Dickens, Charles

Dickens, Charles (1812-70), author, b. Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.

Charles Dickens was the eldest of eight children and the son of a pay clerk for the Royal Navy.

In 1816 the family moved to Chatham, Kent, but in 1821 Mr. Dickens lost his job and they went to Camden Town in London.

Mr. Dickens was sent to prison for owing money and Charles had to go to work in a blacking factory for six shillings a week.

Later Charles became a newspaper reporter and in 1836 he wrote The Pickwick Papers. This book was originally published as a series in a magazine and it became so popular that people queued in the streets to obtain each new issue.

More novels followed, most of them published in the same way, and Dickens's fame grew. Besides Mr. Pickwick, Charles Dickens invented many famous characters, including Oliver Twist, Fagin, the Artful Dodger, Mr. Pickwick's friend Sam Weller and Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield.

In his books, Dickens wrote about some of the bad things in the life of his time - mean workhouses {Oliver Twist), cheap boarding schools (Nicholas Nickleby) and hard labor for children in factories (David Copperfield).

He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

See Les Standiford The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits