kids encyclopedia robot

Charles Dickens facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Charles Dickens
Dickens Gurney head.jpg
Born Charles John Huffam Dickens
(1812-02-07)February 7, 1812
Landport, Portsmouth, England
Died June 9, 1870(1870-06-09) (aged 58)
Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England
Resting place Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey
Occupation Novelist
Notable works Sketches by Boz, The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Barnaby Rudge, A Christmas Carol, Martin Chuzzlewit, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Hard Times, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers

Signature

Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters. Many believe he is the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works were quite popular during his lifetime, and by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still read by many today. A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities are his most famous works.

Even though he did not have a formal education, he wrote many different kinds of works. He wrote 15 novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles. He lectured and performed many readings. He was an active letter writer and edited a weekly journal for 20 years. He also battled for children's rights, education, and other social changes.

Twist serialcover
Cover of Dickens serial, "Oliver Twist" 1846

Dickens has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell, G. K. Chesterton and Tom Wolfe—for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterizations, and social criticism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is like that of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.

Dickens-at-the-Blacking-Warehouse
Illustration of Dickens at work in a shoe-blacking factory 1892

Early life

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England. His parents were John Dickens (1785-1851), a naval pay clerk, and Elizabeth Barrow (1789-1863).

When Charles was ten years old, his family moved to Camden, London. He worked in a blacking (shoe polish) factory there while his father was in prison for debt. Charles's hard times in the factory gave him ideas for many of his novels. When Charles's grandmother died, Charles' father paid off his debts and was released from prison. Charles then finished his schooling and got a job as an office boy for an attorney. He found that job boring, so he taught himself shorthand and became a journalist that reported on the government. Dickens was a Unitarian.

Journalism and early novels

Portrait of Charles John Huffman Dickens (crop)
Portrait of Charles John Huffman Dickens 1843

In 1832, at age 20, Dickens knew that he wanted to be famous, but did not know exactly what he wanted to do. In 1833, he submitted his first story, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk," to the London periodical Monthly Magazine. He worked as a political journalist, reporting on Parliamentary debates, and he traveled across Britain to write for the Morning Chronicle.

In January 1835, the Morning Chronicle began an evening edition called the Evening Chronicle. They hired the Chronicle's music critic, George Hogarth, to edit this edition. Hogarth invited Dickens to contribute Street Sketches. Dickens began visiting Hogarth at his home regularly and enjoyed the company of Hogarth's three daughters— Georgina, Mary, and nineteen-year-old Catherine, whom he would later marry.

Certosa Bologna lapide Dickens
Plaque with Dicken's writings, dedicated to his visit to the Certosa di Bologna, Italy

Sketches by Boz got the attention of the publishers Chapman and Hall, who asked Dickens to write stories to go with engraved illustrations (pictures) in a monthly letterpress. In 1836, the story turned into The Pickwick Papers. The first few episodes were not successful, but the story became popular after Sam Weller was introduced. Within a few years, Dickens had become famous in more than just England, known for his humor, satire, and clever comments on character and society.

In November 1836, Charles accepted the position of editor of Bentley's Miscellany, a position he held for three years. In 1836, as he finished the last installments of The Pickwick Papers, he began writing the beginning installments of Oliver Twist—writing as many as 90 pages a month—while continuing work on Bentley's. During this time, he also wrote four plays and oversaw their production. Oliver Twist, published in 1838, became one of Dickens's better-known stories and was the first Victorian novel with a child protagonist. His books, most published in monthly or weekly installments (parts), began the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the main way novels were published in England during this time. The audience greatly looked forward to each next installment.

His success as a novelist continued. The young Queen Victoria read both Oliver Twist and Pickwick, staying up until midnight to discuss them. Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–41), and, finally, his first historical novel, Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty, as part of the Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840–41), were all published in monthly installments before being made into books.

First visit to the United States

Charles Dickens c1860
Charles Dickens c1860

In 1842, Charles and his wife Catherine made their first trip to the United States and Canada. At this time, Georgina Hogarth, sister of Catherine, joined the Dickens household, She lived at Devonshire Terrace, Marylebone, to care for the young family that her sister and brother-in-law had left behind. Georgina remained with them as a housekeeper, organizer, advisor, and friend until Dickens died in 1870.

Charles described his visit in a travelogue called American Notes for General Circulation, or Notes. In Notes, Dickens attacked slavery, which he had done in The Pickwick Papers as well. He recalled that, although he made quite a bit of money, he did not particularly enjoy his trip to America. During his trip, Dickens traveled to many of the northeastern states and Canada, where he lectured and appeared in stage comedies.

