Charles Dickens life

Charles Dickens Biography

• Quick Facts Name
• Charles Dickens
• Occupation
• Author
• Birth Date
• February 7, 1812
• Death Date
• June 9, 1870
• Place of Birth
• Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom
• Place of Death
• Higham, Kent, United Kingdom
• 

Classic Novels

• Oliver Twist,
• A Christmas Carol,
• Nicholas Nickleby,
• David Copperfield,
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Great Expectations.
• 
• Bildunterschrift: On June 9, 1870, Dickens died, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.

Happy boyhood in Kent

• Father posted first to Sheerness, then to Chatham Royal Dockyard, Kent.
• Pleasant, formative boyhood years for Charles. His experiences in
• Chatham and neighbouring Rochester inspired much of his adult work.
• 

London, Prison and the Blacking Factory

• His schooling interrupted when he followed the family to London, his
• father having been recalled there. Put to work in late 1823 at a
• blacking factory, and his father imprisoned for debt in early 1824:
• these humiliations provided a mainspring for his subsequent ambition..
• Left factory in 1823/4, for his final two years of schooling.
• 

Making the most of a modest beginning

• His education over at the age of 15. Employed by a firm of solicitors.
• Made a great impression as a lively character, a skilled mimic, with an
• encyclopaedic knowledge of London. Studied shorthand and was later to
• achieve an exceedingly high standard.
• Started as a freelance reporter of law cases. Admitted as reader at the
• British Museum Library in 1830. Became a parliamentary reporter in 1831.

Fame and dynamic progress as an author

• First short story published in 1833. Continued his success as a
• reporter, joining the The Morning Chronicle in 1834. Married in 1836.
• Later, became household name through the publication in instalments of Pickwick
• Papers, 1836-37. Left The Morning Chronicle in 1836. Editor of new
• magazine, Bentley's Miscellany, from 1837 to 1839. Wrote Oliver Twist,
• Nicholas Nickleby and shorter pieces.
• 

Loss of touch and spectacular recovery

• After completing The Old Curiosity Shop and the much less popular
• Barnaby Rudge in 1841, set off to visit the United States during the
• first half of 1842. On his return, wrote American Notes for General
• Circulation, which was received badly in the USA and lukewarmly in the
• UK. Martin Chuzzlewit, begun at the end of 1842, was not immediately
• popular. Reputation re-established with publication of first Christmas
• story, A Christmas Carol.
• 

Established as publisher/editor/author

• Christmas stories, minor works, visits to France and Italy, amateur
• dramatics and other activities assumed greater importance, but two major
• works completed. Dombey and Son, begun in 1846, and David Copperfield,
• begun in 1849, were more serious and more carefully thought out than
• previous novels.
• Became joint owner and editor of a new weekly journal, Household Words,
• in 1850. Contributed three major works during this period: Bleak House,
• Hard Times and Little Dorrit. Purchased Gad's Hill Place in 1856.
• Separated from his wife in 1858.
• Gave first public readings of his works in 1858. Established in 1859 a
• new weekly journal, All The Year Round, which replaced Household Words.
• Serialisation of A Tale of Two Cities began with first number.
• Contributed two other major works during this period: Great Expectations
• and Our Mutual Friend. Readings assumed greater importance. Involved in
• major rail accident, 1865. Last Christmas story published in 1867.

Final bursts of energy 1870

• With failing health, devoted much of his energy to exhausting reading
• tours, visiting the USA for a second time in 1867/68. Completed nearly
• half of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Died at Gad's Hill on 9 June 1870.
• Buried in Westminster Abbey, London.
•