve as an apprentice to an undertaker. On the run after a scuffle with another of the undertaker’s apprentices, Oliver Twist meets Jack Dawkins, or the Artful Dodger, who brings him into a gang of pickpockets trained by a criminal named Fagin.

From Douglas-Fairhurst: “Please, sir, I want some more”—When Dickens wrote that at the start of his first fully planned novel, he was probably hoping that the sentiment would be echoed by his readers. He wasn’t disappointed. His waif-like hero may be a little passive for modern tastes, but Oliver’s adventures with Fagin and the Artful Dodger quickly passed from fiction into folklore. There may be fewer jokes than in The Pickwick Papers , but Dickens’ satire on attitudes toward poverty remains as relevant as ever.

A Christmas Carol (1843)

Ebenezer Scrooge’s deceased business partner Jacob Marley and three other spirits—the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come—visit him in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol . The spirits tour Scrooge through scenes of past and present holidays. He even gets a preview of what is in store for him should he continue on his miserly ways. Scared straight, he wakes from the dream a new man, joyful and benevolent.

From Douglas-Fairhurst: This isn’t a novel, strictly speaking, but it is still one of the most influential stories ever written. Since A Christmas Carol ’s first appearance in 1843, it has been reproduced in so many different forms, from Marcel Marceau to the Muppets, that it is now as much a part of Christmas as turkey or presents, while words like “Scrooge” are deeply rooted in the national psyche. At once funny and touching, it has become one of our most powerful modern myths.

Great Expectations (1860-61)

This is the story of Pip, an orphan who has eyes for Estrella, a girl of a higher class. He receives a fortune from Magwitch, a fugitive he once provided food for, and puts the money toward his education so that he might gain Estrella’s favor. Does he win over the girl? I won’t spoil the ending.

From Douglas-Fairhurst: A slim novel that punches well above its weight, Great Expectations is a fable about the corrupting power of money, and the redeeming power of love, that has never lost its grip on the public imagination. It is also beautifully constructed. If some of Dickens’ novels sprawl luxuriously across the page, this one is as trim as a whippet. Touch any part of it and the whole structure quivers into life. 

Bleak House  (1852-53)

Dickens’ ninth novel,  Bleak House , centers around  Jarndyce and Jarndyce , a drawn-out case in England’s Court of Chancery involving one person who drew up several last wills with contradicting terms. The story follows the characters tied up in the case, many of whom are listed as beneficiaries.

From Douglas-Fairhurst:  Each of Dickens’ major novels has its admirers, but few can match  Bleak House  for its range and verve. It is at once a remarkable verbal photograph of mid-Victorian life and a narrative experiment that anticipates much modern fiction. Some of its scenes, such as the death of Jo, the crossing sweeper, tread a fine line between pathos and melodrama, but they have a raw power that was never equaled even by Dickens himself.

The Life of Charles Dickens  (1872-74), by John Forster

Soon after Dickens died from a stroke in 1870, John Forster, his friend and editor for more than 30 years, gathered letters, documents and memories and wrote his first biography.

From Douglas-Fairhurst:  The result was patchy, pompous and sometimes reads more like a disguised autobiography. One reviewer sniffed that it “should not be called  The Life of Dickens , but the  History of Dickens’ Relations to Mr. Forster .” But it also contained some remarkable revelations, including the fragment of autobiography in which Dickens first told the truth about his miserable childhood. It is the foundation stone for all later biography.

Charles Dickens: A Critical Study  (1906), by G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, an English writer in the early 20th century, devoted whole chapters of his study of Dickens to the novelist’s youth, his characters, his debut novel  The Pickwick Papers , America and Christmas, among other topics.

From Douglas-Fairhurst:  If Dickens invented the modern celebration of Christmas, Chesterton almost single-handedly invented the modern celebration of Dickens. What he relishes above all in Dickens’ writing is its joyful prodigality, and his own book comes close to matching Dickens in its energy and good humor. There have been many hundreds of books on Dickens written since Chesterton’s, but few are as lively or significant. Almost every sentence is a quotable gem.

The Violent Effigy: A Study of Dickens’ Imagination  (1973, rev. ed. 2008), by John Carey

When the University of Oxford expanded its English curriculum to include literature written after the 1830s, professor and literary critic John Carey began to deliver lectures on Charles Dickens. These lectures eventually turned into a book,  The Violent Effigy , which attempts to guide readers, unpretentiously, through Dickens’ fertile imagination.

From Douglas-Fairhurst:  This brilliantly iconoclastic study starts from the premise that “we could scrap all the solemn parts of Dickens’ novels without impairing his status as a writer,” and sets out to celebrate the strange poetry of his imagination instead. Rather than a solemn treatise on Dickens’ symbolism, we are reminded of his obsession with masks and wooden legs; rather than viewing Dickens as a serious social critic, we are presented with a showman and comedian who “did not want to provoke … reform so much as to retain a large and lucrative audience.” It is the funniest book on Dickens ever written.

Dickens   (1990), by Peter Ackroyd

This tome of 1,000-plus pages by Peter Ackroyd, a biographer who has also made Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot his subjects, captures the nonfiction—or life and times of Charles Dickens—that the writer often wove into his fiction.

From Douglas-Fairhurst:  When Peter Ackroyd’s huge biography of Dickens was first published, it was attacked by some reviewers for what they saw as its self-indulgent postmodern tricks, including fictional dialogues in which Ackroyd conversed with his subject. Yet such passages are central to a book in which Ackroyd involves himself sympathetically in every aspect of Dickens’ life. As a result, you finish this book feeling not just that you know more about Dickens, but that you actually know him. A biography that rivals Dickens’ novels for its rich cast of characters, sprawling plot and unpredictable swerves between realism and romance.

Other Dickens: Pickwick to Chuzzlewit   (1999), by John Bowen

John Bowen, now a professor of 19th-century literature at England’s University of York, casts his eye toward Dickens’ early works, written from 1836 to 1844. He argues that novels such as  The Pickwick Papers ,  Oliver Twist  and  Martin Chuzzlewit  redefined fiction in the way that they broach politics and comedy.

From Douglas-Fairhurst:   During Dickens’ lifetime they were by far his most popular works, and it was only in the 20th century that readers developed a preference for the later, darker novels. John Bowen’s study shows why we should return to them, and what they look like when viewed through modern critical eyes. It is a superbly readable and detailed piece of literary detective work.

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Megan Gambino is a senior web editor for Smithsonian magazine.

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Charles Dickens - The Novelist of the People

***TOO LONG*** Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created many of the world's best-known fictional characters and was the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. Dickens built strong plots and populated them with real characters, but woven into his story-telling were powerful messages about the poverty, disparity and cruelty of Victorian society. His story-telling came from the heart: at age 12 he'd been forced into menial labour when his father was slung into debtor's prison. His brutal childhood experiences coloured the narratives of the rest of his life, and found support in the highest places. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". George Bernard Shaw remarked that Great Expectations was more seditious than Marx's Das Kapital.

Charles John Huffam Dickens FRSA (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and 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 recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.

Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at the age of 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years he was returned to school, before he began his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education and other social reforms.

Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers, a publishing phenomenon—thanks largely to the introduction of the character Sam Weller in the fourth episode—that sparked Pickwick merchandise and spin-offs. Within a few years Dickens had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most of them published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.Cliffhanger endings in his serial publications kept readers in suspense. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features. His plots were carefully constructed and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor would individually pay a halfpenny to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.

His 1843 novella A Christmas Carol remains especially popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities (set in London and Paris) is his best-known work of historical fiction. The most famous celebrity of his era, he undertook, in response to public demand, a series of public reading tours in the later part of his career. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social or working conditions, or comically repulsive characters.

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 at 1 Mile End Terrace (now 393 Commercial Road), Landport in Portsea Island (Portsmouth), Hampshire, the second of eight children of Elizabeth Dickens (née Barrow; 1789–1863) and John Dickens (1785–1851). His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily stationed in the district. He asked Christopher Huffam, rigger to His Majesty's Navy, gentleman, and head of an established firm, to act as godfather to Charles. Huffam is thought to be the inspiration for Paul Dombey, the owner of a shipping company in Dickens's novel Dombey and Son (1848).

In January 1815, John Dickens was called back to London and the family moved to Norfolk Street, Fitzrovia. When Charles was four, they relocated to Sheerness and thence to Chatham, Kent, where he spent his formative years until the age of 11. His early life seems to have been idyllic, though he thought himself a "very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy".

Charles spent time outdoors, but also read voraciously, including the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding, as well as Robinson Crusoe and Gil Blas. He read and reread The Arabian Nights and the Collected Farces of Elizabeth Inchbald. He retained poignant memories of childhood, helped by an excellent memory of people and events, which he used in his writing. His father's brief work as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office afforded him a few years of private education, first at a dame school and then at a school run by William Giles, a dissenter, in Chatham.

This period came to an end in June 1822, when John Dickens was recalled to Navy Pay Office headquarters at Somerset House and the family (except for Charles, who stayed behind to finish his final term at school) moved to Camden Town in London. The family had left Kent amidst rapidly mounting debts and, living beyond his means, John Dickens was forced by his creditors into the Marshalsea debtors' prison in Southwark, London in 1824. His wife and youngest children joined him there, as was the practice at the time. Charles, then 12 years old, boarded with Elizabeth Roylance, a family friend, at 112 College Place, Camden Town. Mrs Roylance was "a reduced impoverished old lady, long known to our family", whom Dickens later immortalised, "with a few alterations and embellishments", as "Mrs Pipchin" in Dombey and Son. Later, he lived in a back-attic in the house of an agent for the Insolvent Court, Archibald Russell, "a fat, good-natured, kind old gentleman ... with a quiet old wife" and lame son, in Lant Street in Southwark. They provided the inspiration for the Garlands in The Old Curiosity Shop.

On Sundays – with his sister Frances, free from her studies at the Royal Academy of Music – he spent the day at the Marshalsea. Dickens later used the prison as a setting in Little Dorrit. To pay for his board and to help his family, Dickens was forced to leave school and work ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs, near the present Charing Cross railway station, where he earned six shillings a week pasting labels on pots of boot blacking. The strenuous and often harsh working conditions made a lasting impression on Dickens and later influenced his fiction and essays, becoming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions, the rigours of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor. He later wrote that he wondered "how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age". As he recalled to John Forster (from Life of Charles Dickens):

The blacking-warehouse was the last house on the left-hand side of the way, at old Hungerford Stairs. It was a crazy, tumble-down old house, abutting of course on the river, and literally overrun with rats. Its wainscoted rooms, and its rotten floors and staircase, and the old grey rats swarming down in the cellars, and the sound of their squeaking and scuffling coming up the stairs at all times, and the dirt and decay of the place, rise up visibly before me, as if I were there again. The counting-house was on the first floor, looking over the coal-barges and the river. There was a recess in it, in which I was to sit and work. My work was to cover the pots of paste-blacking; first with a piece of oil-paper, and then with a piece of blue paper; to tie them round with a string; and then to clip the paper close and neat, all round, until it looked as smart as a pot of ointment from an apothecary's shop. When a certain number of grosses of pots had attained this pitch of perfection, I was to paste on each a printed label, and then go on again with more pots. Two or three other boys were kept at similar duty down-stairs on similar wages. One of them came up, in a ragged apron and a paper cap, on the first Monday morning, to show me the trick of using the string and tying the knot. His name was Bob Fagin; and I took the liberty of using his name, long afterwards, in Oliver Twist.

When the warehouse was moved to Chandos Street in the smart, busy district of Covent Garden, the boys worked in a room in which the window gave onto the street. Small audiences gathered and watched them at work – in Dickens's biographer Simon Callow's estimation, the public display was "a new refinement added to his misery".

A few months after his imprisonment, John Dickens's mother, Elizabeth Dickens, died and bequeathed him £450. On the expectation of this legacy, Dickens was released from prison. Under the Insolvent Debtors Act, Dickens arranged for payment of his creditors and he and his family left the Marshalsea, for the home of Mrs Roylance.

Charles's mother, Elizabeth Dickens, did not immediately support his removal from the boot-blacking warehouse. This influenced Dickens's view that a father should rule the family and a mother find her proper sphere inside the home: "I never afterwards forgot, I never shall forget, I never can forget, that my mother was warm for my being sent back." His mother's failure to request his return was a factor in his dissatisfied attitude towards women.

Righteous indignation stemming from his own situation and the conditions under which working-class people lived became major themes of his works, and it was this unhappy period in his youth to which he alluded in his favourite, and most autobiographical, novel, David Copperfield: "I had no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from anyone, that I can call to mind, as I hope to go to heaven!"

Dickens was eventually sent to the Wellington House Academy in Camden Town, where he remained until March 1827, having spent about two years there. He did not consider it to be a good school: "Much of the haphazard, desultory teaching, poor discipline punctuated by the headmaster's sadistic brutality, the seedy ushers and general run-down atmosphere, are embodied in Mr Creakle's Establishment in David Copperfield."

Dickens worked at the law office of Ellis and Blackmore, attorneys, of Holborn Court, Gray's Inn, as a junior clerk from May 1827 to November 1828. He was a gifted mimic and impersonated those around him: clients, lawyers and clerks. He went to theatres obsessively: he claimed that for at least three years he went to the theatre every day. His favourite actor was Charles Mathews and Dickens learnt his "monopolylogues" (farces in which Mathews played every character) by heart. Then, having learned Gurney's system of shorthand in his spare time, he left to become a freelance reporter. A distant relative, Thomas Charlton, was a freelance reporter at Doctors' Commons and Dickens was able to share his box there to report the legal proceedings for nearly four years. This education was to inform works such as Nicholas Nickleby, Dombey and Son and especially Bleak House, whose vivid portrayal of the machinations and bureaucracy of the legal system did much to enlighten the general public and served as a vehicle for dissemination of Dickens's own views regarding, particularly, the heavy burden on the poor who were forced by circumstances to "go to law".

In 1830, Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, thought to have been the model for the character Dora in David Copperfield. Maria's parents disapproved of the courtship and ended the relationship by sending her to school in Paris.

In 1832, at the age of 20, Dickens was energetic and increasingly self-confident. He enjoyed mimicry and popular entertainment, lacked a clear, specific sense of what he wanted to become, and yet knew he wanted fame. Drawn to the theatre – he became an early member of the Garrick Club – he landed an acting audition at Covent Garden, where the manager George Bartley and the actor Charles Kemble were to see him. Dickens prepared meticulously and decided to imitate the comedian Charles Mathews, but ultimately he missed the audition because of a cold. Before another opportunity arose, he had set out on his career as a writer.

In 1833, Dickens submitted his first story, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk", to the London periodical Monthly Magazine. William Barrow, Dickens's uncle on his mother's side, offered him a job on The Mirror of Parliament and he worked in the House of Commons for the first time early in 1832. He rented rooms at Furnival's Inn and worked as a political journalist, reporting on Parliamentary debates, and he travelled across Britain to cover election campaigns for the Morning Chronicle. His journalism, in the form of sketches in periodicals, formed his first collection of pieces, published in 1836: Sketches by Boz – Boz being a family nickname he employed as a pseudonym for some years. Dickens apparently adopted it from the nickname 'Moses', which he had given to his youngest brother Augustus Dickens, after a character in Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. When pronounced by anyone with a head cold, "Moses" became "Boses" – later shortened to Boz. Dickens's own name was considered "queer" by a contemporary critic, who wrote in 1849: "Mr Dickens, as if in revenge for his own queer name, does bestow still queerer ones upon his fictitious creations." Dickens contributed to and edited journals throughout his literary career. In January 1835, the Morning Chronicle launched an evening edition, under the editorship of the Chronicle's music critic, George Hogarth. Hogarth invited him to contribute Street Sketches and Dickens became a regular visitor to his Fulham house – excited by Hogarth's friendship with Walter Scott (whom Dickens greatly admired) and enjoying the company of Hogarth's three daughters: Georgina, Mary and 19-year-old Catherine.

Dickens made rapid progress both professionally and socially. He began a friendship with William Harrison Ainsworth, the author of the highwayman novel Rookwood (1834), whose bachelor salon in Harrow Road had become the meeting place for a set that included Daniel Maclise, Benjamin Disraeli, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and George Cruikshank. All these became his friends and collaborators, with the exception of Disraeli, and he met his first publisher, John Macrone, at the house. The success of Sketches by Boz led to a proposal from publishers Chapman and Hall for Dickens to supply text to match Robert Seymour's engraved illustrations in a monthly letterpress. Seymour committed suicide after the second instalment and Dickens, who wanted to write a connected series of sketches, hired "Phiz" to provide the engravings (which were reduced from four to two per instalment) for the story. The resulting story became The Pickwick Papers and, although the first few episodes were not successful, the introduction of the Cockney character Sam Weller in the fourth episode (the first to be illustrated by Phiz) marked a sharp climb in its popularity. The final instalment sold 40,000 copies. On the impact of the character, The Paris Review stated, "arguably the most historic bump in English publishing is the Sam Weller Bump." A publishing phenomenon, John Sutherland called The Pickwick Papers "he most important single novel of the Victorian era". The unprecedented success led to numerous spin-offs and merchandise ranging from Pickwick cigars, playing cards, china figurines, Sam Weller puzzles, Weller boot polish and joke books.

The Sam Weller Bump testifies not merely to Dickens’s comic genius but to his acumen as an "authorpreneur," a portmanteau he inhabited long before The Economist took it up. For a writer who made his reputation crusading against the squalor of the Industrial Revolution, Dickens was a creature of capitalism; he used everything from the powerful new printing presses to the enhanced advertising revenues to the expansion of railroads to sell more books. Dickens ensured that his books were available in cheap bindings for the lower orders as well as in morocco-and-gilt for people of quality; his ideal readership included everyone from the pickpockets who read Oliver Twist to Queen Victoria, who found it "exceedingly interesting."

On the creation of modern mass culture, Nicholas Dames in The Atlantic writes, “Literature” is not a big enough category for Pickwick. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call “entertainment.” In November 1836, Dickens accepted the position of editor of Bentley's Miscellany, a position he held for three years, until he fell out with the owner. In 1836, as he finished the last instalments of The Pickwick Papers, he began writing the beginning instalments of Oliver Twist – writing as many as 90 pages a month – while continuing work on Bentley's and also writing four plays, the production of which he oversaw. Oliver Twist, published in 1838, became one of Dickens's better known stories and was the first Victorian novel with a child protagonist.

On 2 April 1836, after a one-year engagement, and between episodes two and three of The Pickwick Papers, Dickens married Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1815–1879), the daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the Evening Chronicle. They were married in St Luke's Church,Chelsea, London. After a brief honeymoon in Chalk in Kent, the couple returned to lodgings at Furnival's Inn. The first of their ten children, Charles, was born in January 1837 and a few months later the family set up home in Bloomsbury at 48 Doughty Street, London (on which Charles had a three-year lease at £80 a year) from 25 March 1837 until December 1839. Dickens's younger brother Frederick and Catherine's 17-year-old sister Mary Hogarth moved in with them. Dickens became very attached to Mary, and she died in his arms after a brief illness in 1837. Unusually for Dickens, as a consequence of his shock, he stopped working, and he and Catherine stayed at a little farm on Hampstead Heath for a fortnight. Dickens idealised Mary; the character he fashioned after her, Rose Maylie, he found he could not now kill, as he had planned, in his fiction, and, according to Ackroyd, he drew on memories of her for his later descriptions of Little Nell and Florence Dombey. His grief was so great that he was unable to meet the deadline for the June instalment of The Pickwick Papers and had to cancel the Oliver Twist instalment that month as well. The time in Hampstead was the occasion for a growing bond between Dickens and John Forster to develop; Forster soon became his unofficial business manager and the first to read his work.

His success as a novelist continued. The young Queen Victoria read both Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers, staying up until midnight to discuss them.Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–41) and, finally, his first historical novel, Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty, as part of the Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840–41), were all published in monthly instalments before being made into books.

In the midst of all his activity during this period, there was discontent with his publishers and John Macrone was bought off, while Richard Bentley signed over all his rights in Oliver Twist. Other signs of a certain restlessness and discontent emerged; in Broadstairs he flirted with Eleanor Picken, the young fiancée of his solicitor's best friend and one night grabbed her and ran with her down to the sea. He declared they were both to drown there in the "sad sea waves". She finally got free, and afterwards kept her distance. In June 1841, he precipitously set out on a two-month tour of Scotland and then, in September 1841, telegraphed Forster that he had decided to go to America.Master Humphrey's Clock was shut down, though Dickens was still keen on the idea of the weekly magazine, a form he liked, an appreciation that had begun with his childhood reading of the 18th-century magazines Tatler and The Spectator.

Dickens was perturbed by the return to power of the Tories, whom he described as "people whom, politically, I despise and abhor." He had been tempted to stand for the Liberals in Reading, but decided against it due to financial straits. He wrote three anti-Tory verse satires ("The Fine Old English Gentleman", "The Quack Doctor's Proclamation", and "Subjects for Painters") which were published in The Examiner.

First visit to the United States

On 22 January 1842, Dickens and his wife arrived in Boston, Massachusetts aboard the RMS Britannia during their first trip to the United States and Canada. At this time Georgina Hogarth, another sister of Catherine, joined the Dickens household, now living at Devonshire Terrace, Marylebone to care for the young family they had left behind. She remained with them as housekeeper, organiser, adviser and friend until Dickens's death in 1870. Dickens modelled the character of Agnes Wickfield after Georgina and Mary.

