CHARLES DICKENS

Childhood Born in Portsmouth, England on Friday, Feb. 7, 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.

Debtors Prison

Charles Goes to Work 12 year old Charles goes to work in Warrens 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 Doctors 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 November 1850 in 20 installments 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 Poets Corner. His tombstone reads: He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering and the oppressed; and by his death, one of Englands greatest writers is lost to the world.

Westminster Abbey

Poets Corner

Poets Window

Memory cont 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.