Charles Dickens Essay, Research Paper

In 1812, one of the greatest writers of all time, according to many, was born to

the name of Charles John Huffman Dickens. Charles Dickens’ family was not well

to do, and was a lower-middle class family with eight children, Charles being

the second. He had a painful personal life from growing up all the way until his

later years, which was mostly due to the fact of being poor. Dickens, however,

brought himself financial success in his later years. Charles Dickens wrote all

kinds of literary works in the form of short stories and novels. He also had

many great classics. Dickens is thought by many to be the greatest English

novelist ever to have written a book. Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth,

England on February 7, 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens. When he was two years

old, he and his family moved to London where Charles went to school. When he was

twelve, he was taken out of school and sent to work in a London factory pasting

labels on bottles of shoe polish for a mere six shillings per week, paying for

part of the debt of the family. This job lasted only a few months, but for

Dickens, it felt like an eternity. Until he was fifteen, he attended school off

and on, and then dropped out. In 1934, after studying shorthand for 18 months,

Dickens got a job as a newspaper reporter for the Evening Chronicle. Two years

later, Dickens had his first work published named Sketches by Boz, which

consisted of his works from the Evening Chronicle and Monthly Magazine. The 24

year old Charles Dickens then married Catherine Hogarth. Later that year, and

clear through the next, Dickens had monthly writings, The Pickwick Papers, which

brought his name to be commonplace in English households. After many writings,

and ten children, in 1854, Catherin and Charles Dickens separated, and Charles

continued to write novels and stories. On June 9, 1870, he died of a stroke half

way through writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens wrote a total of 20

novels, and many other nonfiction books, his first being Sketches by Boz. His

second (The Pickcick Papers) brought him great fame. Oliver Twist was another

monthly writing (1837-1839). He then made Nicholas Nickleby which was about

schools and teachers who taught nothing and treated students poorly. All of

these books were great successes, until he then made The Old Curiosity Shop,

which is not very well respected. Dickens then wrote two nonfiction books one

Barnaby Rudge, the other Martin Chuzlewit. He had many other writings, including

many novels and his 5 Christmas stories, one being A Christmas Carol. After the

Christmas stories, he wrote other work such as The Chimes, The Battle of Life,

The Haunted Man, The Cricket on the Hearth, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield,

Bleak House, Hard Times, and many others. These books took him from 1837-1848.

The works Dickens made later in his life would turn out to be some of his best.

Some of Charles Dickens’ bests include A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities,

and Great Expectations. A Christmas Carol takes place in 19th century England

and it shows how Dickens hated greed. Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy workaholic, is

visited by three ghosts, and learns the error of his ways by becoming a warm,

caring man. A Tale of Two Cities tells about the rulers in England and of how

the French Revolution had an effect on them. This book was written in weekly

installments in 1859. Great Expectations was, without a doubt, the most popular

out of all of his works, and has stood the test of time. This book tells of a

boy named Pip (in all his snobbishness) and how he lives based on his values of

social standing and possessions. Charles Dickens was one of the major influences

in English Literature today. He wrote many novels and stories that continue to

impress us still today. Since Dickens took is real life situations and

transformed them into writings, many of his books were like autobiographies.

Dickens had a hard life, but he made a huge impact on modern society. Some of

the best tales came from him and his writing style will never be matched. The

stories of Charles Dickens will continue to live on in our society forever.