CHARLES
DICKENS...
Charles Dickens was one of the most
popular writers of all times. He created some of the world’s most popular and well-known
characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian age.
He was born in Portsmouth in England on
7th February 1812. Dickens was the 2nd son of among his
eight children. His father John Dickens was a naval clerk and his mother Elizabeth
Barrow aspired to be a teacher. Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family
remained poor. In 1832, his family moved to Camden town, a poor neighbourhood
in London. By then the family’s financial situation had grown direct, as his
father had a bad habit of living beyond the means of the family.
Eventually John Dickens was sent to
prison for debt in 1824. At that time Dickens was only 12 years old. He was
forced to leave school and work to fulfil the needs of his family. He worked in
a boot-blacking factory alongside of the river Thames. His early childhood
experiences were much like those depicted in the English novel ‘David Copperfield. ‘ He felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults
who were supposed to take care of him. These sentiments later became a
recurring theme in his writings.
Although Dickens received little formal education,
he taught to himself and became a reporter of parliamentary debates for the
morning chronicle. He began to publish sketches in various periodicals which
were subsequently re-published as sketches by Boz. Then Dickens started
publishing the posthumous papers of Pickwick club which became widely popular
among the readers.
Dickens published Oliver Twist in 1837.
It follows the life of an orphan living in the streets. Oliver Twist, the
eponymous character, struggles through awful conditions in which the poor
orphaned children of the mid 19th century London were compelled to live
under pretense and dominance, Oliver is forced to wear a mask and part with his
rightful inheritance. One of the early examples of social novel, that satirizes
many social problems of the times.
It was followed by ‘Nicholas
Nickelby ‘ in 1838 and ‘The old
curiosity shop’ in 1841. After finishing
‘Warnaby Rudge’ in 1842, Dickens and
his wife Kate embraked on a five month lecture tour to the United States. Upon
their return Dickens wrote ‘American
Notes for General Circulation ‘, a sarcastic travelogue criticising American culture and materialism. From 1849 to 1850,
Dickens engaged himself in the preparation of ‘David Copperfield ‘, the first work of its kind, no one had ever
written a novel that simply followed a character through his everyday life. In
writing it, Dickens tapped into his own personal experiences, from his difficult
childhood to his work as a journalist. Although David Copperfield is not
considered as Dickens’ best work, it was his personal favorite.
During the 1850’s, Dickens suffered from
two losses, the death of his daughter and his father. He also separated from
his wife during that decade. His novels also began to express darkened world
view at that time. Coming out of the dark novel period, in 1859,Dickens
published ‘A Tale of Two Cities ‘,
which is highly considered as his best known work of historical fiction.
He was met with a train accident in 1865
and the injuries were permanent. On 9th June 1870,Dickens suffered from stroke and
died at his age of 58. He was buried at the poet’s corner at Westminster Abbey,
with thousands of mourners gathering at the beloved author’s grave site
characters in the novel Oliver Twist..
Written by.,
NITHYA SREE.,
I B.A English.,
Kg Cas.,
Coimbatore.
