CHARLES DICKENS. Childhood Born in Portsmouth, England on Friday, Feb. 7, 1812. The second of 8 children born to John and Elizabeth Dickens.

CHARLES DICKENS

Childhood• Born in Portsmouth, England on Friday,

Feb. 7, 1812.

• The second of 8 children born to John and Elizabeth Dickens

Dreams• Charles was taught that if he worked hard

and earned an education he could have anything he wanted.

• He dreamed of owning Gads Hill Place-the nicest house between Rochester and Gravesend.

Trouble Comes

• In 1817 John Dickens moved his family to Chatham & Charles experienced the best part of his childhood.

• In 1824 the family moved to London and John Dickens was sent to Southwark to Marshalsea debtors’ prison.

Debtor’s Prison

Charles Goes to Work

• 12 year old Charles goes to work in Warren’s Blacking Factory--where he put labels on bottles of shoe polish.

• He earned 6 shillings a week to help support his family--about 3 cents

• He was disturbed to have been “cast out at such a young age.”

• His novel David Copperfield is based on this experience.

Life Goes On

• John Dickens is paroled when a family member dies and leaves a legacy.

• Charles continues his education at Wellington House Academy

• Gets a job as a court reporter in the Court of Doctor’s Commons and then at the Morning Chronicle.

A Career Begins…

• December 1833 his first piece is published in The Monthly Magazine and it was followed by 9 more.

• Eventually all of these were published together as Sketches by Boz.

• He was writing under the pseudonym BOZ at this time.

Love and Marriage

• April 2,1836 Charles marries Catherine Hogarth the daughter of George Hogarth , a fellow employee at the Morning Chronicle.

• They have 10 children together before they separate in 1858.

Mary Hogarth

• Catherine had a younger sister named Mary. She was beautiful and came to help the Dickens with housework shortly after they were married. Mary died at 17 in Charles’ arms-he wore her ring until his death. She was his ideal woman-innocent, young and beautiful.

Mary Hogarth

Success

• 1836 Dickens published The Pickwick Papers in 20 monthly installments. Each issue sold 40,000 copies.

Success

• 1837-He begins to write Oliver Twist -this novel tells the story of Dickens’ life at the blacking factory.

• It is his attack on a society that lets the poor suffer while the rich grow more wealthy.

Nicholas Nickleby

• 1838 Dickens begins to write Nicholas Nickleby. It was a comedy that sold over 50,000.

A Christmas Carol

• December 1843 Dickens begins his most popular work: A Christmas Carol.

• This story portrays a society saved by love and generosity.

David Copperfield

• This is Dickens most autobiographical work. It was published from May 1849-November 1850 in 20 installments.

• 1850 Dickens started The Guild of Literature and Art.

Other Works

• A Tale of Two Cities

• Great Expectations

• His final work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood was never finished.

Death and Memory

• Charles Dickens dies on June 9, 1870 and he was buried at Westminster Abbey in the Poet’s Corner.

• His tombstone reads: He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering and the oppressed; and by his death , one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world.

Westminster Abbey

Poets’ Corner

Poets’ Window

Memory con’t

• Dickens felt that society as a whole needed to take responsibility for the poor. All of his works reflect this idea.

• Dickens was to Victorian England what Shakespeare was to Elizabethan England.

• He wrote 15 major novels and countless short stories.