He described his impressions in a travelogue, American Notes for General Circulation. In Notes, Dickens includes a powerful condemnation of slavery which he had attacked as early as The Pickwick Papers, correlating the emancipation of the poor in England with the abolition of slavery abroad citing newspaper accounts of runaway slaves disfigured by their masters. In spite of the abolitionist sentiments gleaned from his trip to America, some modern commentators have pointed out inconsistencies in Dickens's views on racial inequality. For instance, he has been criticized for his subsequent acquiescence in Governor Eyre's harsh crackdown during the 1860s Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica and his failure to join other British progressives in condemning it. From Richmond, Virginia, Dickens returned to Washington, D.C., and started a trek westward to St Louis, Missouri. While there, he expressed a desire to see an American prairie before returning east. A group of 13 men then set out with Dickens to visit Looking Glass Prairie, a trip 30 miles into Illinois.

During his American visit, Dickens spent a month in New York City, giving lectures, raising the question of international copyright laws and the pirating of his work in America. He persuaded a group of 25 writers, headed by Washington Irving, to sign a petition for him to take to Congress, but the press were generally hostile to this, saying that he should be grateful for his popularity and that it was mercenary to complain about his work being pirated.

The popularity he gained caused a shift in his self-perception according to critic Kate Flint, who writes that he "found himself a cultural commodity, and its circulation had passed out his control", causing him to become interested in and delve into themes of public and personal personas in the next novels. She writes that he assumed a role of "influential commentator", publicly and in his fiction, evident in his next few books. His trip to the U.S. ended with a trip to Canada – Niagara Falls, Toronto, Kingston and Montreal – where he appeared on stage in light comedies.

Soon after his return to England, Dickens began work on the first of his Christmas stories, A Christmas Carol, written in 1843, which was followed by The Chimes in 1844 and The Cricket on the Hearth in 1845. Of these, A Christmas Carol was most popular and, tapping into an old tradition, did much to promote a renewed enthusiasm for the joys of Christmas in Britain and America. The seeds for the story became planted in Dickens's mind during a trip to Manchester to witness the conditions of the manufacturing workers there. This, 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. As the idea for the story took shape and the writing began in earnest, Dickens became engrossed in the book. He later wrote that as the tale unfolded he "wept and laughed, and wept again" as he "walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed".

After living briefly in Italy (1844), Dickens travelled to Switzerland (1846), where he began work on Dombey and Son (1846–48). This and David Copperfield (1849–50) mark a significant artistic break in Dickens's career as his novels became more serious in theme and more carefully planned than his early works.

At about this time, he was made aware of a large embezzlement at the firm where his brother, Augustus, worked (John Chapman & Co). It had been carried out by Thomas Powell, a clerk, who was on friendly terms with Dickens and who had acted as mentor to Augustus when he started work. Powell was also an author and poet and knew many of the famous writers of the day. After further fraudulent activities, Powell fled to New York and published a book called The Living Authors of England with a chapter on Charles Dickens, who was not amused by what Powell had written. One item that seemed to have annoyed him was the assertion that he had based the character of Paul Dombey (Dombey and Son) on Thomas Chapman, one of the principal partners at John Chapman & Co. Dickens immediately sent a letter to Lewis Gaylord Clark, editor of the New York literary magazine The Knickerbocker, saying that Powell was a forger and thief. Clark published the letter in the New-York Tribune and several other papers picked up on the story. Powell began proceedings to sue these publications and Clark was arrested. Dickens, realising that he had acted in haste, contacted John Chapman & Co to seek written confirmation of Powell's guilt. Dickens did receive a reply confirming Powell's embezzlement, but once the directors realised this information might have to be produced in court, they refused to make further disclosures. Owing to the difficulties of providing evidence in America to support his accusations, Dickens eventually made a private settlement with Powell out of court.

Philanthropy

Angela Burdett Coutts, heir to the Coutts banking fortune, approached Dickens in May 1846 about setting up a home for the redemption of fallen women of the working class. Coutts envisioned a home that would replace the punitive regimes of existing institutions with a reformative environment conducive to education and proficiency in domestic household chores. After initially resisting, Dickens eventually founded the home, named Urania Cottage, in the Lime Grove area of Shepherd's Bush, which he managed for ten years, setting the house rules, reviewing the accounts and interviewing prospective residents. Emigration and marriage were central to Dickens's agenda for the women on leaving Urania Cottage, from which it is estimated that about 100 women graduated between 1847 and 1859.

As a young man, Dickens expressed a distaste for certain aspects of organised religion. In 1836, in a pamphlet titled Sunday Under Three Heads, he defended the people's right to pleasure, opposing a plan to prohibit games on Sundays. "Look into your churches – diminished congregations and scanty attendance. People have grown sullen and obstinate, and are becoming disgusted with the faith which condemns them to such a day as this, once in every seven. They display their feeling by staying away [from church]. Turn into the streets [on a Sunday] and mark the rigid gloom that reigns over everything around."

Dickens honoured the figure of Jesus Christ. He is regarded as a professing Christian. His son, Henry Fielding Dickens, described him as someone who "possessed deep religious convictions". In the early 1840s, he had shown an interest in Unitarian Christianity and Robert Browning remarked that "Mr Dickens is an enlightened Unitarian." Professor Gary Colledge has written that he "never strayed from his attachment to popular lay Anglicanism". Dickens authored a work called The Life of Our Lord (1846), a book about the life of Christ, written with the purpose of sharing his faith with his children and family.

Dickens disapproved of Roman Catholicism and 19th-century evangelicalism, seeing both as extremes of Christianity and likely to limit personal expression, and was critical of what he saw as the hypocrisy of religious institutions and philosophies like spiritualism, all of which he considered deviations from the true spirit of Christianity, as shown in the book he wrote for his family in 1846. While Dickens advocated equal rights for Catholics in England, he strongly disliked how individual civil liberties were often threatened in countries where Catholicism predominated and referred to the Catholic Church as "that curse upon the world." Dickens also rejected the Evangelical conviction that the Bible was the infallible word of God. His ideas on Biblical interpretation were similar to the Liberal Anglican Arthur Penrhyn Stanley's doctrine of "progressive revelation."Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky referred to Dickens as "that great Christian writer".

Middle years

In December 1845, Dickens took up the editorship of the London-based Daily News, a liberal paper through which Dickens hoped to advocate, in his own words, "the Principles of Progress and Improvement, of Education and Civil and Religious Liberty and Equal Legislation." Among the other contributors Dickens chose to write for the paper were the radical economist Thomas Hodgskin and the social reformer Douglas William Jerrold, who frequently attacked the Corn Laws. Dickens lasted only ten weeks on the job before resigning due to a combination of exhaustion and frustration with one of the paper's co-owners.

The Francophile Dickens often holidayed in France and, in a speech delivered in Paris in 1846 in French, called the French "the first people in the universe". During his visit to Paris, Dickens met the French literati Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Eugène Scribe, Théophile Gautier, François-René de Chateaubriand and Eugène Sue. In early 1849, Dickens started to write David Copperfield. It was published between 1849 and 1850. In Dickens's biography, Life of Charles Dickens (1872), John Forster wrote of David Copperfield, "underneath the fiction lay something of the author's life". It was Dickens's personal favourite among his own novels, as he wrote in the author's preface to the 1867 edition of the novel.

In late November 1851, Dickens moved into Tavistock House where he wrote Bleak House (1852–53), Hard Times (1854) and Little Dorrit (1856). It was here that he indulged in the amateur theatricals described in Forster's Life of Charles Dickens. During this period, he worked closely with the novelist and playwright Wilkie Collins. In 1856, his income from writing allowed him to buy Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent. As a child, Dickens had walked past the house and dreamed of living in it. The area was also the scene of some of the events of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and this literary connection pleased him.

During this time Dickens was also the publisher, editor and a major contributor to the journals Household Words (1850–1859) and All the Year Round (1858–1870). In 1855, when Dickens's good friend and Liberal MP Austen Henry Layard formed an Administrative Reform Association to demand significant reforms of Parliament, Dickens joined and volunteered his resources in support of Layard's cause. With the exception of Lord John Russell, who was the only leading politician in whom Dickens had any faith and to whom he later dedicated A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens believed that the political aristocracy and their incompetence were the death of England. When he and Layard were accused of fomenting class conflict, Dickens replied that the classes were already in opposition and the fault was with the aristocratic class. Dickens used his pulpit in Household Words to champion the Reform Association. He also commented on foreign affairs, declaring his support for Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, helping raise funds for their campaigns and stating that "a united Italy would be of vast importance to the peace of the world, and would be a rock in Louis Napoleon's way," and that "I feel for Italy almost as if I were an Italian born."

Following the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Dickens joined in the widespread criticism of the East India Company for its role in the event, but reserved his fury for the rebels themselves, wishing that he was the commander-in-chief in India so that he would be able to, "do my utmost to exterminate the Race upon whom the stain of the late cruelties rested."

In 1857, Dickens hired professional actresses for the play The Frozen Deep, written by him and his protégé, Wilkie Collins. Dickens fell in love with one of the actresses, Ellen Ternan, and this passion was to last the rest of his life. Dickens was 45 and Ternan 18 when he made the decision, which went strongly against Victorian convention, to separate from his wife, Catherine, in 1858; divorce was still unthinkable for someone as famous as he was. When Catherine left, never to see her husband again, she took with her one child, leaving the other children to be raised by her sister Georgina who chose to stay at Gads Hill.

During this period, whilst pondering a project to give public readings for his own profit, Dickens was approached through a charitable appeal by Great Ormond Street Hospital to help it survive its first major financial crisis. His "Drooping Buds" essay in Household Words earlier on 3 April 1852 was considered by the hospital's founders to have been the catalyst for the hospital's success. Dickens, whose philanthropy was well-known, was asked by his friend, the hospital's founder Charles West, to preside over the appeal, and he threw himself into the task, heart and soul. Dickens's public readings secured sufficient funds for an endowment to put the hospital on a sound financial footing; one reading on 9 February 1858 alone raised £3,000.

After separating from Catherine, Dickens undertook a series of hugely popular and remunerative reading tours which, together with his journalism, were to absorb most of his creative energies for the next decade, in which he was to write only two more novels. His first reading tour, lasting from April 1858 to February 1859, consisted of 129 appearances in 49 towns throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. Dickens's continued fascination with the theatrical world was written into the theatre scenes in Nicholas Nickleby, but more importantly he found an outlet in public readings. In 1866, he undertook a series of public readings in England and Scotland, with more the following year in England and Ireland.

Other works soon followed, including A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1861), which were resounding successes. Set in London and Paris, A Tale of Two Cities is his best-known work of historical fiction and includes the famous opening sentence which begins with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." It is regularly cited as one of the best-selling novels of all time. Themes in Great Expectations include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil.

In early September 1860, in a field behind Gads Hill, Dickens made a bonfire of most of his correspondence; only those letters on business matters were spared. Since Ellen Ternan also destroyed all of his letters to her, the extent of the affair between the two remains speculative. In the 1930s, Thomas Wright recounted that Ternan had unburdened herself to a Canon Benham and gave currency to rumours they had been lovers. That the two had a son who died in infancy was alleged by Dickens's daughter, Kate Perugini, whom Gladys Storey had interviewed before her death in 1929. Storey published her account in Dickens and Daughter, but no contemporary evidence exists. On his death, Dickens settled an annuity on Ternan which made her financially independent. Claire Tomalin's book, The Invisible Woman, argues that Ternan lived with Dickens secretly for the last 13 years of his life. The book was subsequently turned into a play, Little Nell, by Simon Gray, and a 2013 film. In the same period, Dickens furthered his interest in the paranormal, becoming one of the early members of The Ghost Club.

In June 1862, he was offered £10,000 for a reading tour of Australia. He was enthusiastic, and even planned a travel book, The Uncommercial Traveller Upside Down, but ultimately decided against the tour. Two of his sons, Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens and Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, migrated to Australia, Edward becoming a member of the Parliament of New South Wales as Member for Wilcannia between 1889 and 1894.

On 9 June 1865, while returning from Paris with Ellen Ternan, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash in Kent. The train's first seven carriages plunged off a cast iron bridge that was under repair. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling. Before rescuers arrived, Dickens tended and comforted the wounded and the dying with a flask of brandy and a hat refreshed with water, and saved some lives. Before leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for Our Mutual Friend, and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it.

Dickens later used the experience of the crash as material for his short ghost story, "The Signal-Man", in which the central character has a premonition of his own death in a rail crash. He also based the story on several previous rail accidents, such as the Clayton Tunnel rail crash in Sussex of 1861. Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquest to avoid disclosing that he had been travelling with Ternan and her mother, which would have caused a scandal. After the crash, Dickens was nervous when travelling by train and would use alternative means when available. In 1868 he wrote, "I have sudden vague rushes of terror, even when riding in a hansom cab, which are perfectly unreasonable but quite insurmountable." Dickens's son, Henry, recalled, "I have seen him sometimes in a railway carriage when there was a slight jolt. When this happened he was almost in a state of panic and gripped the seat with both hands."

While he contemplated a second visit to the United States, the outbreak of the Civil War in America in 1861 delayed his plans. On 9 November 1867, over two years after the war, Dickens set sail from Liverpool for his second American reading tour. Landing in Boston, he devoted the rest of the month to a round of dinners with such notables as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his American publisher, James T. Fields. In early December, the readings began. He performed 76 readings, netting £19,000, from December 1867 to April 1868. Dickens shuttled between Boston and New York, where he gave 22 readings at Steinway Hall. Although he had started to suffer from what he called the "true American catarrh", he kept to a schedule that would have challenged a much younger man, even managing to squeeze in some sleighing in Central Park.

During his travels, he saw a change in the people and the circumstances of America. His final appearance was at a banquet the American Press held in his honour at Delmonico's on 18 April, when he promised never to denounce America again. By the end of the tour Dickens could hardly manage solid food, subsisting on champagne and eggs beaten in sherry. On 23 April he boarded the Cunard liner Russia to return to Britain, barely escaping a federal tax lien against the proceeds of his lecture tour.

Between 1868 and 1869, Dickens gave a series of "farewell readings" in England, Scotland and Ireland, beginning on 6 October. He managed, of a contracted 100 readings, to deliver 75 in the provinces, with a further 12 in London. As he pressed on he was affected by giddiness and fits of paralysis. He suffered a stroke on 18 April 1869 in Chester. He collapsed on 22 April 1869, at Preston in Lancashire and, on doctor's advice, the tour was cancelled. After further provincial readings were cancelled, he began work on his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It was fashionable in the 1860s to 'do the slums' and, in company, Dickens visited opium dens in Shadwell, where he witnessed an elderly addict known as "Laskar Sal", who formed the model for the "Opium Sal" subsequently featured in Edwin Drood.

After Dickens had regained sufficient strength, he arranged, with medical approval, for a final series of readings to partially make up to his sponsors what they had lost due to his illness. There were 12 performances, running between 11 January and 15 March 1870, the last at 8:00 pm at St. James's Hall in London. Although in grave health by this time, he read A Christmas Carol and The Trial from Pickwick. On 2 May, he made his last public appearance at a Royal Academy Banquet in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, paying a special tribute on the death of his friend, the illustrator Daniel Maclise.

On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness and, the next day, he died at Gads Hill Place. Biographer Claire Tomalin has suggested Dickens was actually in Peckham when he suffered the stroke and his mistress Ellen Ternan and her maids had him taken back to Gads Hill so that the public would not know the truth about their relationship. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner", he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads:

To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world.

His last words were "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down. On Sunday, 19 June 1870, five days after Dickens was buried in the Abbey, Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley delivered a memorial elegy, lauding "the genial and loving humorist whom we now mourn", for showing by his own example "that even in dealing with the darkest scenes and the most degraded characters, genius could still be clean, and mirth could be innocent". Pointing to the fresh flowers that adorned the novelist's grave, Stanley assured those present that "the spot would thenceforth be a sacred one with both the New World and the Old, as that of the representative of literature, not of this island only, but of all who speak our English tongue."

In his will, drafted more than a year before his death, Dickens left the care of his £80,000 estate (£7,825,800 in 2020) to his long-time colleague John Forster and his "best and truest friend" Georgina Hogarth who, along with Dickens's two sons, also received a tax-free sum of £8,000 (equivalent to £783,000 in 2020). Although Dickens and his wife had been separated for several years at the time of his death, he provided her with an annual income of £600 (£58,700 in 2020) and made her similar allowances in his will. He also bequeathed £19 19s (£2,000 in 2020) to each servant in his employment at the time of his death.

Literary style

Dickens's approach to the novel is influenced by various things, including the picaresque novel tradition,melodrama and the novel of sensibility. According to Ackroyd, other than these, perhaps the most important literary influence on him was derived from the fables of The Arabian Nights.Satire and irony are central to the picaresque novel. Comedy is also an aspect of the British picaresque novel tradition of Laurence Sterne, Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett. Fielding's Tom Jones was a major influence on the 19th-century novelist including Dickens, who read it in his youth and named a son Henry Fielding Dickens after him. Influenced by Gothic fiction—a literary genre that began with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole—Dickens incorporated Gothic imagery, settings and plot devices in his works. Victorian gothic moved from castles and abbeys into contemporary urban environments: in particular London, such as Dickens's Oliver Twist and Bleak House. In Great Expectations Miss Havisham's bridal gown effectively doubles as her funeral shroud.

No other writer had such a profound influence on Dickens as William Shakespeare. On Dickens's veneration of Shakespeare, Alfred Harbage wrote "No one is better qualified to recognise literary genius than a literary genius"— A Kind of Power: The Shakespeare-Dickens Analogy (1975). Regarding Shakespeare as "the great master" whose plays "were an unspeakable source of delight", Dickens's lifelong affinity with the playwright included seeing theatrical productions of his plays in London and putting on amateur dramatics with friends in his early years. In 1838 Dickens travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon and visited the house in which Shakespeare was born, leaving his autograph in the visitors' book. Dickens would draw on this experience in his next work, Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), expressing the strength of feeling experienced by visitors to Shakespeare's birthplace: the character Mrs Wititterly states, "I don't know how it is, but after you've seen the place and written your name in the little book, somehow or other you seem to be inspired; it kindles up quite a fire within one."

Dickens's writing style is marked by a profuse linguistic creativity. Satire, flourishing in his gift for caricature, is his forte. An early reviewer compared him to Hogarth for his keen practical sense of the ludicrous side of life, though his acclaimed mastery of varieties of class idiom may in fact mirror the conventions of contemporary popular theatre. Dickens worked intensively on developing arresting names for his characters that would reverberate with associations for his readers and assist the development of motifs in the storyline, giving what one critic calls an "allegorical impetus" to the novels' meanings. To cite one of numerous examples, the name Mr Murdstone in David Copperfield conjures up twin allusions to murder and stony coldness. His literary style is also a mixture of fantasy and realism. His satires of British aristocratic snobbery – he calls one character the "Noble Refrigerator" – are often popular. Comparing orphans to stocks and shares, people to tug boats or dinner-party guests to furniture are just some of Dickens's acclaimed flights of fancy.

The author worked closely with his illustrators, supplying them with a summary of the work at the outset and thus ensuring that his characters and settings were exactly how he envisioned them. He briefed the illustrator on plans for each month's instalment so that work could begin before he wrote them. Marcus Stone, illustrator of Our Mutual Friend, recalled that the author was always "ready to describe down to the minutest details the personal characteristics, and ... life-history of the creations of his fancy". Dickens employs Cockney English in many of his works, denoting working-class Londoners. Cockney grammar appears in terms such as ain't, and consonants in words are frequently omitted, as in 'ere (here) and wot (what). An example of this usage is in Oliver Twist. The Artful Dodger uses cockney slang which is juxtaposed with Oliver's 'proper' English, when the Dodger repeats Oliver saying "seven" with "sivin".

Dickens's biographer Claire Tomalin regards him as the greatest creator of character in English fiction after Shakespeare. Dickensian characters are amongst the most memorable in English literature, especially so because of their typically whimsical names. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley and Bob Cratchit (A Christmas Carol); Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin and Bill Sikes (Oliver Twist); Pip, Miss Havisham and Abel Magwitch (Great Expectations); Sydney Carton, Charles Darnay and Madame Defarge (A Tale of Two Cities); David Copperfield, Uriah Heep and Mr Micawber (David Copperfield); Daniel Quilp and Nell Trent (The Old Curiosity Shop), Samuel Pickwick and Sam Weller (The Pickwick Papers); and Wackford Squeers (Nicholas Nickleby) are so well known as to be part and parcel of popular culture, and in some cases have passed into ordinary language: a scrooge, for example, is a miser or someone who dislikes Christmas festivity.

His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life of their own outside his books. "Gamp" became a slang expression for an umbrella from the character Mrs Gamp, and "Pickwickian", "Pecksniffian" and "Gradgrind" all entered dictionaries due to Dickens's original portraits of such characters who were, respectively, quixotic, hypocritical and vapidly factual. The character that made Dickens famous, Sam Weller became known for his Wellerisms—one-liners that turned proverbs on their heads. Many were drawn from real life: Mrs Nickleby is based on his mother, although she didn't recognise herself in the portrait, just as Mr Micawber is constructed from aspects of his father's 'rhetorical exuberance'; Harold Skimpole in Bleak House is based on James Henry Leigh Hunt; his wife's dwarfish chiropodist recognised herself in Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield. Perhaps Dickens's impressions on his meeting with Hans Christian Andersen informed the delineation of Uriah Heep (a term synonymous with sycophant).

Virginia Woolf maintained that "we remodel our psychological geography when we read Dickens" as he produces "characters who exist not in detail, not accurately or exactly, but abundantly in a cluster of wild yet extraordinarily revealing remarks".T. S. Eliot wrote that Dickens "excelled in character; in the creation of characters of greater intensity than human beings". One "character" vividly drawn throughout his novels is London itself. Dickens described London as a magic lantern, inspiring the places and people in many of his novels. From the coaching inns on the outskirts of the city to the lower reaches of the Thames, all aspects of the capital – Dickens's London – are described over the course of his body of work. Walking the streets (particularly around London) formed an integral part of his writing life, stoking his creativity. Dickens was known to regularly walk at least a dozen miles (19 km) per day, and once wrote, "If I couldn’t walk fast and far, I should just explode and perish."

Authors frequently draw their portraits of characters from people they have known in real life. David Copperfield is regarded by many as a veiled autobiography of Dickens. The scenes of interminable court cases and legal arguments in Bleak House reflect Dickens's experiences as a law clerk and court reporter, and in particular his direct experience of the law's procedural delay during 1844 when he sued publishers in Chancery for breach of copyright. Dickens's father was sent to prison for debt and this became a common theme in many of his books, with the detailed depiction of life in the Marshalsea prison in Little Dorrit resulting from Dickens's own experiences of the institution. Lucy Stroughill, a childhood sweetheart, may have affected several of Dickens's portraits of girls such as Little Em'ly in David Copperfield and Lucie Manette in A Tale of Two Cities.

Dickens may have drawn on his childhood experiences, but he was also ashamed of them and would not reveal that this was where he gathered his realistic accounts of squalor. Very few knew the details of his early life until six years after his death, when John Forster published a biography on which Dickens had collaborated. Though Skimpole brutally sends up Leigh Hunt, some critics have detected in his portrait features of Dickens's own character, which he sought to exorcise by self-parody.

A pioneer of the serial publication of narrative fiction, Dickens wrote most of his major novels in monthly or weekly instalments in journals such as Master Humphrey's Clock and Household Words, later reprinted in book form. These instalments made the stories affordable and accessible, with the audience more evenly distributed across income levels than previous. His instalment format inspired a narrative that he would explore and develop throughout his career, and the regular cliffhangers made each new episode widely anticipated. When The Old Curiosity Shop was being serialised, American fans waited at the docks in New York harbour, shouting out to the crew of an incoming British ship, "Is little Nell dead?" Dickens's talent was to incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end.

Another important impact of Dickens's episodic writing style resulted from his exposure to the opinions of his readers and friends. His friend Forster had a significant hand in reviewing his drafts, an influence that went beyond matters of punctuation. He toned down melodramatic and sensationalist exaggerations, cut long passages (such as the episode of Quilp's drowning in The Old Curiosity Shop), and made suggestions about plot and character. It was he who suggested that Charley Bates should be redeemed in Oliver Twist. Dickens had not thought of killing Little Nell and it was Forster who advised him to entertain this possibility as necessary to his conception of the heroine.

Dickens was at the helm in popularising cliffhangers and serial publications in Victorian literature. His influence can also be seen in television soap operas and film series, with The Guardian stating "the DNA of Dickens’s busy, episodic storytelling, delivered in instalments and rife with cliffhangers and diversions, is traceable in everything." His serialisation of his novels also drew comments from other writers. In Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Wrecker, Captain Nares, investigating an abandoned ship, remarked: "See! They were writing up the log," said Nares, pointing to the ink-bottle. "Caught napping, as usual. I wonder if there ever was a captain yet that lost a ship with his log-book up to date? He generally has about a month to fill up on a clean break, like Charles Dickens and his serial novels."

Dickens's novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. Simon Callow states, "From the moment he started to write, he spoke for the people, and the people loved him for it." He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. In a New York address, he expressed his belief that "Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen". Dickens's second novel, Oliver Twist (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime: it challenged middle class polemics about criminals, making impossible any pretence to ignorance about what poverty entailed.

At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged within society. Through his journalism he campaigned on specific issues – such as sanitation and the workhouse – but his fiction probably demonstrated its greatest prowess in changing public opinion in regard to class inequalities. He often depicted the exploitation and oppression of the poor and condemned the public officials and institutions that not only allowed such abuses to exist, but flourished as a result. His most strident indictment of this condition is in Hard Times (1854), Dickens's only novel-length treatment of the industrial working class. In this work, he uses vitriol and satire to illustrate how this marginalised social stratum was termed "Hands" by the factory owners; that is, not really "people" but rather only appendages of the machines they operated. His writings inspired others, in particular journalists and political figures, to address such problems of class oppression. For example, the prison scenes in The Pickwick Papers are claimed to have been influential in having the Fleet Prison shut down. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". George Bernard Shaw even remarked that Great Expectations was more seditious than Marx's Das Kapital. The exceptional popularity of Dickens's novels, even those with socially oppositional themes (Bleak House, 1853; Little Dorrit, 1857; Our Mutual Friend, 1865), not only underscored his ability to create compelling storylines and unforgettable characters, but also ensured that the Victorian public confronted issues of social justice that had commonly been ignored.

It has been argued that his technique of flooding his narratives with an 'unruly superfluity of material' that, in the gradual dénouement, yields up an unsuspected order, influenced the organisation of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

Dickens is often described as using idealised characters and highly sentimental scenes to contrast with his caricatures and the ugly social truths he reveals. The story of Nell Trent in The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) was received as extraordinarily moving by contemporary readers but viewed as ludicrously sentimental by Oscar Wilde. "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell", he said in a famous remark, "without dissolving into tears ... of laughter."G. K. Chesterton stated, "It is not the death of little Nell, but the life of little Nell, that I object to", arguing that the maudlin effect of his description of her life owed much to the gregarious nature of Dickens's grief, his "despotic" use of people's feelings to move them to tears in works like this.

The question as to whether Dickens belongs to the tradition of the sentimental novel is debatable. Valerie Purton, in her book Dickens and the Sentimental Tradition, sees him continuing aspects of this tradition, and argues that his "sentimental scenes and characters [are] as crucial to the overall power of the novels as his darker or comic figures and scenes", and that "Dombey and Son is [ ... ] Dickens's greatest triumph in the sentimentalist tradition". The Encyclopædia Britannica online comments that, despite "patches of emotional excess", such as the reported death of Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol (1843), "Dickens cannot really be termed a sentimental novelist".

In Oliver Twist Dickens provides readers with an idealised portrait of a boy so inherently and unrealistically good that his values are never subverted by either brutal orphanages or coerced involvement in a gang of young pickpockets. While later novels also centre on idealised characters (Esther Summerson in Bleak House and Amy Dorrit in Little Dorrit), this idealism serves only to highlight Dickens's goal of poignant social commentary. Dickens's fiction, reflecting what he believed to be true of his own life, makes frequent use of coincidence, either for comic effect or to emphasise the idea of providence. For example, Oliver Twist turns out to be the lost nephew of the upper-class family that rescues him from the dangers of the pickpocket group. Such coincidences are a staple of 18th-century picaresque novels, such as Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, which Dickens enjoyed reading as a youth.

Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time, and remains one of the best-known and most-read of English authors. His works have never gone out of print, and have been adapted continually for the screen since the invention of cinema, with at least 200 motion pictures and TV adaptations based on Dickens's works documented. Many of his works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime – early theatrical productions included The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain which was performed in the West End's Adelphi Theatre in 1848 – and, as early as 1913, a silent film of The Pickwick Papers was made. Contemporaries such as publisher Edward Lloyd cashed in on Dickens's popularity with cheap imitations of his novels, resulting in his own popular ‘penny dreadfuls'.

From the beginning of his career in the 1830s, Dickens's achievements in English literature were compared to those of Shakespeare. Dickens created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest British novelist of the Victorian era. His literary reputation, however began to decline with the publication of Bleak House in 1852–53. Philip Collins calls Bleak House ‘a crucial item in the history of Dickens's reputation. Reviewers and literary figures during the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s, saw a "drear decline" in Dickens, from a writer of "bright sunny comedy ... to dark and serious social" commentary.The Spectator called Bleak House "a heavy book to read through at once ... dull and wearisome as a serial"; Richard Simpson, in The Rambler, characterised Hard Times as "this dreary framework"; Fraser's Magazine thought Little Dorrit "decidedly the worst of his novels". All the same, despite these "increasing reservations amongst reviewers and the chattering classes, 'the public never deserted its favourite'". Dickens's popular reputation remained unchanged, sales continued to rise, and Household Words and later All the Year Round were highly successful.

Later in his career, Dickens's fame and the demand for his public readings were unparalleled. In 1868 The Times wrote, "Amid all the variety of 'readings', those of Mr Charles Dickens stand alone." A Dickens biographer, Edgar Johnson, wrote in the 1950s: "It was [always] more than a reading; it was an extraordinary exhibition of acting that seized upon its auditors with a mesmeric possession." Comparing his reception at public readings to those of a contemporary pop star, The Guardian states, "People sometimes fainted at his shows. His performances even saw the rise of that modern phenomenon, the 'speculator' or ticket tout (scalpers) – the ones in New York City escaped detection by borrowing respectable-looking hats from the waiters in nearby restaurants."

"Dickens's vocal impersonations of his own characters gave this truth a theatrical form: the public reading tour. No other Victorian could match him for celebrity, earnings, and sheer vocal artistry. The Victorians craved the author's multiple voices: between 1853 and his death in 1870, Dickens performed about 470 times."

—Peter Garratt in The Guardian on Dickens's fame and the demand for his public readings

Among fellow writers, there was a range of opinions on Dickens. Poet laureate, William Wordsworth (1770–1850), thought him a "very talkative, vulgar young person", adding he had not read a line of his work, while novelist George Meredith (1828–1909), found Dickens "intellectually lacking". In 1888 Leslie Stephen commented in the Dictionary of National Biography that "if literary fame could be safely measured by popularity with the half-educated, Dickens must claim the highest position among English novelists". Anthony Trollope's Autobiography famously declared Thackeray, not Dickens, to be the greatest novelist of the age. However, both Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were admirers. Dostoyevsky commented: "We understand Dickens in Russia, I am convinced, almost as well as the English, perhaps even with all the nuances. It may well be that we love him no less than his compatriots do. And yet how original is Dickens, and how very English!" Tolstoy referred to David Copperfield as his favourite book, and he later adopted the novel as "a model for his own autobiographical reflections". French writer Jules Verne called Dickens his favourite writer, writing his novels "stand alone, dwarfing all others by their amazing power and felicity of expression". Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh was inspired by Dickens's novels in several of his paintings like Vincent's Chair and in an 1889 letter to his sister stated that reading Dickens, especially A Christmas Carol, was one of the things that was keeping him from committing suicide. Oscar Wilde generally disparaged his depiction of character, while admiring his gift for caricature. Henry James denied him a premier position, calling him "the greatest of superficial novelists": Dickens failed to endow his characters with psychological depth, and the novels, "loose baggy monsters", betrayed a "cavalier organisation". Joseph Conrad described his own childhood in bleak Dickensian terms, and noted he had "an intense and unreasoning affection" for Bleak House, dating back to his boyhood. The novel influenced his own gloomy portrait of London in The Secret Agent (1907). Virginia Woolf had a love-hate relationship with his works, finding his novels "mesmerizing" while reproving him for his sentimentalism and a commonplace style.

Around 1940–41, the attitude of the litera

• Charles Dickens en.wikipedia.org

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Charles Dickens: A Literary Life

Charles Dickens is one of the most influential literary figures of all time. He was an internationally bestselling author even while he was alive. He has written fourteen completed novels, a myriad of short stories, and even more newspaper articles. His works, imbued with social commentary, have raised awareness for socioeconomic injustices in Victorian Britain that were exacerbated by the Industrial Revolution. However, Dickens did not start off with the intention to become an author.

Before turning into the literary giant he is now known as, Dickens wanted to be an actor. He changed his mind, nonetheless, since he gained immense popularity very early in his writing career. His debut novel, The Pickwick Papers , which first issued in 1836, was a hit from the get-go. English professor John Mullan notes, “With Pickwick Papers , Dickens more or less invented the novel of monthly parts” (Introduction, The Artful Dickens ).

The financial success of his serialized novels is particularly important, because Dickens grew up in a family that was constantly in financial trouble. His father, John Dickens, was sent to debtors’ prison when Charles was just twelve, leading him to work at a blacking factory as a child. This undoubtedly shaped Dickens’ attitude towards financial security. Dickens’ writing career, in turn, is both a result and a reflection of his experiences.

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Charles Dickens: A Novelist for Our Times

Charles Dickens, photographed in 1867, three years before his death on June 9, 1870. Photo by Jeremiah Gurney

150 years after his death, author’s themes of poverty and social inequity resonate

John o’rourke.

When English novelist Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870—150 years ago today—he was mourned as a national hero and buried in the Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. During a career that spanned nearly 40 years, Dickens created some of the most indelible characters in fiction—Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and Jacob Marley (A Christmas Carol) , Pip and Miss Havisham (Great Expectations) , David Copperfield, Uriah Heep, and Mr. Micawber (David Copperfield) , and Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger (Oliver Twist) .  

Renowned for his ability to mix comedy and pathos and to move readers, Dickens was also a pioneering social reformer who fought throughout his life to improve the living and working conditions for the poor. 

At the time of his death, he was a literary superstar, celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. His two speaking tours of America, in 1842 and in 1867 and 1868, drew standing-room-only crowds from Boston to New York, Richmond to St. Louis. 

His books have never gone out of print and have been translated into 150 languages. Today, there are more than 400 film and television adaptations of his novels, with more on the way, including a new take on David Copperfield, with Dev Patel as the eponymous lead character. 

What accounts for the Victorian novelist’s enduring popularity? We reached out to Dickens scholar Natalie McKnight , dean of the College of General Studies and a professor of humanities. The author of Idiots, Madmen and Other Prisoners in Dickens, she is coeditor of Dickens Studies Annual and president of the Dickens Society , which conducts and supports research into the author’s life and work.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

BU Today: When did you first discover Charles Dickens?

Natalie McKnight: My first taste of Dickens came with the Mister Magoo animated A Christmas Carol when I was four years old. I am happy to say that I had the pleasure of giving a talk on that version at a symposium in Iceland several years ago (not something I ever envisioned when I was working on my PhD).

BU Today: What led you to become a Dickens scholar?

Natalie McKnight: When I was a graduate student at the University of Delaware, I was lucky enough to have Elliot Gilbert as a professor in a Dickens seminar. He occasionally read to us in class, and we’d laugh out loud, cry, shake our heads in amazement. I figured that any writer who could evoke such powerful responses was worth spending a lifetime studying. And I was right.

BU Today: What accounts for Dickens’ ongoing popularity?

Natalie McKnight: Dickens continues to move people—and people want to be moved and need to be moved by characters and situations that are beyond themselves. We need emotional exercise as much as we need physical exercise; the trouble is, we’re proud of the latter, but embarrassed by being moved by others (real or fictional others). But Dickens also makes us think: he has many really illuminating passages when he captures the distorted perceptions of people in altered states of mind, or ones where he dissects how goodness in one person unintentionally brings out cruelty in another. People who really don’t know Dickens well think that his characters are caricatures—and some are, but most are not—and there is as much psychological realism in his works as in those of Victorian novelists who get more credit for that kind of thing because they are more obvious about it. People continue to be moved by his characters, as their tragedies, losses, and heartbreaks are human and universal. He repeatedly warned of the dangers of sharp divides between the rich and the poor. It’s there in A Tale of Two Cities most obviously, and it’s there in A Christmas Carol, but it’s subtly there in almost all his writings. Nothing good comes from the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, and sometimes a crisis—like the spread of a disease—collapses this dichotomy in ways that highlight the cluelessness of those who think their money can protect them from sickness or death or that they can hoard all the wealth with no negative repercussions. 

BU Today: Dickens wrote a lot about disease. What do you think he would have made of our current pandemic?

Natalie McKnight: He would have been all over this—he would probably have written a series of essays with some coauthors for All the Year Round or Household Worlds, two of the journals he edited. He probably would have given speeches about inadequate access to public health services, and the pandemic would have definitely made it into his fiction. And actually, anachronistically, it is in his fiction: there’s a smallpox epidemic in Bleak House , and Little Dorrit starts out with characters in quarantine in Marseilles due to the threat of a plague. He also wrote powerfully about the spread of hysteria being like a disease (something I’m writing about now), and that’s certainly something we’ve seen with reactions to COVID-19, with shoppers madly dashing for toilet paper in supermarkets and mobs of livid protesters pushing for an end to stay-at-home orders.

BU Today: It’s hard to underestimate the kind of celebrity Dickens achieved in his lifetime.

Natalie McKnight: He was the first huge pop-culture celebrity, and he maintained that celebrity for decades. He earned it because he created characters and stories that people cared deeply about, and he wrote serially, so people would be caring about the characters and plot lines over the course of many months. The characters would become part of their lives, and readers couldn’t wait to get the next installment. There’s the famous (and true) story of people standing on the docks in New York City waiting for ships coming in with the next installment of The Old Curiosity Shop, desperate to find out whether Little Nell would live.

BU Today: The Dickens Society had planned to host an international conference in London in July to mark the 150th anniversary of Dickens’ death, but, as president, you had to cancel it because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s going to be a virtual conference instead. Can you talk about that?

Natalie McKnight: I’m not organizing this one, but I am participating. It’s called #Dickens150 and it is being held via Zoom on the anniversary of Dickens’ death, June 9, and the proceeds will go to help the Dickens Museum , where we were to have had a reception. Like all museums in this pandemic, the Dickens Museum is really hurting because it’s lost all its revenue for months. So the virtual meeting will help.

BU Today: Finally, perhaps an unfair question to ask of someone who has devoted her research to studying Dickens’ work, but do you have a favorite novel?

Natalie McKnight: It’s not an unfair question at all. I get asked it all the time. My favorite novel is probably the one that’s read the least: Barnaby Rudge. It’s a historical fiction whose main character is a “holy idiot” type (the eponymous Barnaby). He’s fascinating, as is his talking crow, Grip (who inspired Edgar Allen Poe’s raven). It was very daring to place a “holy idiot” and a talking bird at the center of a novel, and I don’t think it works for a lot of readers, but I love it, and I love the crazed mob descriptions in the Gordon Riots scenes. They were an excellent warm-up for the French Revolution mob scenes he wrote in Tale of Two Cities, and they include some of the most bloodcurdling images of mob-mania I’ve read anywhere.

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Editor, BU Today

John O’Rourke began his career as a reporter at  The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour . He has worked as a producer at  World Monitor , a coproduction of the  Christian Science Monitor  and the Discovery Channel, and NBC News, where he was a producer for several shows, including  Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric ,  NBC Nightly News , and  The Today Show . John has won many awards, including four Emmys, a George Foster Peabody Award, and five Edward R. Murrow Awards. Profile

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There are 5 comments on Charles Dickens: A Novelist for Our Times

“Natalie McKnight: My first taste of Dickens came with the Mister Magoo animated A Christmas Carol when I was four years old.”

OMG! That was my first exposure to Dickens when I was about that age, maybe a couple years older.

Natalie, thank you for sharing your enthusiasm about Charles Dickens. I read ‘A Tales of Two Cities’ in a German translation 40 years ago, and just recently read it for the first time in its original English. This is indeed a novel for our times, I have been struck by so many parallels to our COVID crisis. Poverty and hunger. Injustice in the court system. The dying becoming numbers. The book moved me deeply — humor, fabulous storytelling, and so much humanity!

I read Dickens in my younger years and he had an impact on my ideas of justice, prejudice and equality. You have inspired me to read him again. Thanks. And I did love Barnaby Rudge!

I do wish the wealthy and government would read passages and points made about the wealthy and poor as I know greed money and status corrupts . A special person we will never forget and I was inspired even at 12 years old after reading his novels .

My favorite Dickens novel would be either *Nicholas Nickleby* or * Tale of Two Cities* ; though my favorite novel is not a Dickens novel. I have long loved *The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris). But I really love *Nicholas Nickleby* The friendship between Nicholas and Smike is so touching. Okay, Dickens was sentimental. But he was also sometimes very humorous, and could write really entertaining comedy, and it appears certainly in *Nicholas Nickelby*

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Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens, aka Charles Dickens, was born on 7 th February 1812. He was English novelist, writer, and social critic. He is considered as the most celebrated novelist of the Victorian era. He has created some fictional characters that are regarded as the world’s best characters. His work was celebrated and received unparalleled popularity, both during his lifetime and even after his death. Critics and scholars, by the end of the 20 th century, acknowledged him as a literary genius. Even in the 21 st century, his works are widely read and included as a part of academic studies. He died on 9th June 1870.

Charles Dickens Biography

He was born at Landport, on the southern coast of England to John and Elizabeth Dickens. He was the second child among the eight poor siblings. His father, though supposed to be the original of Mr. Micawber, was a clerk in the office of the navy. Due to the poor financial conditions, his father was always struggling with debts. When Dickens was nine years old, they moved and settled in a poor neighborhood in London. Even in London, his father was still pursued by the debts, and after two years of bombastic misfortune, he was sent to the debtor’s prison. His mother set up the Boarding Establishment of Young Ladies to meet their finances. However, no young lady visited it except for creditors. 

When Dickens was eleven years old, he was taken out of the school and put in work with the working-class men and boys in the blacking factory. At the age of twelve, while his father was still in prison, the rest of the family shifted to a place near the prison. Charles Dickens was left alone in London. It was these experiences of lonely hardships that proved to be very important in the literary career of Dickens. These experiences shaped his view of the world and thus described them in his famous and celebrated novels and short stories.

At the age of thirteen, Charles Dickens started his schooling again when his father received the inheritance and paid all his debts. However, at the age of fifteen, in 1827, he was again made to stop schooling and started working as an office boy. He then used his shorthand to write documents and became a stenographer and freelance reporter. In 1832, he became a news reporter for two newspapers in London. He then started publishing his sketches and impression in the other magazines with the sign of “Boz.” He published the images based on the life of London, which went far enough to make his reputation and were collectively published as his first book in 1836 as Sketches by Boz. He married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth, in April 1836. Soon after his marriage, he published his first most successful novel, The Pickwick Papers. Catherine and Charles Dickens had ten children together. In 1858, he became separated from Catherine. However, he continued his relationship with Ellen Tenan, his mistress and actress. 

Literary Style of Charles Dickens

Dickens has been greatly inspired by a variety of things when he started writing. The major influences he has was the picaresque tradition in novel writing, novel of sensibility , and melodrama . Other than these, the fables of The Arabian Nights have been the most significant literary inspiration for him. In the picaresque novel tradition, satire and irony are the most important elements.

