   Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. John Dickens was a clerk in the Naval Pay Office. He had a poor head for finances, and in 1824 found himself imprisoned for debt. His wife and children, with the exception of Charles, who was put to work at Warren's Blacking Factory, joined him in the Marshalsea Prison. Many of the experiences that Dickens faced during his childhood were put to use in many of his books such as Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. At the age of 15 he found a job as a office boy at an attorney’s office, and did short hand studies at night. In 1829 he became a free-lance reporter at Doctor's Commons Courts, and in 1830 he met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker. By 1832 he had become a very successful shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons, and began work as a reporter for a newspaper. Yet, his relations with Maria soon ended because of her parent’s dislike for him. However, later of in 1836 Dickens’s work was published into a collection of writings called Sketches of Boz, also that same year he began to publish his first novel, Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, which was very loosely organized, but made him famous. Yet, as he began to write he soon found a way to think farther on into his writing, and make intricate plots out of his books. Soon on Dickens published such books as Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop. His expand in his writing career, soon coincided with his family life when he married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of a magazine editor. His career still managed to go and he soon began speeking in public and giving lectures on abolition of slavery. David Copperfield, which was somewhat of an autobiography, The Christmas Carol, and The Tale of Two Cities, were all books that followed later in his career. Yet, many critics followed Great Expectations as Dickens’s greatest novel. In the last decade of his life, Dickens was producing a mystery noel entitled The Mystery of Edwin Drood, yet before he could unveil the suspense, Dickens soon died very suddenly. A great leader in the literary world, Dickens was honored and buried in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. |