1. Charles Dickens’s life
born in Portsmouth
on February 7th 1812
the second of 8 children
at 5 he moved to Kent with his family where he spent most of his childhood

2. (Marshalsea will be the setting of Little Dorrit)
his father, John Dickens, lived beyond his means
the family had financial difficulties
1822: because of his father’s job the family moved to London
1824: J. Dickens’s financial situation got worse
he is imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtors’ prison;
his family – except for Charles – joined him in prison
(Marshalsea will be the setting of Little Dorrit)

3. (travels throughout the UK)
at 12 Charles Dickens has to work in a blacking factory and he makes a living for himself
(Oliver Twist and David Copperfield deal with his factory working experience)
only thanks to a family legacy the family is released from prison
junior clerk (in an office of attorneys)
works carried out by C. Dickens:
freelance reporter (legal proceedings)
(Bleak House deals with the faulty legal system)
political journalist
(travels throughout the UK)
editor

4. great ability at characterization
as a newspaper reporter, his pen name is BOZ
The Pickwick Papers is the collection of articles about London people and situations soon after the publication of Sketches by Boz
great ability at characterization
V. Woolf: “we remodel our psychological geography when we read Dickens [as he produces] characters who exist not in detail, not accurately or exactly, but abundantly in a cluster of wild yet extraordinary revealing remarks”

5.
marries Catherine Hogarth, daughter of the editor of the Evening Chronicle
they will have 10 children
first trip to the US and Canada; support for the abolition of slavery
meets president J. Tyler at the White House

6.
Oliver Twist, immediate success of his first authobiographical novel (1838)
Nicholas Nickleby (1838 – 39)
The old curiosity shop ( )
Barnaby Rudge (1841)
A Christmas Carol (1843)
Martin Chuzzlewit (1843)

7. short novel which redefined the spirit of Christmas in Britain and US
before that book Xmas was in decline, maybe for a Puritan heritage
Dickens proposes a family-centred festival of generosity in contrast with the Puritan community-based / church-centred religious observation

8. E. Scrooge = an archetypal figure of Western cultural consciousness
W. M. Thackeray called the book: “a national benefit, and to every man and woman who reads it a personal kindness.”

9. distorted and lively caricatures, sometimes fantastic and poetic
Some considerations about Dickens’s REALISM:
humorous & tender in contrast with the gloomy, cynical and overwhelming one that was to prevail later toward the end of the Victorian Age
now lit up by laughter, now warmed by pity 
distorted and lively caricatures, sometimes fantastic and poetic
familiar and popular language
free from being overawed by the lack of classical education

10.
Dickens spends some time in Italy and in Switzerland => Dombey and Son (1846 – 48)
thanks to some donations of a rich woman (Angela Burdett Coutts), he founds “Urania Cottage”, a house to welcome “fallen women” not meant as a punishing institution
he buys Gad’s Hill Place, Kent (1856)
David Copperfield (1849 – 50)
Hard Times (1854)
Bleak House (1852 – 53)
Little Dorrit (1857)

11. (England, Scotland, Ireland, the US)
Dickens starts giving public readings of his works, for his own profit and for charity
(England, Scotland, Ireland, the US)
A tale of two cities (1859)
[historical novel]
Great Expectation (1861)
[novel of formation]

12. The “invisible woman”:
Ellen Ternan
staging the play The Frozen Deep (1857) – written with W. Collins – Dickens falls in love with a young actress, Ellen Ternan
Ellen secretly lives with Dickens for the rest of his life becoming an “invisible woman”
1858: Dickens separates from his wife, unthinkable behaviour for the age

13. Staplehurst railway crash
Staplehurst railway crash
(he never really recovered from this traumatic experience) – 9th June 1865
second US reading tour – meets R. W. Emerson. Promises never to denounce America again
9 th June 1870: 5 years after the railway crash, Dickens dies in his house.
Buried in the Poets’ corner, Westminster Abbey.
1869: 1st light stroke, while giving public reading

14. Dickens as a journalist
also an editor of magazines
all his novels were first published in instalments
in journals and later reprinted
in book form
1836
starts with
“Bentley’s Miscellany”
a literary magazine, he serialized Oliver Twist in it.

15. Advantages of instalments:
made the stories cheap
and so
accessible for anybody
technique of cliff-hanger
made each new episode widely anticipated

16. American fans even waited at the New York docks shouting out at the crew on an incoming ship: “Is Little Nell dead?”
SENTIMENTALISM:
necessary to sell the new instalment
greatly appreciated by Victorian readers
…but not by all of them…
“You need to have a heart of stone, not to laugh at the death of little Nell.” (O. Wilde)
“It is not the death of little Nell, but
the life of little Nell I object to.”
(G. K. Chesterton)

17. Dickens is its FOUNDER and first EDITOR (for 17 years)
The Daily News (1846)
Dickens is its FOUNDER and
first EDITOR (for 17 years)
conceived as a radical rival to
the right-wing Morning Chronicle
G. K. Chesterton
G. B. Shaw
H. G. Wells
were among the leading reformist writers who wrote for the newspaper during its heyday

18. The Daily News:
(a) contributed to women’s suffrage movement
(b) 1901: bought by G. Cadbury (Quacker chocolate manufacturer) and used to campaign:
- for old age pensions
- against sweatshop labour
against the Boer war

19. also editor of it, for a short period
Household Words (1858)
also editor of it, for a short period
then he founded a new weekly magazine – he owned and controlled it entirely
All the Year Around (1859)
[title derived from Shakespeare’s Othello – Act I, sc. 3]
successfully published
A Tale of Two Cities in instalments

20. greater emphasis on literary matters and less on journalism
All the Year Around :
contained the same mixture of fiction and non-fiction as Household Words
greater emphasis on literary matters and less on journalism
nearly 11% of its non-fiction articles were about aspects of INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS & CULTURE
(Dickens’s special care dealing with
the American Civil War)

21. Other topics of All the Year Around :
old tales of crime (Italy and France as favourite setting)
new developments in science (including the theories of Charles Darwin)
lives and struggles of inventors
tales of exploration and adventures in distant places
examples of self-help among the humble people

22. Not only an entartainer but also a REPORTER and a REFORMER
It is said the prison scenes in The Pickwick Papers have the Fleet Prison shut down
K. Marx: “[Dickens and other novelists of Victorian England] issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together.”

23. In the XX century, since the invention of the cinema, there have been at least 180 films and TV adaptations based on Dickens’s works

24. THE END Chronological list of Dickens’s essential works:
Sketches by Boz (1836)
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836 – 37)
Oliver Twist (1837 – 39)
Nicholas Nickleby (1838 – 1839)
The Old curiosity Shop (1840 – 1841)
Barnaby Rudge (1841)
A Christmas Carol (1843)
The Cricket on the Hearth (1843)
Martin Chuzzlewit (1843 – 1844)
Dombey and Son (1846 – 1848)
David Copperfield (1849 – 1850)
Bleak House (1852 – 1853)
Hard Times (1854)
Little Dorrit (1855 – 1857)
A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
Great Expectations (1860 – 1861)
Our Mutual Friend (1864 – 1865)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
THE END