Charles Dickens Biography

Charles Dickens Biography

1. CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) Complementos para la formación disciplinar en Lengua Inglesa Jessica González

2. “Despite the many years that have passed, Charles Dickens remains one of the greatest writers of the English language, who used his creative genius to campaign passionately for social justice”. Prince of Wales

3. CHILDHOOD Dickens was born on 7 th February 1812 in Portsmouth. He spent the first ten years of his life in Kent . Charles was the second of eight children.

4. HIS PARENTS His mother, Elizabeth Barrow, had been in service to Lord Crew although she aspired to be a teacher and school director. His father, inspiration for the character of Mr Micawber in 'David Copperfield', worked as a clerk for the Naval Pay office.

5. In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town. John Dickens was imprisoned for debt in 1824, when Charles was just twelve years old . Dickens’s mother moved into the prison with seven of her children.

6. Only Charles lived outside the prison in order to earn money for the struggling family. He worked with other children pasting labels on bottles in a blacking warehouse where he endured appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair .

7. Dickens was permitted to go back to school when his father received a family inheritance and used it to pay off his debts, but the experience was never forgotten and became fictionalized in two of his better-known novels 'David Copperfield' and 'Great Expectations'.

8. As a young boy, Charles Dickens was exposed to many artistic and literary works that allowed his imagination to grow and develop considerably. He was greatly influenced by the stories his nursemaid used to tell him and by his many visits to the theater.

9. Additionally, Dickens loved to read. Among his favorite works were  Don Quijote  by Miguel de Cervantes, Tome Jones by Henry Fielding, and Arabian Nights .  

10. ADOLESCENCE Although he had little formal schooling, Dickens was able to teach himself shorthand and launch a career as a journalist.

11. At the age of sixteen, Dickens got himself a job as a court reporter, his own father became a reporter, and shortly thereafter he joined the staff of  A Mirror of Parliament , a newspaper that reported on the decisions of Parliament.

12. During this time Charles continued to read voraciously at the British Library, and he experimented with acting and stage-managing amateur theatricals.

13. Fast becoming disillusioned with politics, Dickens developed an interest in social reform and began contributing to the  True Sun , a radical newspaper because he fast became disillusioned with politics .

14. YOUTH Then in 1833 he became parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. With new contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym ' Boz '.

15. In 1836 Dickens also married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of a fellow co-worker at his newspaper. The couple had ten children before their separation in 1858.

16. His travels abroad in the 1840s, first to America and then through Europe, marked the beginning of a new stage in Dickens’ life.

17. LATER YEARS His writings became longer and more serious. As well as a huge list of novels he published autobiography, edited weekly periodicals including 'Household Words' and 'All Year Round', wrote travel books and administered charitable organizations.

18. He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed before Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad.

19. He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the birth of their ten children, but maintained relations with his mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan .

20. Dickens’ health began to deteriorate in the 1860s. In 1858, in response to his increasing fame, he had begun public readings of his works. These exacted a great physical toll on him. An immensely profitable but physically shattering series of readings in America in 1867-68 sped his decline.

21. He died of a stroke in 1870. He is buried at Westminster Abbey.

22. BIBLIOGRAPHY “ The Routledge History of Literature in English ” , Ronald Carter and John McRae. Britain and Ireland , 1.997. Santiago de Compostela (USC) Notes given by Manuel Barbeito , Margarita Estévez and Laura Lojo . http :// www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/dickens_charles.shtml http:// www.dickens-online.info/charles-dickens-biography.htm http:// www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/context.html