Similarly, in British picaresque novels, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, and Tobias Smollett used the aspect of comedy as well. Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding, has not only influenced Charles Dickens but also the other novelist of the Victorian Era as well. Melodrama is also a great aspect of Dickens’ novels as it strongly appeals to the emotions of the readers.

The writing style of Charles Dickens is unique. His manner of writing is poetic , with a lot of satire and humor . Most of his novels and stories are episodic as his literary career started with working and writing for a newspaper. He is the master of using the element of suspense or cliffhanger ending to engage the readers, thus establishing their interest. Though Dickens’ literary works contain idealized characters , he does not make them appear perfect. Idealized characters appear to be a bad choice as it does not provide room for personal growth during the course of the story, however, uses his idealized characters to portray the horrible and ugly side of life and society. One of the best examples of idealized characters is Oliver Twist. Oliver is put in many trials, including a preparation center for thieves and malevolent orphanages during the course of the novel; however, he remains to be innocent and never compromising his values at all. Despite showing the ugly side of human society, Dickens creates the character of Oliver, an idealized character that the readers chose to love. Had Dickens not chosen to idealize the character, the book would have been gloomy and dark, with nothing to take pleasure in it.

Dickens’ works also contain unbelievable circumstances, thus adding the element of melodrama. For example, in the novel Oliver Twist , Oliver is rescued by a rich wealthy family from the gang thieves; the family then turns out to be his relatives. Authors or writers of the Victorian era would use such unbelievable circumstances to add a twist to the plot of the story. However, Dickens uses it in an entirely different way. The other writers would use it to extend their plot in their picaresque stories; Dickens used this method to portray the idea that good is always superior to evil, and even in unexpected cases, goodwill wins over evil.

 The writing style of Charles Dickens is also marked by prolific linguistic creativity. He uses satire in his work to criticize the follies of society. His satire flourishes with his misrepresentation of situations. He has been compared to Hogarth for his use of satire and a real sense of the foolish and ridiculous side of life. He has the much-admired mastery of various classes of idioms, which reflects the traditions of the theatre of the Victorian era. To name his characters, Dickens worked arduously. He wanted his characters to appeal to the readers, and their names are suggestive of their personalities.

Moreover, he also wants these arresting names to contribute to the development of motifs in the plot, thereby providing an “allegorical impetus” to the overall meaning of the novel. One of the examples is the name of Mr. Murderstone from the novel David Copperfield. The name refers to two things: murder and coldness and harness as stone. Moreover, the literary cycle of Charles Dickens is also a blend of realism and fantasy. He satirizes the British aristocratic class and is very famous for it. To criticize the noble, he calls one of his characters, “the Noble Refrigerator.” In his literary works, he compares the orphans as shares and stocks of a business, people with tug boats, and party guests to furniture; these are some of his best examples of fancy.

Works Of Charles Dickens

• David Copperfield
• A Tale of Two Cities

Literary Writing Style of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is the icon of his age, and even in this modern era, his work continues to captivate readers worldwide. His own unique style comprised his original word choice, figurative language , fresh and crispy sentence structure, socially relevant thematic strands, and also relatable to readers. Some of the best features of his writing style are as follows.

Charles Dickens’ Word Choice

In terms of diction or word choice, Charles Dickens is placed second after Shakespeare. It is stated that he has introduced several words into English vocabulary through his fictional works. Some important words such as rampage, butter-fingers, tousled, sawbones, confusingly, natural-looking, and tintack, with several others, have been found in entries in OED. This extract from Great Expectations shows how Charles Dickens uses appropriate words in appropriate places.

Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. – Great Expectations

Charles Dickens’ Sentence Structure and Syntax

Not only in Great Expectations  but also in several other novels , Charles Dickens has demonstrated his mastery in jotting down unique and interesting extraordinary sentences that jolt the minds of the readers. For Example, in Great Expectation , he has given the description of a man in such a way that anaphoric usage of “and with” makes sentences interesting and readable. In some other places, however, he has used repetitions in that they seem exotic such as in the first passage of A Tale of Two Cities.

Charles Dickens’ Figurative Language

Dickens is also the master of descriptive writing besides narrative writing. The simple passage taken from Great Expectations shows how he wields figures of speech to describe things, persons, and places.

“The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside down and emptied my pockets. There was nothing in them but a piece of bread . When the church came to itself––for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet––when the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tombstone, trembling, while he ate the bread ravenously.” – Great Expectations .

This passage shows that his images are crispy and dry, while he resorts to first-person narrative to give credence to these descriptions. That is why his images bring dry things and people to live and create stereotypical figures that stay in the minds of the readers for ages.

Charles Dickens’ Rhythm and Component Sounds

Charles Dickens was not a great poet, and yet he used rich poetic phrases in his narratives. He has used cadence , sounds, pitch, and echoes in such a way that his prose has the poetic quality of great poets. For example, the first passage from A Tale of Two Cities shows it as given.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness , it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”  – From A Tale of Two Cities

The repetition of “it was”, the anaphoric use of “we” and the constant use of consonance and assonance show his skill in creating the rhythmic pattern in his writing.

Charles Dickens’ Rhetorical Patterns

Rhetorical patterns are written mostly narration, description, and comparison- contrast . Charles Dickens’ rhetoric sprouts from a real English landscape, enriching his narrative’s legitimacy as well as credibility. The rest is done by the lifelike characters who become icons due to their idiosyncratic behavior. Rhetorical strategies of parallels and repetitions further add to his rhetoric. The above passage from A Tale of Two Cities shows how he uses parallel structure to suit his context and purpose. The following passage presents a young man with a specific habit of secrecy and rhetorical strategy of Dickens that is used by him such that it seems he is a lifelike figure.

That young man hears the words I speak. That young man has a secret way pecooliar to himself, of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in wain for a boy to attempt to hide himself from that young man. A boy may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up, may draw the clothes over his head, may think himself comfortable and safe, but that young man will softly creep and creep his way to him and tear him open. (From Great Expectations

Charles Dickens’ Themes

Although it seems that Dickens chooses themes carefully, yet they are ordinary themes prevalent in the social fabric of England at that time. For example, he presents child labor in Hard Times and poverty in Great Expectations . This social criticism makes his readers aware of the injustice and bad education as shown through the character of Miss Havisham, Pip, and Magwitch.

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Charles Dickens Info

The life and work of charles dickens.

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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.

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Charles dickens: master storyteller.

In some ways, it is extremely difficult to pin down what makes Charles Dickens (1812-1870) a great writer. With a career than ran from 1836 to 1870, from Sketches by Boz to the unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood , Dickens is the acknowledged master of the Victorian novel, sometimes considered second only to Shakespeare among the ranks of English language authors. But what makes him great? Why did he transcend his own century and find his way into so many aspects of contemporary popular culture? As a way of perhaps narrowing the field, let us consider, for a moment, what weaknesses one might find in Dickens. First of all, we might acknowledge his tendency to rely on coincidence. For instance, Oliver Twist ends entirely too neatly (but we wouldn't dream of giving it away). Also, Dickens' more sentimental aspects have not aged well. Of The Old Curiosity Shop , Oscar Wilde quipped, 'One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without dissolving into tears…of laughter.' Dickens also has an unfortunate tendency to write very good, very beautiful, very dull heroines: Agnes in David Copperfield or Ada in Bleak House , for example. But Dickens can be forgiven a million times over for these faults because he does so many of the novelist's tasks so well. Let us take up the question of his female characters again. Yes, Ada and Agnes may have little to recommend them, but what about the eminently sinister Miss Havisham or the tormented Lady Dedlock or Madame Defarge, knitting away as the guillotine comes down? Dickens is a master of many characters: heroes, villains, comic and satirical figures. He could also paint a scene like no one else: the fog at the beginning of Bleak House , the marshes in Great Expectations with the hulks looming in the distance. Tolstoy considered Chapter 55 of David Copperfield ('Tempest') to be that by which all other fiction should be measured. I could go on. One might consider Dickens' engagement with social issues - the plight of the London poor, the terrible machinery of the courts - or his delineation of universal human experience - growing up, falling in love, discovering one's calling in life. One might also cite his undeniable skill for telling a good story and for exploiting the serialized publication of his novels to keep his readers longing to know what would happen next week or next month. Dickens delved into the great matters of his day, while also appealing to universal human emotions and experience, all of which continue to make his writing utterly readable to this day and into the future. Which is your favourite Dickens novel? My vote goes to Great Expectations . For another take on Dickens' status as a great writer, please listen to Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's podcast ' Why Dickens? or his more recent recording, "Why should we study Dickens? Other popular works such as Nicholas Nickleby and A Tale of Two Cities are available online as free eBooks.

If reusing this resource please attribute as follows: Charles Dickens: Master Storyteller at http://writersinspire.org/content/charles-dickens-master-storyteller by Erin Nyborg, licensed as Creative Commons BY-NC-SA (2.0 UK).

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The Crisis That Nearly Cost Charles Dickens His Career

By Louis Menand

Charles Dickens took cold showers and long walks. His normal walking distance was twelve miles; some days, he walked twenty. He seems to have never not been doing something. He wrote fifteen novels and hundreds of articles and stories, delivered speeches, edited magazines, produced and acted in amateur theatricals, performed conjuring tricks, gave public readings, and directed two charities, one for struggling writers, the other for former prostitutes.

He and his wife, Catherine, had ten children and many friends, most of them writers, actors, and artists, whom it delighted Dickens to entertain and travel with. He gave money to relatives (including his financially feckless parents), orphans, and people down on their luck. Thomas Adolphus Trollope called him “perhaps the largest-hearted man I ever knew.” He was a literary celebrity by the time he turned twenty-five, and he never lost his readership. Working people read his books, and so did the Queen. People took off their hats when they saw him on the street.

He was by far the most commercially successful of the major Victorian writers. He sold all his novels twice. First, they were issued in nineteen monthly “parts”—thirty-two-page installments, with advertising, bound in paper and priced at a shilling. (The final installment was a “double part,” and cost two shillings.) Then the novels were published as books, in editions priced for different markets. The exceptions were novels he serialized weekly in magazines he edited and owned a piece of.

Demand was huge. The parts of Dickens’s last, unfinished novel, “ The Mystery of Edwin Drood ,” were selling at a rate of fifty thousand copies a month when he died. By contrast, the parts of George Eliot’s “ Middlemarch ” and William Makepeace Thackeray’s “ Vanity Fair ”—not exactly minor works by not exactly unknown authors, both of them adopting the method of publication Dickens had pioneered—sold an average of five thousand copies a month.

Dickens gave his full energy and attention to everything he did. People who saw him perform conjuring tricks, or act onstage, or read from his books, were amazed by his preparation and his panache. He loved the theatre, and many people thought that he could have been a professional actor. At his public readings to packed houses, audiences wept, they fainted, and they cheered.

None of the photographs and portraits of him seemed to his friends to do him justice, because they couldn’t capture the mobility of his features or his laugh. He dressed stylishly, even garishly, but he was personally without affectation or pretension. He avoided socializing with the aristocracy, and for a long time he refused to meet the Queen. He disliked argument and never dominated a conversation. He believed in fun, and wanted everything to be the best. “He did even his nothings in a strenuous way,” one of his closest friends said. “His was the brightest face, the lightest step, the pleasantest word.” Thackeray’s daughter Anne remembered that when Dickens came into a room “everybody lighted up.” His life force seemed boundless.

It was not, of course. He had heart and kidney troubles, and he aged prematurely. When he died, of a cerebral hemorrhage, in 1870, he was only fifty-eight. He had stipulated that he be buried without ceremony in a rural churchyard, but since he failed to specify the churchyard, his friends felt authorized to arrange for his burial in Westminster Abbey.

No one objected. “The man was a phenomenon, an exception, a special production,” the British politician Lord Shaftesbury wrote after Dickens’s death, and nearly everybody appears to have felt the same way. Dickens’s nickname for himself was the Inimitable. He was being semi-facetious, but it was true. There was no one like him.

You could say that Dickens lived like one of his own characters—always on, the Energizer Bunny of empathy and enjoyment. Good enough was never good enough. Wherever he was or whatever he was doing, life was histrionic, either a birthday party or a funeral. And, when you read the recollections of his contemporaries and the responses to his books from nineteenth-century readers, you can’t doubt his charisma or the impact his writing had. The twenty-four-year-old Henry James met Dickens in 1867, during Dickens’s second trip to America, and he remembered “how tremendously it had been laid upon young persons of our generation to feel Dickens, down to the soles of our shoes.”

But even the Bunny sooner or later runs out of room, hits a wall, or tumbles off the edge of the table, and Dickens had his crisis. It was in the cards.

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst describes his new book on Dickens, “ The Turning Point ” (Knopf), as a “slow biography.” Douglas-Fairhurst teaches at Oxford, and this is his second book on Dickens. “ Becoming Dickens ,” a study of the early years, came out in 2011. In this book, he takes up a single year in Dickens’s life and walks us through it virtually week by week. The year is 1851, which Douglas-Fairhurst calls “a turning point for Dickens, for his contemporaries, and for the novel as a form.” He never quite nails the claim. It’s not a hundred per cent clear why 1851 is a key date in British history, or why “Bleak House,” the book Dickens began to write that year, is a key work in the history of the novel.

But Douglas-Fairhurst realizes his intention, which is to enrich our appreciation of the social, political, and literary circumstances in which Dickens conceived “ Bleak House .” And, as advertised, “The Turning Point” is granular. You learn a lot about life in mid-century England, with coverage of things like the bloomer craze—a fashion of short skirts with “Turkish” trousers worn by women—and mesmerism. (Dickens was intrigued by mesmerism as a form of therapy, and he became, naturally, an adept hypnotist.)

Still, Dickens did not begin writing “Bleak House” until November, 1851, and this means that most of “The Turning Point” consists of closeups of Dickens editing his magazine Household Words; producing a play called “Not So Bad as We Seem,” which apparently was pretty bad; running a home for “fallen women,” Urania Cottage, with its benefactor, the banking heiress Angela Burdett-Coutts; and buying and renovating a large house on Tavistock Square, in London.

Was 1851 a “turning point” for the United Kingdom? The eighteen-forties were a rocky decade politically and economically. There were mass protests in England, famine in Ireland, and revolutionary uprisings on the Continent. After 1850, economies rebounded, dissent subsided, and England enjoyed two decades of prosperity, an era known as “the Victorian high noon.” But it would be hard to identify something from 1851 that caused the European world to turn this corner. Robert Tombs, in his entertaining and sometimes contrarian book “ The English and Their History ” (2014), suggests that it was the discovery of gold in California and Australia in 1849 that triggered the boom. Suddenly there was a lot more money, and therefore a lot more liquidity.

In Dickens’s own career, the turning point had, in a sense, come earlier, in 1848, with the commercial success of “ Dombey and Son .” After that, he knew he could command large sums, and he never worried about money again. “Bleak House,” published five years later, is a more ambitious book, but it is based on a thesis Dickens set out for the first time in the “Thunderbolt” chapter of “Dombey”: “It might be worthwhile, sometimes, to inquire what Nature is, and how men work to change her, and whether, in the enforced distortions so produced, it is not natural to be unnatural.”

This marks the moment when Dickens’s literary imagination acquired its sociological dimension. We behave inhumanely not because of our natures but because of the way the system forces us to live. Dickens’s contemporary and near-neighbor Karl Marx thought the same thing. “How men work to change her”—how we transform nature into the goods we need—was what Marx called “the means of production.”

“Bleak House” is what is known as a condition-of-England novel. The phrase was coined by a writer Dickens knew and liked, Thomas Carlyle , whose style—a mixture of Old Testament brimstone and German Romanticism, with frequent apostrophizing of the reader—Dickens sometimes adopted. Half the chapters in “Bleak House” are written in the historical present, the tense Carlyle used in “ The French Revolution ,” a book that Dickens said he read five hundred times.

Condition-of-England novels like “Bleak House” are generally thought of in relation to what John Ruskin called “illth.” Illth is the underside of wealth, the damage that change leaves in its wake, the human cost of progress. Novels show what statistics miss or disguise: what life was actually like, for many people, in the most advanced economy in the world.

Dickens was a social critic. Almost all his fiction satirizes the institutions and social types produced by that dramatic transformation of the means of production. But he was not a revolutionary. His heroes are not even reformers. They are ordinary people who have made a simple commitment to decency. George Orwell, who had probably aspired to recruit Dickens to the socialist cause, reluctantly concluded that Dickens was not interested in political reform, only in moral improvement: “Useless to change institutions without a change of heart—that, essentially, is what he is always saying.”

In fact, a major target of Dickens’s satire is liberalism. We associate liberalism with caring about the poor and the working class, which Dickens obviously did. But in nineteenth-century England the typical liberal was a utilitarian, who believed that the worth of a social program could be measured by cost-benefit analysis, and very likely a Malthusian, who thought it necessary to lower the birth rate so that the population would not outstrip the food supply.

This was the thinking behind the legislation known as the New Poor Law, whose consequences Dickens satirizes unforgettably in the opening chapters of “ Oliver Twist .” The New Poor Law was a progressive welfare measure. It was a reform. To take another example: Mr. Gradgrind, in “Hard Times,” is not a capitalist or a factory owner. He’s a utilitarian. He thinks that what’s holding people back is folk wisdom and superstition. Dickens is on the side of folk wisdom.

One of Dickens’s memorable caricatures in “Bleak House” is Mrs. Jellyby, and she, too, is easily misread. We see her at home obsessively devoted to her “Africa” project, while neglecting, almost criminally, her own children. (In the Dickens world, mistreating a child is the worst sin you can commit.) But Dickens is not ridiculing Mrs. Jellyby for caring about Africans. As Douglas-Fairhurst tells us, she was based on a woman Dickens had met, Caroline Chisholm, who operated a charity called the Family Colonization Loan Society, which helped poor English people emigrate. And Mrs. Jellyby’s project is the same: she is raising money for families to move to a place called Borrioboola-Gha, “on the left bank of the Niger,” so that there will be fewer mouths to feed in England. She’s a Malthusian.

Douglas-Fairhurst picked 1851 as a turning point because of the Great Exhibition, and he is right that “Bleak House” is best understood as Dickens’s answer to that event. The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations was a world’s fair. More than forty nations sent their inventions and natural treasures—a hundred thousand in all—for display in a building known as the Crystal Palace, a glass-and-cast-iron structure, like a gigantic greenhouse, 1,848 feet long and 456 feet wide, designed and erected for the Exhibition in Hyde Park.

The Exhibition was a monument to the Victorian faith in progress and free trade, and it was attended with enormous fanfare. Prince Albert, a big-tech enthusiast, was an organizer. In the five and a half months that the Exhibition ran, from May to October, 1851, the Crystal Palace had six million visitors. Receipts totalled a hundred and eighty-six thousand pounds, the equivalent of twenty-seven million pounds today.

This kind of vainglorious self-regard disgusted Dickens. When people are suffering in your own back yard, how can you strut around congratulating yourself on your latest inventions, or how much pig iron you are producing? He imagined “another Exhibition—for a great display of England’s sins and negligences . . . this dark Exhibition of the bad results of our doings!” His counter-exhibition to that palace of crystal would be a bleak house. Bleak House in the novel is not an unhappy place. It is decent and unpretentious. And that is what he thought England should aspire to become.

In “Bleak House,” Dickens wanted to show London from the underside, and he knew the underside well. Before he was a novelist, he was a reporter, and, later on, many of his walks were on London streets, sometimes at night and often in the sketchiest neighborhoods. In 1851, London was the world’s largest city, the political and financial center of a nation whose possessions stretched from New Zealand to South America—an empire on which the sun never set—and whose gross domestic product was the highest in the world. But on the street it was not the place you see on “Masterpiece Theatre.”

Dickens is always accused of exaggeration. Tombs, in “The English and Their History,” complains that we have a distorted idea of living conditions in the Victorian era because we see them through the lens of Dickens’s novels. But what look like exaggerations in “Bleak House” are not simply literary conceits. The novel opens:

London. . . . As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth. . . . Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas in a general infection of ill temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest.

Do readers ever wonder where all that mud came from? The answer is that there were twenty-four thousand horses in London, and you cannot toilet-train a horse. Horse-drawn conveyance was how people got around. And a horse produces forty-odd pounds of manure a day. There was also a wholesale meat market in central London, to which 1.8 million cattle, pigs, and sheep were driven through the streets every year. When people who lived in the countryside visited London for the first time, they were surprised to find that the entire city smelled like a stable.

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Crossing the street could be an adventure, particularly for women in the full-length dresses and petticoats they wore in the eighteen-fifties, and this gave work to crossing sweepers, who made their living by clearing a path in the hope of a tip. (It also may explain the bloomer craze.) The term for street filth was “mud,” but that was a euphemism. Four-fifths of London mud was shit.

The population had outgrown the space. In 1800, a million people lived in London; by 1850, there were more than 2.6 million, and another two hundred thousand walked into the city every day to work. Sidewalks were congested. A German visitor complained that a Londoner “will run against you, and make you revolve on your own axis, without so much as looking around to see how you feel after the shock.” Dickens’s “tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke” is not hyperbole.

Nor is “if this day ever broke.” That’s the other opening image, fog:

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats.

The Thames had long been an open sewer, choked with refuse, carcasses of dead animals, and human remains—“the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.” London had no properly functioning sewer system. Human waste accumulated in two hundred thousand cesspools, many of which went uncleaned for years. Even the basements of Buckingham Palace smelled of feces. The waste leached into the groundwater. Cholera is transmitted by contaminated drinking water, and between 1831 and 1866 there were three major cholera outbreaks in London. Tens of thousands died.

