Charles Dickens life
Slides in this set (9)
-
- 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
-
- Oliver Twist,
- A Christmas Carol,
- Nicholas Nickleby,
- David Copperfield,
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Great Expectations.
- Caption: On June 9, 1870, Dickens died, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