Return to England

A Christmas Carol frontpiece
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 1843

Soon after his return to England, Dickens began working on the first of his Christmas stories, A Christmas Carol, written in 1843. He wrote two more Christmas-themed books, The Chimes in 1844 and The Cricket on the Hearth in 1845, but A Christmas Carol was his most famous. It helped encourage excitement for the joys of Christmas in both Britain and America.

Dickens lived in Italy for a short time (1844) and traveled to Switzerland. It was there that he began his more serious and carefully planned works: Dombey and Son and David Copperfield.

In June 1862, Charles was offered £10,000 (over $13,000) for a reading tour of Australia. Although he was excited, he decided against the tour. Two of his sons, however, Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens and Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, migrated to Australia. Edward became a member of the Parliament of New South Wales between 1889 and 1894.

Second visit to the United States

Buying tickets for a Charles Dickens reading at Steinway Hall, New York, New York, 1867
Crowd of spectators buying tickets for a Dickens reading at Steinway Hall, New York City in 1867

Charles wanted to return to the United States sooner than he was able. The outbreak of the Civil War in America in 1861 postponed his plans. Dickens arrived in America on November 9, 1867, and spent the rest of the month attending fancy dinner parties with famous people such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and his American publisher, James Thomas Fields.

In early December, Dickens began his reading tour. He performed 76 readings, making £19,000 (over $26,000), from December 1867 to April 1868. Charles traveled between Boston and New York, where he gave 22 readings at Steinway Hall. Although he had started to suffer from what he called the "true American catarrh," he kept to a busy schedule, even managing to squeeze in some sleighing in Central Park.

During his travels, Dickens said that he saw a change in the people and the circumstances of America. During his final American appearance at a banquet the American Press held in his honor at Delmonico's on April 18, he publicly stated that he was sorry for speaking negatively about America. On April 23, he boarded the Cunard liner Russia to return to Britain.

Last years

On May 2, Dickens made his last public appearance at a Royal Academy Banquet in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales. He paid a special tribute on the death of his friend, the illustrator Daniel Maclise.

Staplehurst rail crash
After the Staplehurst rail crash

On June 9, 1865, while returning from Paris, Charles was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash. The train's first seven carriages fell off a cast iron bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was traveling. Before rescuers arrived, Dickens tended to and comforted the wounded and the dying with a flask of brandy and a hat refreshed with water. He was able to save some lives. Dickens later used this experience as material for his short ghost story, "The Signal-Man," in which the main character has a premonition of his death in a rail crash.

Characters

Charles Dickens characters
Dickens's characters

Charles Dickens is thought of by many as the greatest creator of character in English fiction after Shakespeare. Dickensian characters are among the most memorable in English literature, especially because of their playful names.

Characters such as Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Pip, Miss Havisham, Sydney Carton, Charles Darnay, David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Abel Magwitch, Daniel Quilp, Samuel Pickwick, Wackford Squeers, and Uriah Heep are so well-known that they are thought to be part of British culture.

Marriage

Catherine Dickens
Catherine Hogarth Dickens by Samuel Lawrence 1838

On April 2, 1836, after a one-year engagement, Charles married Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1816–1879), the daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the Evening Chronicle.

They were married in St. Luke's Church in Chelsea, London. After a brief honeymoon in Chalk, Kent, the couple returned to lodgings at Furnival's Inn. The first of their ten children, Charley, was born in January 1837, and a few months later the family set up their home in Bloomsbury at 48 Doughty Street, London.

In 1858, they divorced. When Catherine left, she took one child with her and left the other children to be raised by her sister Georgina. Catherine never saw Charles again.

Death

Charles Dickens Death Certificate
Death certificate of Charles Dickens

On June 8, 1870, Dickens suffered a stroke at his home after a full day's work. He never regained consciousness, and the next day, five years to the day after the Staplehurst rail crash, he died at Gads Hill Place. Dickens wished to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive and strictly private manner," but because of his fame, he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.

In his will, drafted more than a year before his death, Dickens left the care of his £80,000 (over $110,000) estate to his longtime colleague John Forster and his "best and truest friend" Georgina Hogarth who, along with Dickens's two sons, also received a tax-free sum of £8,000. This equals about £800,000 (over $1 million) in present terms. Although Dickens and his wife had been separated for several years at the time of his death, he provided her with an annual (yearly) income of £600 (about $830, or over $80,000 today) and made her similar allowances in his will.

Legacy

Charles Dickens Museum London
Dickens Museum, situated in a former Dickens House, 48 Doughty Street, London
Charles Dickens by James and Thomas Bevington, Staffordshire, 1870, porcelain - Château Ramezay - Montreal, Canada - DSC07564
Charles Dickens Exhibit in the Château Ramezay - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Birmingham History Galleries - Birmingham its people, its history - Forward - Charles Dickens (8165266047)
Birmingham History Galleries - Charles Dickens

The legacy of Charles Dickens continues to live in both England and America:

  • The Charles Dickens Museum in London, the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum in Portsmouth, and Victoria and Albert Museum are museums that chronicle his life.
  • Statues of Dickens include Dickens and Little Nell, which stands in Clark Park in the Spruce Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Charles Dickens statue in Centennial Park, Sydney, Australia; and a life-sized statue of Dickens near his birthplace.
  • Dickens was honored on the Series E £10 note issued by the Bank of England that circulated between 1992 and 2003. His portrait appeared on the reverse of the note along with a scene from The Pickwick Papers.
  • The Charles Dickens School is a high school in Broadstairs, Kent.
  • Dickens World, a theme park, stands in part on the site of the former naval dockyard where Dickens's father once worked in the Navy Pay Office.
  • In 2002, Dickens was number 41 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
  • In the UK survey The Big Read, carried out by the BBC in 2003, five of Dickens's books were named in the Top 100.
  • Dickens and his publications have appeared on several postage stamps.
  • To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens in 2012, the Museum of London held the UK's first major exhibition on the author in 40 years.
  • In November 2018, it was reported that a previously lost portrait of a 31-year-old Dickens, by Margaret Gillies, had been found in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

Charles Dickens quotes

  • “Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.”
  • “A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.”
  • “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
  • “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
  • “The most important thing in life is to stop saying, ‘I wish’ and start saying, ‘I will.’ Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.”
  • “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.”
  • “Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.”

Interesting facts about Charles Dickens

  • Charles Dickens' pseudonym, "Boz," was a name that he called his brother when he was young.
  • Little Red Riding Hood was Dickens's first muse.
  • Charles' wife wrote a book under the pseudonym "Lady Maria Clutterbuck" entitled What Shall we Have for Dinner?
  • Charles loved to invent nicknames for his children and himself, including "Flaster Floby" or the "Snodgering Blee"

(Charley), "Mild Glo’ster" (Mamie), "Lucifer Box" (Katey), "Young Skull" (Walter), "The Ocean Spectre" (Sydney), and "Skittles" (Alfred).

  • It is speculated that Charles may have had epilepsy.
  • Dickens used "cliffhangers" at the end of chapters when he wrote his novels. They were originally written in installments, and to keep readers buying the next chapters, he would conclude each chapter at an unresolved point in the story.
  • Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities is one of the first times that potato chips are mentioned in literature.
  • Charles Dickens began a rehabilitation home for homeless women.
  • Charles owned pet ravens.
  • When his pet cat Bob died, Dickens had its paw stuffed and attached to a letter opener.

Books

Dickens published well over a dozen major novels and novellas; a large number of short stories, including several Christmas-themed stories; a handful of plays; and several non-fiction books. Dickens's novels were initially organized in weekly and monthly magazines, then reprinted in standard book formats.

Pickwickclub serial
Pickwickclub serial 1836
Scrooges third visitor-John Leech,1843
"The Ghost of Christmas Present" from the original edition of "A Christmas Carol," 1843
  • The Pickwick Papers (The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club; monthly serial, April 1836 to November 1837)
  • Oliver Twist (The Adventures of Oliver Twist; monthly serial in Bentley's Miscellany, February 1837 to April 1839)
  • Nicholas Nickleby (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby; monthly serial, April 1838 to October 1839)
  • The Old Curiosity Shop (weekly serial in Master Humphrey's Clock, April 1840 to November 1841)
  • Barnaby Rudge (Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty; weekly serial in Master Humphrey's Clock, February to November 1841)
  • A Christmas Carol (A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being a Ghost-story of Christmas, 1843)
  • Martin Chuzzlewit (The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit; monthly serial, January 1843 to July 1844)
  • The Chimes (The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, 1844)
  • The Cricket on the Hearth (The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home, 1845)
  • Dombey and Son (Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation; monthly serial, October 1846 to April 1848)
  • The Haunted Man (The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas-time, 1848)
  • David Copperfield (The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery; monthly serial, May 1849 to November 1850)
  • Bleak House (monthly serial, March 1852 to September 1853)
  • Hard Times (Hard Times: For These Times; weekly serial in Household Words, April 1, 1854 to August 12, 1854)
  • Little Dorrit (monthly serial, December 1855 to June 1857)
  • A Tale of Two Cities (weekly serial in All the Year Round, April 30, 1859, to November 26, 1859)
  • Great Expectations (weekly serial in All the Year Round, December 1, 1860 to August 3, 1861)
  • Our Mutual Friend (monthly serial, May 1864 to November 1865)
  • The Signal-Man (1866), first published as part of the Mugby Junction collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round.
  • Edwin Drood (The Mystery of Edwin Drood; monthly serial, April 1870 to September 1870), left unfinished due to Dickens's death

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Charles Dickens para niños

kids search engine
Charles Dickens Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.