The stretch of the Thames that London lies on is naturally foggy, but nineteenth-century fog was a mixture of water vapor and smoke from coal fires, and it enveloped the city. You could see it from a long way off. “London’s own black wreath,” Wordsworth called it. The fog smelled of sulfur; it made the mud on the streets turn black; and it left a coating of soot on every surface. People had to wash their faces after they had been outside. The term “smog”—smoke plus fog—was coined to describe London air.

The images Dickens chose to open his novel are images of literal pollution, but they are also metaphors for moral pollution, the corruption of human nature by vanity, greed, and ethical blindness. If you replace “mud” with “dung,” as the Victorians called animal waste, you get the metaphor, and “compound interest” gives the clue. Money taints everything. “Filthy lucre” is the phrase used in the King James Bible. Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, the Chancery case at the center of the novel that ruins the lives of several of its characters, is a dispute over a will—a dispute about money. So when, in court, a barrister addresses the Lord Chancellor as “Mlud” he is calling him a piece of shit.

The London of “Bleak House” is a sink of addiction, disease, and death. One character is disfigured by smallpox; another is disabled by a stroke. A character spontaneously combusts from alcoholism, and one dies of an opium overdose. A poor woman’s baby dies; a child is born deaf and mute; and four characters perish prematurely of disease, exhaustion, or despair. One character is murdered.

The central figure in the book, appropriately, is a crossing sweeper, named Jo. We are made to understand that he contracts cholera in the slum where he sleeps, called Tom-All-Alone’s, and his death is the principal display in Dickens’s “dark Exhibition.” Dickens had originally considered using “Tom-All-Alone’s” as the title of the book.

Dickens’s novels are not just social criticism, though. Considering that his method of publication prevented him from revising, the thematic and imagistic intricacy of the books is remarkable. Each of the major novels is constructed around an institution—the poorhouse in “Oliver Twist,” Chancery in “Bleak House,” the prison in “Little Dorrit”—that gives Dickens a figurative language to use throughout the story. Shakespeare composed in a similar way: blindness in “King Lear,” blood in “Macbeth.” Once you start looking for these tropes, you find them woven into everything.

In “Bleak House,” Dickens uses two narrators who split the chapters between them—an innovation contemporary reviewers seem to have completely missed. In fact, all of Dickens’s later novels, beginning with “Bleak House,” were largely ignored or dismissed by reviewers. They complained that the books were formless, labored, too dark. They wanted more of the early, funny stuff.

Reviewers in Dickens’s time generally did not complain about what modern readers find hard to process: the melodrama, the rhetorical overkill, the staggering load of schmaltz. The comic characters are still astonishingly vivid. You get them right away. They might have stepped out of a Pixar movie. And it’s in throwaway scenes, comic episodes with no special dramatic importance, that we can see what made Dickens inimitable—in “Bleak House,” for example, when the law clerk Mr. Guppy takes two friends to lunch. They are Victorian-era bros, swaggering and clueless, a young male type Dickens loved. Any novelist today would kill to be able to produce such a scene. Dickens made dozens.

But, possibly because of the demands of serial publication, Dickens’s comic figures run through their whole repertoire of tics each time they appear, and the plots, highly contrived to begin with, are stretched out, on the “Perils of Pauline” theory of leaving the audience eager for the next installment, far beyond the point of novelistic plausibility or readerly patience. And the author sermonizes freely. “Dead, your Majesty,” the narrator in “Bleak House” intones on the death of Jo the crossing sweeper. “Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, right reverends and wrong reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day.”

Everything is underlined, usually twice. Still, that was the stuff the Victorians loved. Grown men wept at the fate of Florence Dombey and the death of Little Nell, in “ The Old Curiosity Shop .”

The utopia of Dickens’s fiction, also impossibly outdated today, maybe even outdated in 1850, is the domestic idyll. The nuclear family is the touchstone of “naturalness” in his books, and its anchor is a woman who exemplifies all the bourgeois virtues—like Esther Summerson, in “Bleak House.” Fallen women, like Lady Dedlock, Esther’s natural mother, are punished, doomed, in her case, to die in a paupers’ cemetery, sprawled across the grave of her lover.

In life, there is little evidence that Dickens was, in the context of his time and place, a sexist or a prude. He did think that most women were happiest in the home, but he treated with respect the “fallen women” whom he and Burdett-Coutts supported, refused to allow religious teachings in the house, and did not expect the women to express regret or repentance. He just wanted them to be able to lead conventional lives. Jenny Hartley, in “ Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women ” (2008), estimates that in the years Dickens ran the home he successfully rehabilitated a hundred women. He never made his association with it public.

Dickens thought that it was perfectly suitable for talented women to have careers. His older sister, Fanny, whom he adored, was a professional musician. He serialized Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels “ Cranford ” and “ North and South ” in Household Words . He admired George Eliot’s work and appears to have been the first person to guess that it was written by a woman. And he worked with many actresses in the theatre. One of these was Ellen Ternan.

The only thing that makes sense about the Ellen Ternan story is that, when they met, Dickens was forty-five and famous; she was eighteen, not famous, and relatively unprotected; and he fell for her. Such things happen. But the rest is a puzzle.

Dickens could have taken up with Nelly (as everyone called her) without undue scandal. There would have been talk, but he was Charles Dickens, and it was understood that actresses played by different rules. The great English actress Ellen Terry left the stage to live with a married man and had two children with him, then returned and resumed a successful career. In Dickens’s own circle, there were plenty of unconventional arrangements. The novelist Wilkie Collins , his good friend and dramatic collaborator, had two women in his life, neither of whom he married. Dickens’s illustrator George Cruikshank supported two families. George Eliot lived with a man, George Henry Lewes, who was in an open marriage to another woman—and moral seriousness was George Eliot’s brand.

Or Dickens and Ellen Ternan could simply have had a discreet affair. Instead, he turned the whole business into a spectacle. In a letter that he had his agent leak to the press, and that he subsequently published a version of in the Times , he accused his wife, Catherine, of being mentally disturbed and claimed that her children had never loved her, and he defended, in language so indignant that it gave the game completely away, the purity of the woman rumor had already associated him with.

He reached a settlement agreement (not ungenerous) with Catherine, then forbade their children to see her. Meanwhile, he set up Nelly in her own house, a short distance by train from his home, Gad’s Hill, in Kent, and would sneak off to see her. There is good reason to believe that Nelly became pregnant; that Dickens sequestered her in France, making frequent surreptitious visits to her; and that a child was born there who either died in infancy or was put up for adoption.

They kept this going for thirteen years, until Dickens died. Nelly outlived him by almost forty-four years. She married and had two children. But she seems not to have told her husband, at least at first, and she never told her children, that she had once been the mistress of Charles Dickens.

Almost no one thought that Dickens behaved well, and he lost some friends, including Burdett-Coutts. But it was his treatment of Catherine as much as the liaison with Nelly that made people drop him. Claire Tomalin, who has written biographies of both Ternan and Dickens, suggests that Nelly insisted on the separation, that if she had only been a little naughtier and given him what he wanted, things would not have got out of hand.

It seems likely, though, that Dickens was the one insisting on the “just friends” pretense and the deception. Whether or not he really loved Catherine or Nelly—and he was a passionate man; there is no reason to suppose he didn’t love them—there was one thing he loved more, something that he had brought into the world and that belonged to him alone: his readership. He called it the “particular relation (personally affectionate and like no other man’s) which subsists between me and the public.” He could not show readers that the Charles Dickens they knew from the books was not the real Charles Dickens. He must have felt that his only play was to blame the breakup of his marriage on his wife, and for once he miscalculated. But it was a choice between betraying his feelings for Nelly and betraying his fans. He tried, madly, to keep both. The stress may have killed him.

He began his public readings in earnest in 1858, the year he separated from Catherine. And from then until his death he was on an endless tour. He sold out arenas across England, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States. His health was failing, but he gave every reading his histrionic last ounce. Sometimes, when it was over, he had to be helped off the stage. But he kept on, even after his friends and doctors begged him to slow down. It was manic. He is estimated to have given four hundred and seventy-two public readings.

The accounts left by people who attended them make it clear that these were not like most author readings, where it is easy for the attention to wander. This was theatre. Here is a description:

In the glare of the gas-burners shining down upon him from the pendant screen immediately above his head, his individuality, to so express it, altogether disappeared, and we saw before us instead, just as the case might happen to be, Mr. Pickwick, or Mrs. Gamp, or Mr. Marigold, or little Paul Dombey, or Mr. Squeers, or Sam Weller, or Mr. Peggotty, or some other of those immortal personages.

And this, in a way, is the solution to the problem of reading Dickens. As Ruskin once explained it, Dickens “chooses to speak in a circle of stage fire.” The reason the books are melodramatic is that they are melodrama. If you’re looking for something else, read Anthony Trollope. The best generic counterpart to Dickens is the Broadway musical, where feelings are splashed with color, where people dance and break into song, where every complication can be magically resolved by showing a little heart, and all join hands at the final curtain. As hokey as it seems in the cold light of day, Broadway audiences suspend their skepticism for the pleasure of the performers and the spectacle.

Some people may wish that life could be like a Broadway musical. A few people may even believe that life essentially is a Broadway musical, or at least that we can make it so if we commit ourselves to living like that day by day. That seems to be the kind of person Dickens was. He tried to make life as enchanting as a show. When the enchantment began to curdle, when complications arose that could not be resolved in a curtain call, he went onstage himself. And there, believing in their immortality, their immunity from time and change, he disappeared into his own creations. ♦

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By Krithika Varagur

By Idrees Kahloon

By Thomas Mallon

By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

Charles Dickens and His Impact on Victorian Society: Understanding the Power of Literature

by English Plus | May 25, 2023 | Immortals

Introduction

Dickens’ life and his work, shedding light on social issues, humanizing the lower classes, advocating for reforms, how did your early experiences, such as working in a boot-blacking factory, shape your views and themes in your novels, can you tell us about your journey from being a parliamentary reporter to becoming a renowned novelist, which of your novels do you consider to be your most significant or influential work, and why, how did you manage to capture the essence of victorian society so vividly in your novels, what motivated you to shed light on the social issues and inequalities of your time through your writing, how did your personal experiences and observations of poverty and social injustice influence your portrayal of characters and settings in your novels, in what ways do you believe your works impacted victorian society and influenced social reforms, can you discuss the role of empathy and compassion in your novels, particularly in humanizing the lower classes, how did you approach the process of writing your serialized novels, and how did this format affect your storytelling, looking back on your literary career, what do you consider to be your greatest achievement as a writer, what inspired you to create the character of oliver twist, and what message were you trying to convey through his story, can you discuss the significance of the workhouse and criminal underworld depicted in “oliver twist” and its impact on victorian society, what motivated you to explore the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and utilitarianism in “hard times”, how did you envision the character of ebenezer scrooge in “a christmas carol” and what message did you hope to convey through his transformation, could you provide insights into your portrayal of the chancery court in “bleak house” and its influence on legal reforms, what were your intentions behind creating characters like bob cratchit and tiny tim in “a christmas carol,” and how did they contribute to the novel’s message, can you discuss the social issues you aimed to address through the character of nicholas nickleby and his experiences in yorkshire boarding schools, how did you use the character of miss havisham in “great expectations” to explore themes of love, loss, and societal expectations, in “david copperfield,” you drew heavily from your own life experiences. can you elaborate on the parallels between your life and the protagonist’s journey, what inspired you to write “the pickwick papers,” and how did the serialized format contribute to the popularity and impact of the novel, what inspired the creation of the character miss havisham in “great expectations,” and how did her character contribute to the overall themes of the novel, can you discuss the significance of the character sydney carton in “a tale of two cities” and the message you aimed to convey through his sacrifice, in “bleak house,” the character of lady dedlock plays a pivotal role. can you elaborate on her storyline and its connection to the broader themes of the novel, can you discuss the symbolism and meaning behind the title “great expectations” and how it reflects the narrative and character development in the novel, how did you approach the depiction of london as a setting in your novels, particularly in “a tale of two cities” and “oliver twist”, can you provide insights into the significance of the character mr. micawber in “david copperfield” and his impact on the protagonist’s life, in “hard times,” the character of thomas gradgrind represents a certain ideology. can you explain the purpose behind his character and its relation to the novel’s themes, how did you use the motif of duality and contrasting characters in “a tale of two cities,” such as charles darnay and sydney carton, to enhance the narrative, can you discuss the role of the marshalsea debtors’ prison in “little dorrit” and its significance to the characters and their experiences, what inspired you to explore the concept of identity and social mobility in “great expectations,” particularly through the character of pip and his transformation throughout the story.

Charles Dickens, one of the most influential authors of the Victorian era, is widely renowned for his poignant novels that vividly capture life during his time. His compelling characters, evocative descriptions, and gripping narratives brought the streets of London to life, spotlighting the social conditions, institutional flaws, and societal norms of the period. This article delves into understanding the impact of Dickens’ works on Victorian society.

Born in 1812 in Portsmouth, England, Dickens’ early life was fraught with financial instability and hardship. At the tender age of twelve, he was forced to work in a boot-blacking factory due to his father’s imprisonment for debt. This experience deeply impacted Dickens, shaping his views on poverty, social justice , and education, which would later become recurring themes in his novels.

His writing career began as a parliamentary reporter before he catapulted into fame with his serial publications like “The Pickwick Papers,” “Oliver Twist,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” and later, standalone works like “David Copperfield,” “Bleak House,” and “Great Expectations.”

The Impact of Dickens’ Work on Victorian Society

Dickens’ works offered a gritty portrayal of Victorian society’s underbelly, including the plight of the poor, the labor conditions, and the treatment of children. His novels brought attention to the harsh realities that many of his contemporaries chose to overlook, forcing society to confront these issues.

In “Oliver Twist,” he depicted the struggles of the poor and the corruption within workhouses and the criminal world. “Hard Times” critiqued the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and utilitarianism. “Nicholas Nickleby” shed light on the inhumane conditions of Yorkshire boarding schools, leading to widespread reforms.

By exposing these social issues, Dickens created a public outcry, pressuring the authorities to effect changes and reforms.

In Victorian society, there was a vast divide between the wealthy and the poor. The poor were often neglected and viewed as mere statistics rather than individuals. Through his vivid, empathetic characterization, Dickens humanized the lower classes, fostering empathy among his readers.

Characters like Bob Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol” or Jo the street sweeper in “Bleak House” are not just poor individuals; they are characterized with personal narratives, dreams, and emotions, enabling readers to empathize with their situations.

Dickens’ novels often criticized institutions such as the Poor Law, the education system, the legal system, and more. His potent depictions of institutional failures prompted discussions on social reform. His works did not just identify societal ills; they proposed that society could and should change.

In “Bleak House,” Dickens skewers the Chancery court’s inefficiency, contributing to legal reforms in the 1870s. “A Christmas Carol” highlights the need for charity and kindness towards the less fortunate, influencing attitudes towards poverty and philanthropy.

Charles Dickens was not just a novelist; he was a social commentator whose works continue to resonate today. His novels served as a mirror to Victorian society, reflecting its flaws and inequalities, while also highlighting its potential for kindness, resilience, and change. By engaging readers through his masterful storytelling, Dickens left an indelible impact on Victorian society, shaping public attitudes, inspiring social reforms, and leaving a lasting legacy in the annals of literature. His life and works remain a testament to the power of literature to influence society and drive progress.

Interview with Charles Dickens

My early experiences of working in a boot-blacking factory had a profound impact on my worldview and the themes I explored in my novels. As a young boy, I endured the harsh realities of poverty and the oppressive conditions of child labor. This firsthand exposure to social injustice, inequality, and the plight of the poor left an indelible mark on my consciousness.

Working long hours in the factory, surrounded by destitution and suffering, I witnessed the dehumanizing effects of poverty and the stark contrast between the privileged and the marginalized. These experiences awakened a deep sense of empathy within me and fueled my determination to expose the social ills and injustices prevalent in Victorian society.

In my novels, I sought to capture the struggles of the lower classes, the abuses of the institutions, and the callousness of the upper classes towards the impoverished. Through vivid descriptions and poignant characterizations, I aimed to illuminate the realities faced by the poor and challenge the prevailing social norms that perpetuated their suffering.

My journey from being a parliamentary reporter to becoming a renowned novelist was both gradual and transformative. As a young man, I began my career as a journalist, reporting on parliamentary debates and political events. This experience provided me with valuable insights into the workings of society and the injustices that permeated every aspect of Victorian life.

However, it was the allure of storytelling and my desire to shed light on social issues that eventually drew me away from journalism and propelled me towards the path of a novelist. I realized that through the medium of fiction, I could reach a broader audience and convey powerful messages about the human condition.

My first foray into the realm of fiction came with the publication of “The Pickwick Papers,” a serialized novel that garnered significant attention and marked the beginning of my literary success. From there, I continued to write serialized works, including “Oliver Twist” and “Nicholas Nickleby,” which further solidified my reputation as a masterful storyteller and social commentator.

Through my novels, I sought to engage readers emotionally and intellectually, urging them to confront the social injustices and inequalities that plagued Victorian society. The transition from a parliamentary reporter to a renowned novelist allowed me to harness the power of storytelling to effect social change and cemented my place in the annals of literary history.

While it is challenging to single out one particular novel as my most significant or influential work, if pressed, I would have to mention “A Tale of Two Cities” as a novel of utmost importance in my literary career. This work, set against the backdrop of the French Revolution , allowed me to delve into universal themes of love, sacrifice, and the cyclical nature of history.

A Tale of Two Cities” provided a powerful exploration of the human condition , drawing parallels between the tumultuous events of the French Revolution and the social inequalities present in Victorian England. By juxtaposing the two societies, I aimed to shed light on the common struggles faced by individuals in different contexts and emphasize the need for empathy and compassion across social divides .

The novel’s famous opening lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” encapsulate the dichotomies that pervaded the narrative. Through vivid characterizations, such as Sydney Carton’s selfless sacrifice and Madame Defarge’s relentless pursuit of justice, I sought to create a thought-provoking tale that resonates with readers across generations.

The enduring popularity and continued relevance of “A Tale of Two Cities” testify to its lasting impact on readers and its ability to transcend time and place. It stands as a testament to the power of storytelling to illuminate the complexities of the human experience and provoke reflection on the social and political issues of our time.

Capturing the essence of Victorian society in my novels required meticulous observation, extensive research, and an unwavering commitment to authenticity. I was driven by a deep desire to portray the realities of life in Victorian England, from the bustling streets of London to the sprawling countryside and everything in between.

To accomplish this, I immersed myself in the diverse environments, interacted with people from various walks of life, and paid keen attention to the intricate details of everyday existence. Through extensive firsthand experiences and conversations, I absorbed the sights, sounds, and emotions that pervaded the society I sought to depict.

Additionally, I conducted extensive research into historical events, social customs, and prevailing attitudes of the time. This attention to detail allowed me to infuse my narratives with a sense of historical accuracy, enabling readers to immerse themselves in the authentic atmosphere of Victorian England.

Moreover, my keen powers of observation and my ability to empathize with individuals from all social classes played a crucial role in capturing the essence of Victorian society. I closely observed the people around me, noting their mannerisms, speech patterns, and idiosyncrasies, which I then integrated into my characters to bring them to life.

By combining firsthand experiences, diligent research, and empathetic observation, I endeavored to create a vivid tapestry of Victorian society that resonated with readers and transported them back to that era.

My motivation to shed light on the social issues and inequalities of my time stemmed from a deep sense of social responsibility and a fervent desire for social change. Having experienced poverty and witnessed the hardships endured by the lower classes, I felt compelled to give voice to the voiceless and draw attention to the injustices that pervaded Victorian society.

I firmly believed that literature could serve as a powerful catalyst for social reform and that by exposing the harsh realities of life for the impoverished, I could awaken the collective conscience of the public. Through my writing, I aimed to challenge the prevailing social norms, advocate for compassion and empathy, and inspire readers to take action against the injustices they encountered.

Moreover, I recognized the transformative potential of storytelling. By creating characters who represented the marginalized and the oppressed, I sought to humanize the lower classes and foster empathy among readers. I wanted to bridge the gap between social classes and urge the privileged to acknowledge and confront the inequities that perpetuated their privilege.

In essence, my motivation was rooted in a deep-seated belief in the power of literature to effect social change and a steadfast commitment to advocating for a more just and compassionate society.

My personal experiences and observations of poverty and social injustice had a profound influence on my portrayal of characters and settings in my novels. Having endured financial instability and worked in a boot-blacking factory during my childhood, I carried a deep empathy for the struggles of the poor and a burning desire to expose the injustices they faced.

These personal experiences served as a wellspring of inspiration for my characters, who often represented the marginalized and oppressed members of society. Through vivid descriptions and nuanced characterizations, I sought to capture the resilience, fortitude, and inherent humanity that persisted in the face of adversity.

For example, characters like Oliver Twist, a young orphan navigating the perils of the workhouse and the criminal underworld, embodied the struggles faced by countless children in Victorian society. Their stories allowed me to shed light on the harsh realities of poverty and the callousness of the institutions that were meant to protect them.

Furthermore, my observations of social injustice and inequality informed the settings of my novels. Whether it was the squalid streets of London, the dilapidated workhouses, or the destitute neighborhoods, I meticulously crafted these settings to reflect the grim realities faced by the poor. Through vivid descriptions and atmospheric details, I aimed to transport readers into these settings and make them intimately familiar with the conditions that shaped the lives of my characters.

Ultimately, my personal experiences and observations served as a wellspring of empathy and provided me with a deep well of inspiration to draw upon in my portrayal of characters and settings, enabling me to authentically convey the realities of poverty and social injustice.

I firmly believe that my works had a significant impact on Victorian society and played a crucial role in influencing social reforms. Through my novels, I sought to illuminate the social issues and inequalities that plagued the era and compel readers to reflect on their own complicity in perpetuating such injustices.

