The Life and Works Of Charles Dickens
 Charles John Huffam Dickens FRSA (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870), pen-name "Boz", was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language's greatest writers, he was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime.
The popularity of Dickens novels and short stories has meant that none have ever gone out of print. Dickens wrote serialised novels, which was the usual format for fiction at the time, and each new part of his stories would be eagerly anticipated by the reading public.
Charles Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth, Hampshire, the second of eight children to John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth, and his wife Elizabeth Dickens on February 7, 1812. Although his early years seem to have been an idyllic time, he thought himself then as a "very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy".He spent his time outdoors, reading voraciously with a particular fondness for the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding.
A 12-year-old Dickens began working 10 hour days in a Warren's boot-blacking factory, located near the present Charing Cross railway station. He earned six shillings a week pasting labels on the jars of thick polish. This money paid for his lodging in Camden Town and helped support his family.
After a few months his family was able to leave Marshalsea but their financial situation did not improve until later, partly due to money inherited from his father's family. His mother did not immediately remove Charles from the boot-blacking factory, which was owned by a relation of hers.
Dickens never forgave his mother for this, and resentment of his situation and the conditions under which working-class people lived became major themes of his works.
As Dickens wrote in David Copperfield, judged to be his most clearly autobiographical novel, "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!"
In 1834, Dickens became a journalist, reporting parliamentary debate and travelling Britain by stagecoach to cover election campaigns for the Morning Chronicle. His journalism, in the form of sketches which appeared in periodicals from 1833, formed his first collection of pieces Sketches by Boz which were published in 1836 and led to the serialization of his first novel, The Pickwick Papers in March 1836.
He continued to contribute to and edit journals throughout much of his subsequent literary career.
In the same year, he accepted the job of editor of Bentley's Miscellany, a position he would hold until 1839 when he fell out with the owner. However, his success as a novelist continued, producing Oliver Twist , Nicholas Nickleby , then The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge as part of the Master Humphrey's Clock series, all being published in monthly instalments before being made into books.
In 1842, he travelled with his wife to the United States, a journey which was successful despite his support for the abolition of slavery. The trip is described in the short travelogue American Notes for General Circulation and is also the basis of some of the episodes in Martin Chuzzlewit.
Shortly thereafter, he began to show interest in Unitarian Christianity, although he remained an Anglican, at least nominally, for the rest of his life.Dickens's work continued to be popular, especially A Christmas Carol written in 1843, the first of his Christmas books, which was reputedly written in a matter of weeks.
After living briefly abroad in Italy and Switzerland, Dickens continued his success with Dombey and Son writing David Copperfield; Bleak House; Hard Times; Little Dorrit; A Tale of Two Cities; and Great Expectations.
On 9 June 1865, while returning from France with the actress Ellen Ternan, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash in which the first seven carriages of the train plunged off of a bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling.
Dickens spent some time tending the wounded and the dying before rescuers arrived. Before leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for Our Mutual Friend, and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it. Typically, Dickens later used this experience as material for his short ghost story The Signal-Man n which the central character has a premonition of his own death in a rail crash.
He based the story around several previous rail accidents, such as the Clayton Tunnel rail crash of 1861.Dickens, though unharmed, never really recovered from the Staplehurst crash, and his normally prolific writing shrank to completing Our Mutual Friend and starting the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood after a long interval.
He became ill and five years to the day after the Staplehurst crash,sadley on the 9 June 1870, he died at home at Gad's Hill Place after suffering a stroke.
Charles Dickens works will long be remembered around the world for many years to come.
Audio Books By Charles Dickens
Bleak House
Chimes, The
Christmas Carol, A
Christmas Stories, The
Cricket on the Hearth
David Copperfield
Dombey and Son
Great Expectations
Hard Times
Little Dorrit
Mystery of Edwin Drood, The
Nicholas Nickleby
Oliver Twist
Our Mutual Friend
Pickwick Papers, The
Seven Poor Travellers, The
Tale of Two Cities, A
Charles Dickens information supplied courtesy of wikipedia under the GNU Free Documentation License
| 
