Charles Dickens Essay, Research Paper

Charles Dickens

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.