By exposing the harsh realities faced by the poor, the corruption within institutions, and the dehumanizing effects of industrialization, my works generated a public outcry. Readers were confronted with the stark realities of Victorian society and were compelled to question the prevailing social norms and structures that allowed such injustices to persist.

The power of my storytelling lay in its ability to resonate with readers on an emotional level. Through vivid characterizations and evocative descriptions, I humanized the lower classes, fostering empathy and compassion among readers. This emotional connection helped to break down the barriers between social classes and sparked a sense of collective responsibility for addressing the social ills of the time.

In addition to emotional impact, my works had practical implications as well. They played a role in shaping public opinion and influencing the political discourse surrounding key social issues. The exposure of institutional failures, such as the Poor Law or the legal system, sparked discussions and debates that ultimately led to reforms in those areas.

For example, the portrayal of the Chancery court in “Bleak House” contributed to the public’s growing awareness of its inefficiency and paved the way for legal reforms in the 1870s. Similarly, “A Christmas Carol” brought attention to the plight of the poor and the need for charitable acts, leading to changes in attitudes towards poverty and increased philanthropic efforts.

Overall, my works sparked a social awakening and challenged the status quo. They prompted readers to confront the social issues and inequalities of the time, driving them to demand change and contributing to the broader social reforms that characterized the Victorian era.

Empathy and compassion played a central role in my novels, particularly in humanizing the lower classes. I firmly believed that it was essential to bridge the gap between social classes and foster understanding and compassion among readers.

By infusing my characters with empathy and compassion, I aimed to evoke an emotional response from readers, encouraging them to see beyond the superficial differences and recognize the shared humanity that unites us all. Through the experiences and struggles of characters like Bob Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol” or Jo the street sweeper in “Bleak House,” I sought to elicit empathy and compassion by portraying their unique narratives, dreams, and emotions.

I deliberately crafted characters with depth, inner lives, and desires, transcending mere stereotypes or statistical representations. By doing so, I hoped to challenge the prevalent notion that the lower classes were unworthy of attention or consideration. I wanted readers to engage with these characters on an emotional level, to understand their hardships, and to recognize their inherent dignity.

Through empathy and compassion, I aimed to break down the barriers of social class and create a sense of shared responsibility for addressing the social inequalities of the time. I wanted readers to not only sympathize with the characters but also to internalize the need for societal change and personal action.

In this way, empathy and compassion served as powerful tools in my novels, allowing readers to connect with characters from all walks of life, to challenge their own preconceptions, and to inspire a more compassionate and inclusive society.

The process of writing serialized novels was an exciting and challenging endeavor that deeply influenced my storytelling. Serialized publication allowed me to engage readers in an ongoing narrative, keeping them eagerly awaiting the next installment and actively participating in the storytelling process.

I approached the writing of serialized novels with careful planning and meticulous attention to pacing and cliffhangers. Each installment had to captivate readers and leave them wanting more, compelling them to eagerly anticipate the subsequent chapters. This format allowed for a dynamic interaction with readers, as their feedback and reactions often influenced the direction of the story.

The episodic nature of serialization also presented me with the opportunity to experiment with different narrative threads, intricate plotlines, and diverse character arcs. I could introduce multiple storylines, create suspenseful endings, and gradually reveal the complexities of the narrative over time. This format lent itself well to the development of intricate plots and multi-layered characters, as I could explore their growth and transformation in a gradual and engaging manner.

Additionally, the serialized format allowed me to address social issues and inequalities more directly, as I could respond to contemporary events and incorporate readers’ feedback into my storytelling. This created a sense of immediacy and relevance, enabling me to address pressing concerns and capture the public’s attention.

Overall, the serialized format enhanced my storytelling by fostering a sense of anticipation, creating a more interactive experience with readers, and providing a platform for social commentary and reform.

When reflecting on my literary career, it is difficult to pinpoint a single greatest achievement, as each of my works contributed to my broader goal of challenging societal norms and effecting social change. However, if pressed to choose, I would say that my greatest achievement lies in the enduring impact and legacy of my novels.

Through my works, I sought to shine a light on the social issues and inequalities of Victorian society, to awaken empathy and compassion in readers, and to inspire dialogue and action. The fact that my novels continue to resonate with readers across generations is a testament to their enduring power and influence.

Moreover, I take great pride in the role my works played in influencing social reforms and shaping public opinion. The discussions and debates they sparked contributed to changes in societal attitudes, leading to tangible reforms in areas such as education, legal practices, and philanthropy.

Furthermore, my ability to capture the essence of Victorian society and convey its complexities in such vivid detail remains a source of pride for me. I aimed to transport readers to the streets of London, to immerse them in the lives of my characters, and to evoke a visceral understanding of the social realities of the time. The fact that readers continue to be transported by my narratives and engage with the social issues I portrayed is a testament to the success of my endeavors.

Ultimately, my greatest achievement as a writer lies in the enduring relevance and impact of my works. They continue to provoke thought, foster empathy, and inspire readers to examine their own roles in creating a more just and compassionate society.

Certainly! My journey from being a parliamentary reporter to becoming a renowned novelist was one marked by determination, hard work, and a passion for storytelling. As a young man, I began my career as a journalist, reporting on parliamentary debates and political events. This experience provided me with a deep understanding of society, its power structures, and the pressing issues of the time.

However, my true calling lay in the realm of fiction. I recognized the potential of storytelling to not only entertain but also to shed light on social issues and challenge the prevailing norms of Victorian society. With this in mind, I embarked on my literary career.

My breakthrough came with the serialized publication of “The Pickwick Papers.” Its success catapulted me into the limelight and established my reputation as a talented writer. The humorous and episodic nature of the novel captured the public’s imagination, and readers eagerly awaited each new installment.

Buoyed by this initial success, I continued to write serialized novels such as “Oliver Twist,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” and “The Old Curiosity Shop.” These works garnered widespread attention, and I became a household name. The serialized format allowed me to engage readers on a regular basis and build a loyal following, eagerly anticipating the next chapter of the story.

With each subsequent publication, my popularity and influence grew. My novels resonated with readers from all walks of life, as they explored universal themes such as poverty, social injustice, and the resilience of the human spirit. I became known for my vibrant and memorable characters, my evocative descriptions of Victorian society, and my incisive social commentary.

Over time, my literary career expanded beyond serialized novels to standalone works such as “David Copperfield,” “Bleak House,” and “Great Expectations.” These novels showcased my ability to delve deep into the complexities of human emotions, challenge societal norms, and provide compelling narratives that captivated readers.

Looking back on my journey, I am grateful for the opportunities and support I received throughout my career. From my humble beginnings as a parliamentary reporter, I emerged as a prominent and influential figure in the literary landscape, leaving a lasting legacy that continues to inspire and engage readers to this day.

Choosing the most significant or influential work from my repertoire is no easy task, as each of my novels carries its own unique message and impact. However, if pressed to choose, I would have to say that “A Tale of Two Cities” holds a special place in my heart.

This novel, set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, allowed me to explore themes of love, sacrifice, and the cyclical nature of history. It served as a powerful allegory for the social inequalities prevalent in both Victorian England and revolutionary France. Through its compelling narrative, “A Tale of Two Cities” aimed to provoke thought and inspire a sense of empathy and compassion in readers.

The novel’s enduring popularity and continued relevance speak to its lasting impact. Its famous opening lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” have become iconic, resonating with readers across generations. The contrasting settings of London and Paris, the intricate web of interconnected characters, and the exploration of personal and societal transformation all contribute to the novel’s enduring appeal.

Moreover, “A Tale of Two Cities” encapsulates the power of literature to shed light on historical events, to challenge the status quo, and to inspire readers to reflect on the parallels between past and present. It encourages us to examine the consequences of societal injustices and reminds us of the power of love, redemption, and sacrifice in the face of adversity.

In these ways, I consider “A Tale of Two Cities” to be one of my most significant and influential works. Its timeless themes, memorable characters, and powerful storytelling continue to captivate readers and serve as a reminder of the enduring impact literature can have on society.

Capturing the essence of Victorian society so vividly in my novels was a result of meticulous observation, extensive research, and an unwavering commitment to authenticity.

To bring Victorian society to life on the pages of my novels, I immersed myself in its various facets. I actively engaged with people from all walks of life, observed their behaviors, listened to their stories, and sought to understand their hopes, dreams, and struggles. This firsthand exposure to the diverse layers of society allowed me to develop authentic characters and vividly portray their experiences.

Additionally, I conducted extensive research into the historical context, social customs, and prevailing attitudes of the time. I delved into archival records, historical documents, and accounts of the period to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances and intricacies of Victorian society. This attention to detail ensured that my descriptions and portrayals of the era were as accurate as possible.

Furthermore, my keen powers of observation played a vital role in capturing the essence of Victorian society. I paid meticulous attention to the smallest details of everyday life, from the bustling streets of London to the social customs and rituals of the upper classes. By immersing myself in these details, I aimed to transport readers back in time and enable them to experience the sights, sounds, and emotions that defined the era.

In essence, capturing the essence of Victorian society required a combination of firsthand experiences, rigorous research, and acute powers of observation. These elements allowed me to recreate the vibrant tapestry of Victorian life, complete with its complexities, contradictions, and social dynamics.

My motivation to shed light on the social issues and inequalities of my time stemmed from a deep-seated sense of social justice and a passionate desire for societal change. Having experienced poverty and witnessed the injustices faced by the less fortunate, I felt compelled to use my platform as a writer to expose these issues and spark public dialogue.

I firmly believed that literature had the power to provoke empathy, challenge complacency, and inspire action. Through my writing, I sought to give voice to the voiceless, to expose the injustices that lurked beneath the surface of Victorian society, and to rally readers to confront these issues head-on.

The motivation to shed light on social issues was intertwined with a deep sense of empathy. I wanted to humanize the marginalized, to portray them as complex individuals with hopes, dreams, and struggles. By evoking empathy, I aimed to bridge the gap between social classes, urging readers to recognize their shared humanity and collective responsibility for effecting change.

Moreover, I saw literature as a vehicle for social reform. By shining a spotlight on social issues and inequalities, I hoped to raise public awareness and ignite public discourse. Through the power of storytelling, I sought to challenge the prevailing social norms, call out institutional failures, and ultimately inspire readers to advocate for a more just and compassionate society.

In summary, my motivation to shed light on social issues and inequalities was driven by a deep sense of social justice, a belief in the transformative power of literature, and a fervent desire to effect positive change in Victorian society.

My personal experiences and observations of poverty and social injustice had a profound influence on my portrayal of characters and settings in my novels. Having experienced poverty and financial instability during my childhood, I carried with me a deep empathy for those facing similar hardships. This empathy served as the foundation for my portrayals, allowing me to delve deep into the experiences and emotions of my characters.

Through my personal experiences, I witnessed the dehumanizing effects of poverty, the struggles of the working class, and the inequities that plagued Victorian society. These firsthand observations provided me with a wealth of material to draw upon when crafting my characters and settings.

In my novels, I aimed to depict the realities faced by the lower classes with unflinching honesty. I wanted to capture the hardships, the resilience, and the injustices they encountered on a daily basis. By infusing my characters with these experiences, I sought to humanize the marginalized and challenge the prevailing stereotypes that often characterized their portrayal.

The settings of my novels were also heavily influenced by my personal observations. Whether it was the grim streets of London or the dilapidated workhouses, I sought to create settings that reflected the harsh realities faced by the poor. Through detailed descriptions, I aimed to transport readers into these environments and immerse them in the struggles and challenges experienced by my characters.

Ultimately, my personal experiences and observations of poverty and social injustice served as a wellspring of inspiration, allowing me to create characters and settings that resonated with readers on an emotional level. By drawing upon these experiences, I hoped to evoke empathy, provoke introspection, and inspire readers to confront the social issues and inequalities of their own time.

I firmly believe that my works had a significant impact on Victorian society and played a vital role in influencing social reforms. Through my novels, I sought to expose the harsh realities of the era, provoke thought, and inspire readers to question the status quo.

One of the ways my works impacted Victorian society was by bringing attention to social issues and inequalities that were often overlooked or ignored. By vividly portraying the struggles of the poor, the abuses of institutions, and the injustices faced by marginalized communities, I aimed to create a public outcry. Through my storytelling, I challenged readers to confront the uncomfortable truths of their society and prompted them to demand change.

Furthermore, my works sparked public dialogue and debate about the pressing social issues of the time. They served as catalysts for discussions on poverty, education, labor conditions, and social class disparities. By shedding light on these issues, I aimed to create a shared understanding of the problems at hand and foster a collective determination to address them.

In terms of specific social reforms, my novels played a role in raising awareness and influencing public opinion. For instance, the depiction of the inhumane conditions of Yorkshire boarding schools in “Nicholas Nickleby” led to widespread reforms in the education system. Similarly, my novel “Bleak House” shed light on the inefficiencies of the Chancery court, contributing to legal reforms in the 1870s.

Moreover, my works had an impact on individual readers, stirring their empathy and compassion for the less fortunate. Through my vivid characterizations, I aimed to humanize the lower classes and break down the barriers of social class. I wanted readers to see themselves reflected in the struggles of my characters and to recognize their shared humanity.

In these ways, I believe that my works served as catalysts for social change and contributed to the broader social reforms of the Victorian era. They challenged societal norms, prompted discussions, and ultimately inspired readers to envision a more equitable and compassionate society.

Empathy and compassion played a central role in my novels, particularly in humanizing the lower classes. I believed that fostering empathy and compassion was essential for breaking down the barriers between social classes and effecting social change.

One of the primary ways I sought to evoke empathy and compassion was through the vivid characterization of the lower-class individuals in my novels. Instead of portraying them as mere statistics or stereotypes, I delved deep into their lives, emotions, and struggles. I presented them as fully realized individuals with hopes, dreams, and aspirations. By showcasing their humanity, I aimed to elicit an emotional response from readers and bridge the gap between social classes.

Moreover, I used empathy as a powerful tool to challenge societal prejudices and biases. Through my novels, I encouraged readers to put themselves in the shoes of my characters, to understand their circumstances, and to recognize their inherent worth. This exercise in empathy helped to dismantle the notion that the lower classes were unworthy of consideration or empathy.

Compassion also played a vital role in my novels, particularly in highlighting the injustices faced by the less fortunate. I wanted to create a sense of shared responsibility and a call to action. By presenting the struggles and challenges of the lower classes with compassion, I aimed to inspire readers to advocate for change, to challenge the systems that perpetuated inequalities, and to extend a helping hand to those in need.

In summary, empathy and compassion were powerful tools in my storytelling. They allowed me to humanize the lower classes, provoke empathy in readers, and challenge societal biases. Through these themes, I hoped to foster a sense of collective responsibility and inspire readers to work towards a more compassionate and equitable society.

The process of writing serialized novels was a unique and exhilarating experience that significantly influenced my storytelling approach. Serialized publication allowed me to engage readers in an ongoing narrative, creating anticipation and suspense as they eagerly awaited each new installment.

When crafting serialized novels, I approached the process with careful planning and consideration for the episodic nature of the format. I mapped out the overarching plot, ensuring that each installment had its own narrative arc while also contributing to the larger story. It was essential to create compelling cliffhangers and moments of suspense that would keep readers eagerly turning the pages and awaiting the next chapter.

The serialized format had a profound impact on the pacing and structure of my storytelling. I had to strike a delicate balance between providing enough resolution to satisfy readers in each installment while also leaving enough unanswered questions and unresolved plotlines to pique their curiosity for the next installment.

The episodic nature of serialization also provided opportunities for experimentation and flexibility in my storytelling. I could introduce new characters, subplots, and unexpected twists, allowing for a dynamic and evolving narrative. This format allowed me to respond to readers’ feedback and adapt the story accordingly, creating an interactive experience and fostering a sense of engagement.

Moreover, serialization enabled me to address social issues and inequalities directly. I could incorporate contemporary events and incorporate readers’ reactions into the subsequent installments, giving the narrative a sense of immediacy and relevance.

Overall, the serialized format heightened the dramatic tension of my storytelling, allowed for experimentation and adaptability, and created an interactive experience with readers. It was an exciting and transformative approach that deeply influenced my narrative choices and contributed to the lasting impact of my works.

Looking back on my literary career, it is difficult to pinpoint a single greatest achievement, as each of my works played a part in my broader goal of challenging societal norms and effecting social change. However, if I were to reflect on my journey, I would say that my greatest achievement lies in the enduring impact and legacy of my novels.

Through my works, I sought to shed light on the social issues and inequalities of the time, to awaken empathy and compassion in readers, and to inspire dialogue and action. The fact that my novels continue to resonate with readers across generations is a testament to their enduring power and influence.

My novels have become a part of the literary canon, studied in schools and universities, and cherished by readers around the world. They have sparked discussions, prompted introspection, and inspired countless adaptations in various art forms. The enduring popularity of works such as “Great Expectations,” “Oliver Twist,” and “A Tale of Two Cities” speaks to their ability to transcend time and place, capturing the hearts and minds of readers across generations.

Furthermore, my works played a role in influencing social reforms and shaping public opinion. They challenged the status quo, exposed the flaws and injustices of Victorian society, and inspired readers to envision a more just and compassionate world. The discussions and debates they sparked contributed to tangible reforms in areas such as education, labor conditions, and legal practices.

In addition to their societal impact, my works are often praised for their literary merit. They are celebrated for their rich characters, vivid descriptions, and powerful social commentary. Their enduring relevance and continued popularity are a testament to the enduring quality of my storytelling.

Ultimately, my greatest achievement as a writer lies in the enduring legacy of my novels. They continue to provoke thought, foster empathy, and inspire readers to examine their own roles in creating a more just and compassionate society.

The character of Oliver Twist was inspired by a combination of personal experiences, social observations, and a desire to shed light on the plight of the poor in Victorian society. Drawing from my own childhood struggles and observations of poverty, I wanted to create a character who embodied the vulnerability, resilience, and innate goodness of those trapped in the cycle of poverty.

Through Oliver’s story, I aimed to convey the message that poverty is not a moral failing but a product of societal circumstances. Oliver’s pure-heartedness and unwavering integrity served as a contrast to the corruption and cruelty he encountered. By highlighting the stark contrast between the innocence of the protagonist and the harsh realities he faced, I wanted to provoke empathy and compassion in readers.

Oliver’s journey also serves as a critique of the social systems and institutions that perpetuated the cycle of poverty. The workhouse, in particular, symbolized the dehumanizing treatment of the poor and the flaws of the Poor Law of the time. Through Oliver’s experiences in the workhouse and his subsequent encounters with the criminal underworld, I aimed to expose the injustices and inequalities prevalent in Victorian society.

Overall, Oliver Twist’s character and story were born out of a desire to shed light on the realities of poverty, challenge social prejudices, and inspire readers to question the prevailing societal norms that perpetuated inequality.

The workhouse and the criminal underworld depicted in “Oliver Twist” hold great significance in both the narrative of the novel and their impact on Victorian society.

The workhouse, as portrayed in the novel, symbolizes the oppressive and dehumanizing treatment of the poor. It was a product of the Poor Law of the time, which aimed to provide relief for the destitute but often resulted in harsh conditions and institutional neglect. Through Oliver’s experiences in the workhouse, I aimed to expose the callousness and hypocrisy of the system, highlighting the mistreatment and suffering endured by the poor.

The criminal underworld, on the other hand, served as a stark contrast to the workhouse. It represented a parallel society where poverty and desperation pushed individuals into a life of crime. Characters like Fagin and the Artful Dodger embodied the darker side of society, engaging in theft and exploitation. Through this depiction, I sought to illustrate the interplay between poverty, crime, and survival, while also questioning the societal factors that lead individuals down such paths.

The impact of these depictions on Victorian society was profound. “Oliver Twist” brought attention to the harsh realities faced by the poor and the failings of the institutions meant to protect them. The novel ignited public outcry and spurred discussions on social reform. It contributed to the growing awareness of the need for changes in the treatment of the poor, ultimately leading to reforms in the Poor Law and the improvement of workhouse conditions.

In summary, the workhouse and the criminal underworld depicted in “Oliver Twist” served as powerful symbols that exposed the injustices faced by the poor. By bringing attention to these issues, the novel played a significant role in shaping public opinion and influencing the social reforms that characterized the Victorian era.

The motivation to explore the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and utilitarianism in “Hard Times” stemmed from my deep concerns about the social and moral implications of the industrial revolution and the growing influence of utilitarian philosophy during the Victorian era.

Industrialization brought about significant societal changes, transforming cities and reshaping the lives of individuals. While it brought material progress and economic growth, it also gave rise to inhumane working conditions, social disparities, and a loss of human connection. I wanted to capture the profound impact of these changes on individuals and society as a whole.

Utilitarianism, with its emphasis on practicality, efficiency, and the maximization of productivity, further exacerbated the dehumanizing effects of industrialization. The reduction of individuals to mere units of production and the disregard for their emotional and spiritual needs troubled me deeply. I felt compelled to challenge the prevailing notion that a utilitarian approach to life was the only path to progress and happiness.

Through “Hard Times,” I aimed to critique the mechanistic and soulless aspects of industrial society. I wanted to illuminate the importance of emotional and imaginative faculties, the significance of human connection and empathy, and the need for a more holistic approach to life.

By contrasting characters like Thomas Gradgrind, who embodies utilitarian values, with characters like Sissy Jupe, who represents compassion and imagination, I sought to highlight the inherent dangers of a purely utilitarian worldview. I wanted readers to question the sacrifices made in the pursuit of material gain and to recognize the value of human emotions, creativity, and empathy in fostering a more fulfilling and compassionate society.

Overall, my motivation to explore the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and utilitarianism in “Hard Times” was rooted in a desire to challenge prevailing ideologies, to advocate for a more balanced and compassionate approach to life, and to shed light on the complex human experiences affected by the changes of the Victorian era.

The character of Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” was envisioned as a representation of greed, selfishness, and the spiritual impoverishment that comes from an excessive focus on material wealth. Scrooge was a reflection of the callousness and indifference prevalent in Victorian society, particularly towards the plight of the poor.

