CHARLES DICKENS Charles Dickens is a very important and famous English writer . He is the most popular novelist of his time. He lived and wrote in the 19th century, he was born in 1812 and died in 1870. That time is known as Victorian Era because Queen Victoria was queen in that period. Many of Dickens’ novels and short-stories show how hard life was in Victorian Britain, especially for poor people and children. Dickens’ father was poor, too, actually he became poor because he was not able to administrate his money, and police put him in prison for debt when Charles was twelve years old. Charles had to go to work in a shoe polish factory and he himself experimented hard working conditions and low salary.

CHARLES DICKENS He published his novels in monthly episodes in newspapers. That because people liked reading but they didn’t have enough money to buy books, it was cheaper for them to buy monthly newspapers and the attached books’ episodes. To make people go on buying, the writers, including Dickens, ended each episode with something very exciting. Dickens’ books have a lot of serious messages but they are also exciting and funny. The funny aspect is often given by his characters’ names which always convey information about the characters, sometimes they totally match their personality or they are the opposite. Dickens’ most famous books are Great Expectations, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, A tale for two cities and Oliver Twist.

CHARLES DICKENS A Christmas Carol is the story of a very mean man called “Scrooge”. He paid his workers very badly, even at Christmas he didn’t give them extra money. One of his workers, Bob Cratchit had a son, Tiny Tim, who was ill and couldn’t walk. The Cratchits had a very hard life, but Scrooge simply didn’t care, he only cared about saving his money. But on Christmas Eve three ghosts visited Scrooge and scared him so much that he totally changed his character, he began to be kind and generous and to give presents to everyone and especially to the Cratchits. Today we call a mean person a “scrooge”

CHARLES DICKENS Oliver Twist was an orphan and he lived in an orphanage which was a very bad place, it was cold and the children were hungry. Once Oliver asked for more food and he got into a lot of trouble. First he was adopted but the family didn’t treat him properly, he escaped and went to London. There he met a man called Fagin who was a thief and led a group of children who he obliged to take money and jewellery from people in the street. Oliver didn’t want to work for him but he had to and he lived a lot of adventures. Then Oliver was adopted by an old nobleman and the story for him ended well.