1. Charles Dickens

2. What can we learn from Dickens and his work?
How can we apply what we learn to our lives today?

3. Family Life Father – John Dickens Mother – Elizabeth Barrow
Father was a Navel clerk
Financially comfortable and then destitute
Parents were sent to a Debtors Prison

4. Dickens’ early years Family imprisoned for debt
Young Charles forced to work in shoe factory:
Warrens Blacking Factory
Mostly self-educated – erratic schooling
In 1827, he took a job as a legal clerk
He then worked as a reporter in courts and in Parliament

5. “Dickens’ greatest friendship was, from the beginning, with his audience.”

6. Married Life and Family
Katherine Hogarth: not a happy woman
9 children
Mistress: Ellen Turner- London Actress
Spent much of his time in London
Not a good family man
Settled down to comfortable, married, middle class life

7. Charles Dickens

8. Early Writing Career
He wrote short humorous sketches with pictures by Boz which became known as Pickwick Papers
Became famous in a short period of time and wildly popular among devoted readers awaiting his next installment
Gave numerous public readings for $$$, worldwide

9. Success as a Novelist Nickolas Nickleby 1839 Oliver Twist 1839
The Old Curiosity Shop 1841
Barnaby Rudge 1841
Martin Chuzzlewitt 1843
Dombey and Son 1849
David Copperfield
Bleak House 1853
Hard Times 1854
Little Dorritt 1857
A Tale of Two Cities 1859
Great Expectations

10. Major Themes in Dickens’ fiction
Loneliness of childhood
Oppression of poverty
Uncertainty of love and marriage
Indifference of social institutions
Sustaining joy of family life
Perseverance and sacrifice in face of untold hardships and injustice
Many autobiographical links between life and writings of Dickens

11. Themes Docks Aristocracy- wealth, rich, land and power
Child labor- Oliver Twist
Family life
Lost love and unattainable women
Dickens’ main characters greatly resemble himself and his life

12. Most famous successful work
A Christmas Carol
Enduring holiday favorite
Amusing elements of supernatural, melodrama, humor, and pathos
Extremely optimistic tale of redemption for Ebeneezer Scrooge, archetypal miser
Remains a sentimental classic

13. Twilight of Dickens’Career
Our Mutual Friend
The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished when
Dickens died suddenly from a stroke in June, 1870
His death was mourned by thousands when he was buried at Westminster Abbey five days after his death

14. “In all of
English literature, his creativity is rivaled only by Shakespeare's.”

15. The Victorian Period Queen Victoria 1819-1901
At the age of 18 Victoria inherited the throne, she reigned for 64 years
“The sun never sets on the Queen’s empire”
the power and influence of Britain around the world
She died a lonely ruler

16. The Industrial Revolution
Villagers moved to the cities = factories = jobs= smoke= pollution
= backbreaking labor= death vs. luxury side by side with poverty
“It was the best of time; it was the worst of times.
Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities

17. London and the Times

18. Dickens and Christmas The first Christmas Card, Tree and Holiday Traditions

19. A sad ending
Dickens, who had been in declining health since 1866, died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
He is buried in the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey in London

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