At the beginning of the story, Scrooge is portrayed as a cold-hearted and miserly figure, isolated from the joys of human connection and empathy. His transformation throughout the course of the novel is the central message I aimed to convey.

By exposing Scrooge to a series of supernatural visits, I wanted to confront him with the consequences of his actions and the missed opportunities for kindness and compassion in his life. Through the visits of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, Scrooge is forced to confront his own mortality, the impact of his choices, and the potential for redemption.

The transformation of Scrooge represents the possibility of personal growth and redemption. It serves as a powerful reminder that it is never too late to change one’s ways, to seek forgiveness, and to embrace a more compassionate and generous outlook on life.

Through Scrooge’s journey, I sought to convey the message that true wealth lies not in material possessions but in the richness of human connections, the joys of giving and receiving, and the transformative power of empathy and kindness. I aimed to inspire readers to examine their own attitudes towards wealth, to question the priorities that drive their lives, and to reevaluate the meaning of true happiness.

In summary, the character of Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” was envisioned as a vehicle for exploring the transformative power of redemption, the dangers of materialism, and the importance of empathy and compassion in fostering a more fulfilling and meaningful life.

The portrayal of the Chancery court in “Bleak House” was a scathing critique of its inefficiencies, delays, and the injustice it perpetuated. The Chancery court was a legal institution responsible for resolving disputes, particularly those involving inheritance and property rights.

My intention in highlighting the Chancery court was to expose the absurdities and contradictions of the legal system of the time. I wanted to draw attention to the human cost of the court’s interminable delays, labyrinthine processes, and the enormous financial burden it imposed on litigants.

Through the character of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, a fictional case that drags on for generations, I aimed to illustrate the detrimental effects of the court’s inefficiency. The case becomes a symbol of the court’s failure to provide timely justice, resulting in ruined lives, broken relationships, and the enrichment of lawyers at the expense of the litigants.

The portrayal of the Chancery court in “Bleak House” had a significant impact on public perception and played a role in influencing legal reforms. The novel shed light on the urgent need for changes in the legal system, prompting discussions and public outcry.

The impact of “Bleak House” on legal reforms was particularly evident in the 1870s when substantial changes were made to the court system. The reforms aimed to streamline legal processes, reduce delays, and improve access to justice. While it would be overly simplistic to attribute these reforms solely to the novel, “Bleak House” undoubtedly played a part in raising public awareness and inspiring calls for change.

In essence, my portrayal of the Chancery court in “Bleak House” was a powerful critique of the legal system’s failures. By exposing the human costs and the need for reform, I aimed to prompt readers to question the institutions and systems that perpetuate injustice and to advocate for a fairer and more efficient legal system.

The characters of Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim in “A Christmas Carol” served multiple purposes in conveying the novel’s message of compassion, empathy, and the transformative power of kindness.

Bob Cratchit, as Scrooge’s underpaid and overworked clerk, represents the working class and the hardships they faced during the Victorian era. Through his character, I wanted to humanize the lower classes and shed light on the struggles of those living in poverty. Cratchit’s humility, dedication, and love for his family serve as a stark contrast to Scrooge’s cold-heartedness and indifference. He symbolizes the resilience and the capacity for joy despite challenging circumstances.

Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit’s youngest son, further emphasizes the theme of empathy and compassion. Despite his physical disability, Tiny Tim possesses an unwavering spirit and embodies the innocence and goodness that Scrooge has lost. His vulnerability and his potential for a tragic fate evoke sympathy in readers and serve as a catalyst for Scrooge’s transformation.

By creating characters like Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, I aimed to provoke empathy in readers and to challenge the prevailing social attitudes towards the poor and the marginalized. Their presence in the novel serves as a reminder of the human impact of societal injustices and the urgent need for compassion and assistance.

Moreover, the relationships between Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, and Tiny Tim highlight the transformative power of kindness and generosity. Scrooge’s ultimate change of heart is embodied in his newfound love and concern for the Cratchit family. By experiencing their struggles, he develops empathy and recognizes the joy that comes from giving and sharing.

In summary, the characters of Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim in “A Christmas Carol” were created to evoke empathy, challenge social prejudices, and illustrate the transformative power of compassion. Through their presence in the novel, I aimed to inspire readers to embrace kindness, to recognize the inherent worth of every individual, and to advocate for a more just and caring society.

Through the character of Nicholas Nickleby and his experiences in Yorkshire boarding schools, I aimed to shed light on the inhumane conditions and the abuses prevalent in such educational institutions during the Victorian era.

Nicholas Nickleby’s journey begins when he becomes a teacher at Dotheboys Hall, a boarding school in Yorkshire run by the tyrannical headmaster, Wackford Squeers. The portrayal of the school and its treatment of the students reflects the broader social issues of the time, including the lack of regulations, the exploitative practices, and the disregard for the well-being and education of the students.

By depicting the harsh realities of such boarding schools, I wanted to expose the vulnerability of children to exploitation and the urgent need for reform in the education system. The character of Nicholas Nickleby serves as a moral compass, standing up against the injustices and advocating for the rights and welfare of the students.

Through Nicholas’s encounters with characters like Smike, a mistreated and neglected student, I aimed to evoke empathy and provoke a sense of outrage in readers. Smike’s plight highlights the vulnerability of children in the face of systemic abuse and neglect.

The depiction of Yorkshire boarding schools in “Nicholas Nickleby” contributed to a public outcry and prompted discussions on the need for reforms in the education system. It raised awareness about the deplorable conditions in some institutions and led to changes in regulations and a greater focus on child welfare.

In summary, through the character of Nicholas Nickleby and his experiences in Yorkshire boarding schools, I aimed to bring attention to the urgent need for reforms in the education system, to shed light on the abuses faced by vulnerable children, and to advocate for a more caring and nurturing environment for all students.

The character of Miss Havisham in “Great Expectations” is a complex and tragic figure who serves as a vehicle for exploring themes of love, loss, and societal expectations.

Miss Havisham, jilted on her wedding day, becomes a reclusive and embittered figure, forever frozen in time, surrounded by the remnants of her decaying wedding feast. Her character embodies the devastating effects of heartbreak, unfulfilled expectations, and the corrosive nature of resentment.

Through Miss Havisham, I sought to examine the destructive power of unresolved grief and the consequences of clinging to the past. She represents the pitfalls of dwelling in bitterness and the damaging effects of societal expectations.

Miss Havisham’s manipulation of Estella, raising her to be a weapon of revenge against men, further highlights the themes of love, loss, and societal expectations. Estella becomes a symbol of Miss Havisham’s desire for retribution and the casualties of her own broken heart.

Through Miss Havisham’s character, I aimed to challenge societal expectations and the rigid gender roles that defined Victorian society. She serves as a cautionary figure, a warning against the dangers of conforming to societal norms at the expense of one’s own happiness and well-being.

By exploring these themes through the character of Miss Havisham, I hoped to encourage readers to question societal expectations, to examine the impact of unresolved grief, and to seek personal growth and fulfillment beyond societal conventions.

“David Copperfield” is a novel that draws heavily from my own life experiences, particularly in its portrayal of the protagonist’s journey. While the novel is not strictly autobiographical, there are significant parallels between David Copperfield’s life and my own, allowing me to infuse the story with personal emotions and reflections.

David Copperfield’s early years are marked by similar struggles to my own. Like David, I experienced the loss of a father and the burden of financial hardships during my childhood. This shared background allowed me to convey the emotions and challenges of navigating a difficult upbringing and the impact it can have on one’s character and worldview.

The novel explores themes of resilience , self-discovery, and personal growth, all of which I drew from my own experiences. Through David’s journey, I aimed to depict the transformative power of education, the pursuit of a creative career, and the importance of forging genuine connections with others.

David’s encounters with a diverse cast of characters, such as the kind-hearted Mr. Micawber, the eccentric Aunt Betsey Trotwood, and the enigmatic Uriah Heep, reflect the range of individuals I encountered throughout my own life. These characters allowed me to explore different aspects of human nature, societal norms, and the challenges faced by individuals from various social backgrounds.

While “David Copperfield” is a work of fiction, the personal parallels infused the narrative with authenticity and emotional depth. It allowed me to draw upon my own triumphs and setbacks, as well as my observations of the world around me, to create a compelling and relatable story.

In summary, “David Copperfield” reflects my own life experiences and emotions, intertwining them with fictional elements to create a narrative that explores themes of resilience, personal growth, and the transformative power of education and human connections.

“The Pickwick Papers” was inspired by my experiences as a young journalist and my desire to create an entertaining and humorous work that would captivate readers. The novel was initially conceived as a series of comedic sketches and adventures, following the misadventures of the members of the Pickwick Club as they traveled through the English countryside.

The serialized format played a significant role in the popularity and impact of “The Pickwick Papers.” Serialized publication allowed me to engage readers in an ongoing narrative, building anticipation and suspense with each installment.

The episodic nature of the novel, with its self-contained adventures and humorous anecdotes, suited the serialized format perfectly. Each monthly installment provided readers with a dose of entertainment, allowing them to immerse themselves in the world of the eccentric characters and their humorous escapades.

The serialized format also allowed for flexibility and responsiveness to readers’ feedback. As the novel progressed, I could incorporate readers’ reactions, adapt the storylines, and introduce new characters or plot twists based on their reception. This interactive aspect created a sense of engagement and involvement, making readers feel connected to the unfolding narrative.

“The Pickwick Papers” gained immense popularity during its serialization, capturing the public’s imagination and becoming a cultural phenomenon. Readers eagerly awaited each installment, and the novel’s humorous tone and relatable characters struck a chord with the Victorian audience.

The serialized format also contributed to the lasting impact of the novel. By releasing the story in installments, “The Pickwick Papers” reached a wide readership, including those who may not have been able to afford the complete book at once. This accessibility helped to cement its popularity and ensured its enduring place in the literary canon.

In summary, “The Pickwick Papers” was inspired by my desire to entertain readers with humorous adventures. The serialized format contributed to its popularity by building anticipation, allowing for reader interaction, and ensuring accessibility to a wide audience.

The character of Miss Havisham in “Great Expectations” was inspired by a combination of personal observations, societal critiques, and a desire to explore the themes of love, loss, and societal expectations. Miss Havisham serves as a powerful symbol of the destructive impact of heartbreak and the consequences of clinging to the past.

In Victorian society, I witnessed how societal expectations and failed relationships could leave individuals emotionally scarred and trapped in a state of stagnation. Miss Havisham embodies this state of arrested development, forever frozen in time, still wearing her wedding dress and surrounded by the decaying remnants of her wedding feast. Her character reflects the corrosive nature of resentment, as she seeks revenge against men through her manipulation of Estella.

Through Miss Havisham’s character, I aimed to convey the profound impact of love gone wrong and the dangers of dwelling in bitterness. Her story serves as a cautionary tale, warning against the perils of societal expectations and the sacrifices individuals may make in pursuit of societal norms. She becomes a tragic figure, isolated from the joys of human connection and empathy, and ultimately paying a heavy price for her obsession with revenge.

Miss Havisham’s character contributes to the broader themes of the novel by highlighting the importance of personal growth, forgiveness, and the recognition of one’s own agency in shaping their destiny. As Pip becomes entangled in Miss Havisham’s web, he learns valuable lessons about love, loyalty, and the dangers of harboring resentments. Miss Havisham’s eventual redemption and her self-realization, though tragic, offer a glimmer of hope and the possibility of personal growth even in the face of great suffering.

In summary, the creation of Miss Havisham in “Great Expectations” was inspired by observations of societal expectations, failed relationships, and the emotional scars they can leave. Her character serves as a cautionary figure, highlighting the destructive impact of heartbreak and the need for personal growth and forgiveness.

The character of Sydney Carton in “A Tale of Two Cities” holds great significance in the novel and is central to the theme of sacrifice and redemption. Sydney Carton undergoes a profound transformation throughout the story, from a disillusioned and dissipated individual to a selfless hero willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Sydney Carton’s character represents the potential for redemption and the power of selfless love. He initially leads a wasted and dissipated life, seeing no value in himself or his actions. However, his encounters with Lucie Manette awaken his capacity for love and selflessness, leading him to find purpose and meaning in his life.

Through his sacrifice, Sydney Carton embodies the message that even the most flawed and despairing individuals have the capacity for greatness and selflessness. His act of giving up his own life for the happiness and well-being of others speaks to the transformative power of love and the ability to find redemption through selfless actions.

The sacrifice of Sydney Carton also serves as a powerful commentary on the broader themes of the novel. It highlights the stark contrast between the self-serving and oppressive aristocracy and the potential for selfless sacrifice and redemption within individuals. Sydney’s sacrifice becomes a symbol of hope, suggesting that the tumultuous events of the French Revolution can lead to a renewal of humanity and the triumph of love over hatred.

Overall, the character of Sydney Carton in “A Tale of Two Cities” embodies the transformative power of selfless love and the possibility of redemption. His sacrifice serves as a beacon of hope and a powerful message about the potential for personal growth and the triumph of compassion in the face of adversity.

Lady Dedlock’s storyline in “Bleak House” is a central thread that weaves together the complex narrative and explores themes of secrets, identity, and the consequences of societal expectations.

Lady Dedlock is introduced as a mysterious and enigmatic figure, married to Sir Leicester Dedlock. Her life is governed by societal expectations, maintaining a facade of aristocratic elegance while concealing a secret from her past. As the story unfolds, her secret is gradually revealed: she has a connection to the central case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, the interminable legal dispute that engulfs the novel.

Lady Dedlock’s storyline serves as a critique of the oppressive nature of societal expectations and the constraints they impose on individual freedom. Her secret past represents the entrapment and limitations faced by women in Victorian society, where reputation and social standing were highly valued. Her decision to conceal her past and conform to societal norms ultimately leads to her inner torment and a deep sense of dissatisfaction.

The revelation of Lady Dedlock’s secret has far-reaching consequences, exposing the flaws of the legal system and the destructive power of secrets. Her story intersects with the lives of other characters, including Esther Summerson and the protagonists involved in the Jarndyce v. Jarndyce case, highlighting the interconnectedness of their lives and the pervasive impact of the legal dispute on society.

Lady Dedlock’s storyline reflects the broader themes of the novel, such as the corruption of institutions, the quest for identity, and the pursuit of justice. Her ultimate fate becomes a catalyst for introspection, self-discovery, and the uncovering of truths that have remained hidden.

In summary, Lady Dedlock’s storyline in “Bleak House” represents a critique of societal expectations, the consequences of concealing one’s true identity, and the interconnectedness of lives in the face of corrupt institutions. Her character’s journey sheds light on the broader themes of the novel and serves as a catalyst for self-discovery and the pursuit of justice.

The title “Great Expectations” holds significant symbolism and meaning in the novel, reflecting the overarching themes of ambition, social mobility, and the pursuit of personal fulfillment.

The term “expectations” refers not only to the literal desires and aspirations of the characters but also to the societal pressures and hopes placed upon them. It represents the various expectations individuals have of themselves and those imposed upon them by others, particularly in the context of Victorian society.

The character of Pip, the protagonist, embodies the central theme of expectations. At the beginning of the story, he harbors grand ambitions of rising above his humble origins, driven by a desire for social advancement and material wealth. His encounters with Miss Havisham and Estella, as well as his unexpected inheritance, fuel his aspirations and shape his perceptions of success.

However, as the story unfolds, Pip’s journey becomes a critique of the shallowness of societal expectations and the misguided pursuit of material wealth. Through his experiences, he comes to realize that true greatness lies not in social standing or material possessions but in the development of genuine character, compassion, and integrity.

The title “Great Expectations” encapsulates the transformative journey of the protagonist, highlighting the contrast between the superficial aspirations of society and the more profound quest for self-discovery and personal growth. It prompts readers to question their own expectations and the definitions of success imposed by society.

The symbolism behind the title is further reflected in the character development throughout the novel. As Pip’s expectations are shattered and he confronts the realities of his choices, he undergoes a process of self-reflection and maturation. His understanding of what truly matters in life shifts, leading to a reevaluation of his priorities and a reconnection with his roots.

In summary, the title “Great Expectations” embodies the themes of ambition, societal pressure, and the pursuit of personal fulfillment. It serves as a critique of shallow aspirations and prompts readers to reconsider the true meaning of greatness and success.

The depiction of London as a setting in my novels, including “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Oliver Twist,” was influenced by my personal experiences and observations of the city’s social disparities, bustling streets, and vivid characters.

In “A Tale of Two Cities,” London serves as a backdrop for the turbulent events of the French Revolution. I aimed to capture the stark contrast between the opulence and grandeur of the aristocracy and the squalor and poverty experienced by the working class. The city becomes a microcosm of the social and political tensions of the time, portraying the struggles and injustices faced by its inhabitants.

Through vivid descriptions and atmospheric imagery, I sought to immerse readers in the sights, sounds, and smells of London. The bustling streets, the foggy alleys, and the crowded taverns contribute to the sense of chaos and volatility, reflecting the upheavals of the French Revolution and the underlying tensions within the city itself.

In “Oliver Twist,” London also plays a prominent role, particularly in its portrayal of the criminal underworld and the plight of the poor. The city becomes a labyrinth of narrow streets, dilapidated buildings, and dark corners where characters such as Fagin and Bill Sikes navigate their lives of crime.

By juxtaposing the gritty realities of London’s slums with the contrasting wealth and privilege of the upper classes, I aimed to highlight the stark inequalities of Victorian society. The city becomes a symbol of the stark divisions and the struggles faced by its inhabitants, particularly the marginalized and impoverished.

In both novels, London serves as more than just a backdrop; it becomes a living, breathing entity that shapes the characters’ lives and reflects the societal context in which they exist. The city’s settings and atmosphere contribute to the overall themes and messages of the novels, offering a commentary on the social disparities, the struggles of the working class, and the potential for redemption and transformation.

In summary, the depiction of London as a setting in “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Oliver Twist” draws upon my personal observations and experiences of the city. It serves as a reflection of the social disparities, the struggles of the marginalized, and the potential for redemption within a complex urban landscape.

The character of Mr. Micawber in “David Copperfield” holds great significance in the novel and has a profound impact on the protagonist’s life. Mr. Micawber represents resilience, optimism, and the enduring spirit of hope in the face of adversity.

Mr. Micawber is introduced as a charming and well-meaning individual, perpetually beset by financial troubles. Despite his circumstances, he maintains an unwavering faith that “something will turn up.” His catchphrase and his perpetual optimism become emblematic of his character, embodying a steadfast belief in the possibility of a brighter future.

Through his friendship with David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber becomes a mentor figure, offering guidance and wisdom. Despite his own struggles, he provides a sense of stability and warmth, becoming a source of emotional support for the young protagonist.

The significance of Mr. Micawber lies in his unwavering optimism and his ability to find joy in even the direst circumstances. His character serves as a counterbalance to the darker aspects of the novel, offering a ray of hope and resilience amidst the hardships faced by the characters.

Furthermore, Mr. Micawber’s impact on David Copperfield is transformative. David admires Mr. Micawber’s strength of character and is inspired by his ability to maintain a positive outlook despite facing constant setbacks. Mr. Micawber’s influence encourages David to persevere in the face of challenges and to find strength in his own resilience.

In summary, the character of Mr. Micawber in “David Copperfield” represents resilience, optimism, and the enduring spirit of hope. His unwavering positivity and his impact on the protagonist’s life serve as a source of inspiration and guidance, highlighting the transformative power of maintaining hope in the face of adversity.

The character of Thomas Gradgrind in “Hard Times” embodies the philosophy of utilitarianism and serves as a vehicle for exploring the dehumanizing effects of an overly rational and mechanized society.

Thomas Gradgrind is introduced as a staunch believer in facts, statistics, and the suppression of imagination and emotion. He places great emphasis on practical knowledge and instills these principles in his children and students. Gradgrind’s educational system is based on rigid utilitarian principles, valuing measurable outcomes and disregarding the development of individuality, creativity, and empathy.

Through Gradgrind’s character, I aimed to critique the prevailing societal emphasis on rationality and material gain, which often came at the expense of emotional and spiritual well-being. Gradgrind’s reductionist approach to education and his dismissal of anything beyond measurable facts represent a broader societal obsession with productivity and efficiency.

Gradgrind’s character is intricately connected to the novel’s themes of the dehumanizing effects of industrialization, the importance of imagination and creativity, and the rejection of emotional connections. He becomes a symbol of the dangers of a society driven solely by utilitarian principles, lacking in empathy and understanding.

Throughout the story, Gradgrind’s ideology is tested and challenged. His children, Louisa and Tom, suffer the consequences of his rigid philosophy, leading to personal turmoil and a loss of humanity. Gradgrind’s eventual recognition of the shortcomings of his beliefs and his personal transformation reflect the novel’s underlying message that a more balanced and compassionate approach to life and education is necessary.

In summary, the character of Thomas Gradgrind in “Hard Times” represents the ideology of utilitarianism and serves as a critique of a society driven solely by rationality and material gain. His character highlights the dehumanizing effects of such a worldview and explores the importance of empathy, imagination, and emotional connections.

The motif of duality and the use of contrasting characters in “A Tale of Two Cities,” particularly Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, serve to deepen the narrative and highlight the complexities of human nature, sacrifice, and redemption.

Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton embody two contrasting personalities and life paths. Darnay, a French aristocrat, represents nobility, honor, and a rejection of the oppressive aristocratic system. Carton, on the other hand, is a disillusioned and dissipated Englishman, seemingly devoid of purpose and self-worth.

Their paths intersect through their love for Lucie Manette, the female protagonist. The stark contrast between Darnay and Carton allows for a profound exploration of themes such as sacrifice, redemption, and the possibility of personal transformation.

Darnay represents the idealistic and honorable side of humanity, while Carton represents the flawed and disenchanted side. Their duality serves to emphasize the internal struggle faced by individuals torn between their ideals and their own personal failings.

