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Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) Date of Birth: 7 February 1812 The best known, and arguably the best, of the English novelists of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens was born in Landport, Hampshire, very near to the south coast naval port of Portsmouth where his father John was a clerk in the navy pay office. Dickens' early life was marked by a certain poverty - although his father was well paid by the service, he seemed to have difficulty in managing the family accounts and was frequently in financial trouble. At the age of two, Dickens was taken briefly by his family to London before the Dickens' relocated to Chatham in Kent where the young Dickens began his education. He was a specially favoured pupil of the schoolmaster William Giles whose encouragement got Dickens' academic career off to a flying start. But at the age of just 12, his father's financial difficulties overcame him and he was sent to Marshalea debtor's prison and Dickens was packed off to a blacking factory in Hungerford Market, London where he worked for several months. He was rescued only when his grandmother died at the age of 79 and his father was able to pay off his £40 debt. Dickens quickly picked up his studies and spent three years studying at Wellington House Academy in London before moving on to finish his studies at Mr Dawson's school in 1827. Following the end of his formal education, he spent a year working as a law office clerk in Grays Inn, near Chancery Lane, and as a shorthand reporter at Doctor's Commons. Still a keen student at the age of 18, Dickens took out a reader's ticket at the British Museum and voraciously consumed anything he could find there - Shakespeare, history, politics, current affairs - while continuing to impress his employers with his fast and accurate shorthand. He was soon earning a steady income and his attentions turned to writing, beginning with pieces published in Monthly Magazine and The Evening Chronicle and he was later employed to edit Bentley's Miscellany. In 1833, he turned to writing fiction with a series of short stories and he was a prolific essayist. Throughout this period, Dickens had been courting Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker, and they had been together for four years. But the relationship broke down in 1833 and in 1837, Dickens married Catherine Hogart, the daughter of his close friend George Hogart, the first editor of The Evening Chronicle. Together they had 10 children, 9 of which survived, though the marriage failed in 1858. It has been suggested by some Dickensians that Dickens was secretly in love with Catherine's sister Mary, who had moved in with the family and who had died in Dickens' arms in 1837 at the age of just 17. Dickens was to immortalise her in print when he used her as the basis for Dora Copperfield. Dickens seemed set on working his way through the Hogart sisters and later fell in love with a third sister, Georgiana. In the meantime, Dickens continued his rise as a successful popular novelist. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers (written under the pseudonym Boz and serialised in Monthly Magazine from April 1836 to November 1837), was his first success, mainly because at 1 shilling an installment, it was affordable to many Londoners who would otherwise have missed out. His subsequent work continued to be published in monthly episodes and increasingly hinted at Dickens' growing sense of outrage at the social injustices he had experienced in the city. Oliver Twist (1837 - 1839), for example, featured the eponymous young hero's terrible experiences in the workhouse and his struggles to reclaim his rightful inheritance. In 1843, Dickens self-published his most popular and enduring work, A Christmas Carol, which has been filmed dozens of times since the silent era and continues to be attractive to film-makers, though curiously it made Dickens very little money - it was successful but because Dickens insisted that the book be made available at an affordable 5 shillings, he was unable to recoup his losses. Six years later, he presented his most autobiographical work, David Copperfield, which drew in part on his experiences in the blacking factory, an episode he rarely mentioned in adult life. This was followed in 1860 by his masterpiece, the outstanding Great Expectations which remains one of the greatest achievements in English literature. Dickens was also busy as a journalist, helping to found many publications, including Master Humphrey's Cloak and All The Year Round, as well as editing the popular and influential London Daily News. As well as exposing many of the social ills that he saw around him, Dickens was an ardent campaingner for the rights of the common man, penning hundreds of essays and pamphlets on all manner of subjects close to his heart. In 1844, Dickens moved to Europe for a year, spending some time in Italy, Switzerland and Paris before settling in Gadshill Place, near Rochester in Kent where he lived happily with with his two daughters and his sister-in-law. He was now also in demand as a lecturer and toured both Britain and the United States for 10 years. But his health was beginning to fail him and by the time he returned to Kent at the end of his last US tour, he was in very poor shape. He was unable to take in solid food and was living on a bizarre diet of champagne and eggs beaten in sherry. But he remained working to the very end - inspired by