Charles Dickens is, without a doubt, the most popular English writer of the 19th century, who gained great love of readers during his lifetime. He rightfully takes a leading place among the classics of world literature.
A family
Charles Dickens, a brief biography of which is presented in this article, was born in 1812 in Landport. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles was the second child of eight children in the family.
His father worked at the Royal Navy's naval base, but was not a hard worker, but an officer. In 1815 he was transferred to London, where he moved with his whole family. However, they did not live long in the capital. Two years later, Chatham was waiting for them.
Due to unnecessary expenses inconsistent with family affluence, John Dickens went to a debt prison in 1824, where he was joined by his wife and children on weekends. He was incredibly lucky, because after a few months he received an inheritance and was able to pay debts.
John was given a pension in the Admiralty and, in addition, the salary of a reporter, whom he earned in a newspaper.
Childhood and youth
Charles Dickens, whose biography is interesting to literature lovers, attended school in Chatham. Because of his father, he had to go to work early. It was a vaccine factory where the boy was paid six shillings per week.
After his father left prison, Charles remained in his service at the insistence of his mother. In addition, he began to attend the Wellington Academy, which he graduated in 1827.
In May of that year, Charles Dickens got a job as a junior clerk in a law office, and after a year and a half, having mastered the shorthand order, he began working as a free reporter.
In 1830 he was invited to the Moning Chronicle.
Carier start
The audience immediately accepted the novice reporter. His notes attracted the attention of many.
In 1836, the first literary experiments of the writer were published - the descriptive "Essays of Bose."
Basically he wrote about the petty bourgeoisie, its interests and state of affairs, painted literary portraits of Londoners and psychological sketches.
I must say that Charles Dickens, whose brief biography does not allow to cover all the details of his life, began to print his novels in newspapers in separate chapters.
"Posthumous Notes of the Pickwick Club"
The novel began to be published in 1836. As new chapters appeared, the reader's readership only grew.
In this book, Charles Dickens shows old England from various angles. The focus is on the good-natured eccentric Mr. Pickwick, whose name eventually became a household name.
Club members travel across England and observe the temperaments of different people, often themselves getting into ridiculous and ridiculous situations.
Creating a novel is a separate most interesting chapter. Dickens received an offer once a month to compose a short story, corresponding to one of the engravings of the artist Robert Seymour. Everyone discouraged the writer from this venture, but he seemed to feel that he was creating something great.
Seymour's imminent suicide changed everything. Editors had to find a new artist. They became Fiz, who later was an illustrator of many works of Dickens. Now, not a writer, but an artist is in the background, drawing pictures that match the text.
The novel made an incredible sensation. The names of the heroes immediately began to call dogs, give nicknames, wear hats and umbrellas like Pickwick.
Other works
Charles Dickens, whose biography is known to every resident of Misty Albion, made all of England laugh. But this served as an aid to him in solving more serious problems.
His next work was the novel "The Life and Adventures of Oliver Twist." It is difficult now to imagine a person who does not know the story of Oliver's orphan from the London slums.
Charles Dickens portrayed a broad social picture in his novel, addressing the problem of work houses and showing the life of the wealthy bourgeois as a counterweight.
In 1843, the Christmas Carol came out, which became one of the most popular and widely read stories about this magical holiday.
In 1848, the novel "Dombey and Son" was published, called the best in the writer's work.
His next work is "David Copperfield." To some extent, the novel is autobiographical. Dickens brings to the work a spirit of protest against capitalist England, the old foundations of morality.
Charles Dickens, whose works are obligatory present on the shelf of every Englishman, has written exclusively social novels in recent years. For example, "Hard times." The historical work The Tale of Two Cities allowed the writer to express his thoughts on the French Revolution.
The novel "Our mutual friend" attracts with its versatility, in it the writer takes a break from social topics. And it is here that his manner of writing changes. She continues to transform in the following works of the author, unfortunately, not finished.
The life of Charles Dickens was extraordinary. The writer died in 1870 from a stroke.
Interesting Facts
Dickens assured that he sees and hears the characters of his works. They, in turn, constantly get confused under their feet, do not want the writer to do anything other than them.
Charles very often fell into a trance, which his comrades repeatedly noticed. He was constantly haunted by a sense of deja vu.
Since 1836, the writer was married to Katherine Hogarth. The spouses had eight children. From the side, their marriage seemed happy, but Dickens was depressed by ridiculous quarrels with his wife, worries about painful children.
In 1857, he fell in love with actress Ellen Ternan, whom he met until his death. Of course, this was a secret relationship. Contemporaries called Ellen "an invisible woman."