Throughout the novel, Carton’s character undergoes a transformative journey. Initially consumed by self-pity and despair, he finds purpose and redemption through his selfless sacrifice. The contrast between Carton’s initial state and his ultimate act of sacrifice serves to emphasize the power of personal growth and the potential for redemption.

The motif of duality is also reflected in the broader context of the French Revolution . The novel portrays the stark contrast between the oppressive aristocracy and the suffering proletariat. The duality of the French Revolution itself, with its ideals of liberty and equality juxtaposed against the violence and chaos, serves as a backdrop for the contrasting paths of Darnay and Carton.

In summary, the motif of duality and contrasting characters in “A Tale of Two Cities” enhances the narrative by deepening the exploration of sacrifice, redemption, and the complexities of human nature. The contrasting paths of Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton allow for a profound examination of personal transformation and the choices individuals face in times of turmoil.

The Marshalsea debtors’ prison in “Little Dorrit” plays a crucial role in the novel, serving as a metaphorical and literal representation of the social and psychological imprisonment experienced by its characters.

The Marshalsea debtors’ prison is where the character William Dorrit, also known as the Father of the Marshalsea, and his daughter Amy, affectionately called Little Dorrit, live for a significant portion of the novel. The prison becomes a microcosm of the broader society, highlighting the pervasive impact of financial burdens and the dehumanizing effects of poverty.

The prison serves as a physical manifestation of the characters’ social and psychological constraints. It represents the entrapment and the loss of freedom experienced by those burdened by debts and the social stigma associated with financial struggles.

For characters like William Dorrit, the Marshalsea becomes a place of power dynamics and shifting identities. It is within this confined space that his ego and sense of superiority grow, leading to his transformation into a proud and entitled figure. The prison exacerbates the existing class divisions and reinforces the characters’ preoccupations with social status and appearances.

Little Dorrit, on the other hand, embodies resilience and compassion within the confines of the Marshalsea. She navigates the prison with grace and selflessness, providing emotional support and care to the other inmates. Her experiences within the prison walls shape her character, allowing her to develop empathy, humility, and a deep understanding of human suffering.

The Marshalsea debtors’ prison serves as a catalyst for personal growth and self-reflection for many of the characters in the novel. It exposes the harsh realities of societal expectations, the consequences of financial hardships, and the transformative power of empathy and compassion.

In summary, the Marshalsea debtors’ prison in “Little Dorrit” serves as a metaphorical representation of the characters’ social and psychological imprisonment. It explores the themes of poverty, societal constraints, and the transformative power of empathy within the confines of a confined space.

The exploration of identity and social mobility in “Great Expectations” was inspired by my observations of the societal pressures and the struggles faced by individuals in their pursuit of personal growth and societal advancement.

The character of Pip serves as a lens through which to examine these themes. Pip’s journey begins with a desire for social advancement and the hope of leaving behind his humble origins. His encounters with Miss Havisham and Estella, as well as his unexpected inheritance, fuel his aspirations and shape his perception of success.

Through Pip’s character, I aimed to challenge the notion that social status and material wealth equate to personal fulfillment. As Pip moves up the social ladder, he becomes increasingly disconnected from his true self, losing touch with his humble beginnings and the values he once held dear.

The transformation of Pip’s identity and his eventual realization of the true meaning of greatness form the core of the novel’s exploration of identity and social mobility. His journey serves as a cautionary tale, warning against the dangers of sacrificing one’s authenticity and integrity in pursuit of societal expectations.

Furthermore, the character of Pip allows for a broader commentary on the complexities of social mobility in Victorian society. Through his experiences, I aimed to highlight the challenges faced by individuals striving to fit into a rigid class structure and the sacrifices they make to conform to societal norms.

In summary, the exploration of identity and social mobility in “Great Expectations” was inspired by my observations of societal pressures and the struggles faced by individuals in their pursuit of personal growth. The character of Pip serves as a vehicle to examine the complexities of social mobility and the dangers of sacrificing one’s true identity for societal expectations.

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General Introduction: Dickens and Serial Form

Dickens as serial novelist, what are the working notes, where are the working notes, the digital dickens notes project.

How to cite this page (MLA) : Gibson, Anna, Adam Grener, and Frankie Goodenough. “General Introduction: Dickens and Serial Form.” Digital Dickens Notes Project. Anna Gibson and Adam Grener, dirs. 2022. Web. http://dickensnotes.com/introduction/general/

Charles Dickens’s career as a novelist is inextricable from serial form. When Dickens began writing his first novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club in 1836, he was a twenty-four-year-old Parliamentary reporter who had managed to launch his writing career through short sketches of London life. While the initial monthly installments of Pickwick sold a mere four hundred copies, by the end of the novel’s serial run in 1837, nearly forty thousand copies of each installment were being sold.

Dickens’s subsequent novels built on and consolidated this success, and their serial publication shaped Dickens’s relationship and popularity with his Victorian audience. Although some of his novels were published in weekly installments in magazines that Dickens himself edited (such as Hard Times , which ran in Household Words from April to August 1854), most of his major novels were published in twenty installments that cost one-shilling and appeared monthly in their iconic blue-green covers (with the last installment being a double number).

Although many readers encounter Dickens through paperback editions that indicate the division of the novel’s chapters into their monthly installments (usually 3-4 chapters per monthly number), it is difficult for contemporary readers to imagine reading and experiencing a novel unfolding in short installments, month-to-month, over the course of a year-and-a-half. It is perhaps even more difficult for us to imagine how seriality shaped Dickens’s creative practice, as he conceived, composed, and published his novels in these installments that were frequently finished on tight deadlines, shortly before they were published and read. The Working Notes he began keeping, therefore, provide unique insight into the dynamics of his compositional practice and open up new ways of interpreting the process of their serial development.

Dickens began the practice of keeping complete sets of Working Notes for his novels in 1846 as he began to write Dombey and Son . These pages served as records of Dickens’s composition over the course of up to 19 months of serial writing and publication. He used the Notes to plan each installment and track storylines across multiple numbers, but he also returned to the pages multiple times before, during, and after the writing of a number. He used them, among other things, to conceive, consider, question, decide, document, prompt, and remember. These vital records of compositional practice demonstrate Victorian serial novel form in process.

In most cases, Dickens would divide in half a 7” x 9” sheet of paper for each serial installment, folding a crease down the middle of the page. On the right side, he wrote the title and installment number and divided this side of the page into chapter numbers. From the evidence that survives from the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), we know that Dickens adopted the practice of creating a blank Working Note for each serial installment at the outset of a novel’s composition. He came back to fill in chapter titles and to jot down chief events and characters, occasional quotations, and memorable details. He used this space to test out names and phrases here and there, adding content over time, in some cases in cramped writing as space became short.

Dickens used the left side of the page for “generative” notes and memoranda for the installment as a whole, including long-term plans and motifs. Here we find questions about character combinations or plot details, often checked off or answered later in a different ink. At times he changes his mind. In some cases he uses this space to summarize work already completed or records his overwriting or underwriting of chapters and moves them around.

Complete sets of these Notes survive for all Dickens’s monthly novels following Dombey and Son , including David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), Little Dorrit (1855-57), Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), and the completed installments of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870). Dickens also kept complete Notes for Hard Times (1854), which was published in weekly installments in Household Words . Planning documents and Notes also survive for The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41), Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44), and Great Expectations (1860-61), although they are not organized by installments.

Dickens’s Working Notes are bound with his complete manuscripts in three libraries. The National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds the majority of Dickens’s manuscripts, which the author bequeathed to his friend and biographer, John Forster (1812-76) in his will. These are part of the library’s large Forster Collection, bequeathed to the museum upon Forster’s death in 1876. (See Lowe, “The Conservation of Charles Dickens’ Manuscripts”). 1

The manuscript and Working Notes of Great Expectations are held at the Wisbech and Fenland Museum in Cambridgeshire, England. Dickens gave this manuscript to his friend Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798-1868), to whom he dedicated the novel. The two had been introduced by mesmerist John Elliotson in 1840. Townshend bequeathed the manuscript with additional materials to the Wisbech and Fenland Museum in 1868.

The Our Mutual Friend manuscript is held at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Dickens presented this manuscript to Eneas Sweetland Dallas (1828-79) in January 1866 as a token of appreciation for Dallas’s favorable review of the novel in The Times (Nov. 25, 1865). The manuscript found its way from E.S. Dallas to George W. Childs in Philadelphia, who donated it to the Drexel Institute of Technology. It was subsequently purchased by the Morgan Library in October 1944.

While scholars have long recognized Dickens’s Working Notes as important resources for understanding the author’s writing process, their significance has been underappreciated. This is in part due to the difficulty of capturing their complex and dynamic relationship to Dickens’s compositional practices. Transcriptions of these Notes are often reproduced in the appendices to trade editions, but these black-and-white linear reproductions fail to capture the richness of these manuscripts: the size, color, and placement of elements on the page, as well as the non-textual markings Dickens used for emphasis and to record the process of his writing at various stages. The one complete facsimile version of the Working Notes, edited by Harry Stone and published by University of Chicago Press in 1987, captures considerably more detail alongside transcriptions, but this black-and-white edition is unwieldy in size and now out of print. Tony Laing’s open-access, online version of Dickens’s Working Notes for Dombey and Son provides color transcriptions and extended editorial commentary for Dickens’s first complete set of Working Notes.

The DDNP captures the materiality of the Working Notes in a digital space and provides editorial annotations to demonstrate how Dickens returned to these texts multiple times in the process of conceiving, composing, and editing each serial number of a long novel. Digital transcriptions offer legible versions of the Notes, while capturing the placement, size, and color, as well as non-textual markings as accurately as possible. Interactive annotations interpret the content of the Notes alongside the manuscripts, corrected proofs, and published texts of the novels, along with other records of Dickens’s compositional practice (letters, biographical accounts, etc.).

By facilitating an exploratory engagement with these texts as windows to Dickens’s serial writing, this project aims to open new avenues for interpreting Dickens’s approach to novel form. Rather than reading the Notes primarily as planning documents—records of preparation and design—as they have frequently been understood, we emphasize their role as dynamic records of serial process.

Read more about the DDNP’s approach to serial form and Dickens’s compositional practice, as well as our process for transcribing and annotating the notes, in the Scholarly Introduction .

Annette Lowe, The conservation of Charles Dickens’ manuscripts ↩

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Charles Dickens Biography and Work

Table of Contents

Charles Dickens was a British writer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest novelists of the Victorian era. He was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England, and died on June 9, 1870, in Kent, England. Over the course of his career, he wrote some of the most beloved and enduring works of English literature, including “Oliver Twist,” “David Copperfield,” “A Tale of Two Cities,” and “Great Expectations.”

Early Life and Education

Charles Dickens Biography and Work:- Charles Dickens was the second of eight children born to John and Elizabeth Dickens. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, and his family was considered to be middle-class. However, when Charles was just twelve years old, his father was imprisoned for debt, and the family was forced to move to a small, dingy house in Camden Town, London. This experience had a profound effect on Charles, and it would later become a recurring theme in his work.

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Despite his family’s financial struggles, Charles received a good education. He attended a series of private schools, and he was an avid reader from a young age. In his early teens, he became an apprentice at a law firm, but he quickly realized that he didn’t enjoy the work. Instead, he began to write stories and sketches, which he submitted to various publications.

Early Writing Career

Charles Dickens Biography and Work:- Dickens’ first published work was a collection of sketches called “Sketches by Boz,” which appeared in a monthly magazine called “The Monthly Magazine” in 1833. These sketches were a humorous and satirical look at everyday life in London, and they were an immediate success. Dickens’ style was witty, lively, and full of colorful characters, and he quickly became a popular writer.

In 1836, Dickens published his first novel, “The Pickwick Papers,” which was an instant sensation. The novel was serialized in monthly installments, and readers eagerly awaited each new chapter. “The Pickwick Papers” was a comic masterpiece, full of memorable characters and hilarious situations, and it established Dickens as one of the most important writers of his time.

Later Works

Charles Dickens Biography and Work:- Over the next several years, Dickens published a series of highly successful novels, including “Oliver Twist,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” “David Copperfield,” and “Bleak House.” These novels were all serialized in monthly installments, and they were eagerly read by a public hungry for the latest installment.

In addition to his novels, Dickens was also a prolific writer of short stories, essays, and articles. He wrote for several different publications, and he was known for his sharp wit and incisive commentary on the social issues of his time.

As he grew older, Dickens’ health began to decline, and he suffered from a series of physical and emotional ailments. In 1858, he separated from his wife, Catherine, and he began a long and difficult affair with a young actress named Ellen Ternan.

Charles Dickens Biography and Work:- Despite his personal problems, Dickens continued to write, and he produced some of his greatest works in the final years of his life. In 1859, he published “A Tale of Two Cities,” which is widely considered to be his masterpiece. The novel is set during the French Revolution, and it explores themes of love, sacrifice, and redemption.

In 1861, Dickens began a series of public readings of his works, which were enormously popular. He traveled extensively throughout Britain and America, and he became a celebrity in his own right. However, the strain of these readings took a toll on his health, and he suffered a series of strokes in the early 1870s.

Themes and Style

Charles Dickens Biography and Work:- Charles Dickens is known for his vivid and colorful style of writing, which is characterized by his use of vivid descriptions, memorable characters, and sharp dialogue. His works are often seen as a reflection of the social and economic issues of his time, and they explore themes such as poverty, inequality, and injustice.

One of the recurring themes in Dickens’ work is the plight of the poor and marginalized. He often wrote about characters who were struggling to survive in a world that was stacked against them. In works such as “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield,” he portrayed the harsh realities of life for the urban poor, including poverty, hunger, and disease.

Charles Dickens Biography and Work:- Another important theme in Dickens’ work is the power of love and human connection. In novels such as “Great Expectations” and “A Tale of Two Cities,” he explored the transformative power of love, and he portrayed characters who were able to overcome great adversity through their relationships with others.

Dickens was also a master of social satire, and he used his writing to critique the institutions and values of Victorian society. In works such as “Bleak House” and “Hard Times,” he criticized the hypocrisy and moral corruption of the upper classes, and he exposed the harsh realities of life for the working poor.

Charles Dickens Biography and Work:- Overall, Charles Dickens’ style and themes continue to resonate with readers today. His works are timeless reminders of the struggles and triumphs of the human experience, and they continue to inspire and entertain audiences around the world.

Charles Dickens was a prolific and influential writer who left an indelible mark on English literature. Through his vivid descriptions, memorable characters, and sharp wit, he explored the social and economic issues of his time and captured the essence of the human experience. His works continue to be read and loved today, and they serve as a testament to the enduring power of storytelling and the importance of social justice. Dickens’ legacy is a testament to the power of literature to inspire and transform, and he remains one of the most beloved and revered writers of all time.

Q. What is Charles Dickens best known for?

Ans. Charles Dickens is best known for his vivid descriptions, memorable characters, and social commentary in his novels. Some of his most famous works include “Oliver Twist,” “A Tale of Two Cities,” “Great Expectations,” and “David Copperfield.”

Q. When was Charles Dickens born?

Ans. Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812.

Q. Where was Charles Dickens born?

Ans. Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.

Q. What was Charles Dickens’ family like?

Ans. Charles Dickens was the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk who struggled with finances, and his mother, Elizabeth Dickens, was a homemaker. Dickens’ difficult childhood and family circumstances would

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The story of the real places from the fictional works of Charles Dickens

C harles Dickens had a knack for creating fictional characters , dozens and dozens of them in every book , so vivid and so individualized in personality, with wonderfully distinctive names, that it was hard for much of his huge readership to believe that these larger-than-life heroes, villains, and satiric figures to be loved, hated, or laughed at hadn't actually existed. They were household names in Dickens's day (1812-1870), and many remain so in our own: Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Sam Weller, Little Nell, Mr. Bumble, Miss Havisham, Mrs. Jellyby, Madame Defarge, Uriah Heep, Gradgrind, Fagin. The chief setting of most of the novels was London , where Dickens lived much of his life. He spent hours strolling the streets of the city looking at possible locations for his fiction, so it was to be expected that his readers would engage in elaborate detective work to do so as well.

And so they did. Dickens might be the only writer who spawned a tourist industry devoted to him and his works during his own lifetime. One of the first and most influential literary tourists was none other than Louisa May Alcott, part of an American readership for Dickens's 15 novels that was even more avid and more demanding of detailed information about their celebrity author than its British counterpart. In 1866, four years before Dickens died from complications of a stroke at age 58, Alcott, still an unknown ( Little Women didn't appear until 1868), visited London and systematically sought out sites where either a younger Dickens himself had lived or were touted as the real-life haunts of his fictional characters.

THE OPTIMISTIC CONSERVATIVE’S GUIDE TO THE FUTURE

Alcott's diary and an 1867 magazine article about her adventures, “A Dickens Day,” recounted imaginary encounters with some of those characters and a walk down the now-defunct Kingsgate Street in St. Giles Rookery, then perhaps West London's most noxious slum, notorious for its narrow, filthy streets, its open sewers, its crumbling housing dating from Tudor times where entire families packed themselves into single rooms, and its booze, prostitution, disease, and crime. (It was the mise-en-scène of Hogarth's Gin Lane .). Alcott was fearless, however (a “spinster on the rampage” she called herself), and one of her favorites among Dickens's comic creations, the tippling, umbrella-wielding nurse-midwife Sairey Gamp in Martin Chuzzlewit , had occupied dingy lodgings above a bird-shop on Kingsgate Street whose exact premises Alcott confidently located. Alcott, insisting that Dickens must have seen and taken notes on that very building, even though she had no evidence that he did, single-handedly turned “the Gamp house” into a must-see for trans-Atlantic Dickens fans of the late 19th century.

Alcott was thus a pioneer of more than a century's worth of efforts, continuing to this day, to locate and even recreate “Dickens's London,” the fabrication of its author, in specific places in a real-life city. This is the theme of Dickensland by Lee Jackson, author of several well-received books about Victorian London.

The problem, as Lee describes it, was that Dickens, while unerringly faithful to London geography and the atmosphere of its neighborhoods, almost never set his stories in recognizably real buildings unless they were well-known public spaces such as the Inns of Court, site of the never-ending probate case Jarndyce v. Jarndyce in 1853’s Bleak House . So identifying the possible real-life model for any particular structure described in a Dickens novel is mostly guesswork. Furthermore, Dickens, an amateur antiquarian who loved “great, rambling queer old places,” as he wrote, often set his fiction in a just-vanished past. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers in 1837, recounted incidents that had purportedly occurred a decade earlier and described a world of English stagecoach travel that had already been superseded by passenger railroads starting in 1830. That meant that by the 1870s and 1880s, when Dickens tourism took off in earnest after his death, the tidy, coach-welcoming White Hart Inn in Southwark featured in The Pickwick Papers , a rare real private structure in a Dickens novel, was a decaying, rubbish-littered wreck, its rooms turned into squalid tenements.

Most problematically of all, even during Dickens's lifetime, and at a faster clip after his death, “Dickens's London” — the “old” London of dark, crooked alleys and rickety Tudor half-timbers that formed the sinister background of many of his novels — was being systematically demolished in the name of slum clearance and sanitation reform. Dickens's lifetime saw the construction of massive water, sewer, and lighting projects and broad, Parisian-style boulevards, such as Regent Street and New Oxford Street, that paved over flattened slums. The St. Giles Rookery and Kingsgate Street disappeared by the turn of the 20th century as West London went upmarket. “DICKENS'S LONDON IS VANISHING!” a newspaper headline screamed. But few Victorians actually minded much, and the very disappearance of much of the London of Dickens's time made sussing out what was left even more exciting. “'Dickens's London' was now part of history, and to explore its nooks and corners was to step back in time,” Lee writes.

This means, however, that Dickens tourists, in their search for the authentically Dickensian, usually have to settle for something far less authentic, if not downright phony. The White Hart Inn was torn down in 1889, but other inns with period pretensions quickly offered themselves as replacement destinations by claiming to be inspirations for other Dickens works. The most blatant fake of all was and remains the Old Curiosity Shop. The lone Tudor edifice left standing in its Lincoln's Inn Fields neighborhood (it is currently owned by the London School of Economics), its facade bears the Gothic-lettering inscription “Immortalized by Charles Dickens.” From shortly after Dickens's death to the late 20th century, it was the single most popular Dickens tourist attraction in London, with female visitors, especially Americans, weeping over the villainous Quilp's ouster of Little Nell and her improvident grandfather from their beloved shop in Dickens's 1841 novel. In fact, the Old Curiosity Shop had nothing to do with Dickens. A previous owner had simply posted the shop's name and inscription in 1881, and subsequent owners turned it into a Dickens-themed souvenir shop. Similarly, Dickens fans who visit the “new” London Bridge finished in 1973 may be shocked to read the “Nancy's Steps” plaque informing them that Bill Sikes of Oliver Twist (1839) murdered his Nancy on the bridge's 1831 predecessor. Everyone who has read the novel (or seen the musical Oliver! ) knows that Bill killed Nancy inside their squalid digs.

Lee's book is a reworking of his 2021 doctoral dissertation, and while he has gotten rid of such academic-speak verbal horrors as “heritagization” (yes, this word appears in his online abstract), the organization could be more clearly chronological. And he sometimes wanders far afield into such topics as Dickens movies and theme parks that don't seem related to his central subject of Dickens enthusiasts' quest to find the London of his imagination and their own in a constantly changing real-world city. Still, this is an eminently worthy project, and I'm glad he wrote this lovingly researched book.

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Charlotte Allen is a Washington writer. Her articles have appeared in Quillette , the Wall Street Journal , USA Today , and the Los Angeles Times .

Tags: Books , Book Reviews , Literature , History , London , Fiction , Opinion , United Kingdom

Original Author: Charlotte Allen

Original Location: The story of the real places from the fictional works of Charles Dickens