a visit to an opium den in Shadwell, he began work on what would be his final, unfinished work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. In April 1869, while on another lecture tour, he collapsed in Preston and was rushed back to Kent, his doctors forbiding him from making any further public appearances. Charkes Dickens died on 8 June 1870 from the effects of a stroke. The Mystery of Edwin Drood had only got as far as 6 of the 12 chapters that Dickens had planned and no-one ever found out what Dickens had in mind for the conclusion, though at least three screen adaptations have tried to offer their own conclusions. Dickens had characteristically wanted a modest farewell, but such was his fame that following a private funeral service in Westminster Abbey in London, mourners filed past his body for three days before his coffin was finally sealed. The influence of Charles Dickens is still being felt today - some have
noted that the enduring popularity of A Christmas Carol has
had a major effect on the way that we currently celebrate Christmas,
particularly in the UK. His work has long been popular with film and
television producers and there seems little likelihood that we've seen
the last of Charles Dickens on either the big or small screens. * = television 1901 1904 1908 1909 1910 Old Scrooge (novel (A Christmas Carol)) 1912 1913 1914 The Chimes (short story) A Christmas Carol (short story) The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished novel) 1915 1916 1922 Tense Moments with Great Authors (novels) 1923 1928 1935 Scrooge (novel (A Christmas Carol)) 1938 1940 1943 1947 Leyenda de Navidad (novel (A Christmas Carol)) 1948 1949 1950 1951 Scrooge
(novel (A Christmas Carol)) 1952 Suspense: The Mystery of Edwin Drood Part 2 (unfinished novel) * 1953 General Electric Theater: The Trail to Christmas (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * Non
è mai troppo tardi (novel (A Christmas Carol)) Suspense: The Signal Man (short story) * 1954 1955 Celebrity Spot: 25 December 1955 (short story (The Signalman)) * 1960 Ein Weihnachtslied in Prosa oder Eine Geistergeschichte zum Christfest (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * 1962 1963 1964 Mr Scrooge (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * 1969 1970 1971 1973 Omnibus: Marcel Marceau Presents A Christmas Carol * 1976 1977 1978 The Stingiest Man in Town (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * 1979 A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre (novel) * Skinflint: A Country Christmas Carol (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * 1980 1981 1982 A Christmas Carol (novel) * Oliver Twist (novel) * 1983 Great Expectations (novel) Mickey's
Christmas Carol (novel (A Christmas Carol)) 1984 A Christmas
Carol (novel) * 1985 The Jetsons Christmas Carol (novel (A Christmas Carol - uncredited)) * 1988 Oliver
and Company (novel (Oliver Twist)) Scrooged
(novel (A Christmas Carol)) 1990 1992 1993 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (novel) 1994 A Christmas Carol (novel) * A Flintstones Christmas Carol (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * 1995 1997 Ebenezer
(novel (A Christmas Carol)) * Ms Scrooge
(novel (A Christmas Carol)) * Scrooge Koala's Christmas (characters (A Christmas Carol - uncredited)) 1999 Timeless (novel (A Christmas Carol)) 2000 Christmas Glory 2000 (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * A Diva's Christmas Carol (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * 2001 Scrooge and Marley (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * 2004 Eastenders Christmas Party (23 December 2004) (novel (A Christmas Carol)) * 1897 1898 1903 1907 1909 Oliver Twist (novel) 1911 David Copperfield (novel) The Old Curiosity Shop (story) A Tale of Two Cities (novel) 1912 Mrs Lirriper's Lodgers (story) Nicholas Nickleby (novel) The Old Curiosity Shop (novel) Oliver Twist (novel) Oliver Twist (novel) 1913 David Copperfield (novel) Horatio Sparkins (story) The Old Curiosity Shop (novel) The Pickwick Papers Part 1: The Honorable Event (novel) The Pickwick Papers Part 2: The Adventure of Westgate Seminary (novel) The Pickwick Papers Part 3: The Adventure of the Shooting Party (novel) 1915 Hard Times (novel) Sverchok na pechi (story) 1916 1917 Great Expectations (novel) A Tale of Two Cities (novel) 1918 1920 Little Dorrit (novel) 1921 The Old Curiosity Shop (novel) Oliver Twist Jr (novel) 1922 David Copperfield (novel) Fagin (novel (Oliver Twist)) Nancy (novel (Oliver Twist)) Oliver Twist (novel) A Tale of Two Cities (novel) Tense Moments from Great Plays (novel (Bleak House)) 1925 1931 1933 1934 Klein Dorrit (novel (Little Dorrit)) The Old Curiosity Shop (novel) 1935 A Tale of Two Cities (novel) 1946 1947 1948 1949 1952 1955 Oliver Twist (novel) * 1956 1958 A Tale of Two Cities (novel) 1959 Os Irmãos Dombey (novel (Dombey and Son)) * 1960 1961 La petite Dorrit (novel) * 1962 1964 1965 1966 1967 Great Expectations (novel) * 1968 1969 1971 1972 1974 Great Expectations (novel) * 1975 1976 1977 Nicholas Nickleby (novel) * 1980 1981 1982 Oliver Twist (novel) * 1983 1984 1985 Oliver Twist (novel) * 1987 1988 Tempos Difíceis (novel) 1989 A Tale of Two Cities (novel) * 1991 1994 Martin Chuzzlewit (novel) * 1995 1997 1998 Our Mutual Friend (novel) * 1999 Great Expectations (novel) * Oliver Twist (novel) * 2000 2001 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (novel)
* 2002 2005
Last Updated: 21 March, 2009
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