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CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870)
Complementos para la formación disciplinar en Lengua Inglesa
Jessica González
“Despite the many years that have passed,
Charles Dickens remains one of the greatest
writers of the English language, who used his
creative genius to campaign passionately for
social justice”.
Prince of Wales
CHILDHOOD
• Dickens was born on 7th February 1812 in
Portsmouth.
• He spent the first ten years of his life in
Kent.
• Charles was the second of eight children.
HIS PARENTS
• His mother, Elizabeth Barrow, had been in
service to Lord Crew although she aspired
to be a teacher and school director.
• His father, inspiration for the character of
Mr Micawber in 'David Copperfield', worked
as a clerk for the Naval Pay office.
• In 1822, the Dickens family moved to
Camden Town.
• John Dickens was imprisoned for debt in
1824, when Charles was just twelve years
old.
• Dickens’s mother moved into the prison
with seven of her children.
• Only Charles lived outside the prison in order
to earn money for the struggling family.
• He worked with other children pasting labels
on bottles in a blacking warehouse where he
endured appalling conditions as well as
loneliness and despair.
Dickens was permitted to go back to school
when his father received a family
inheritance and used it to pay off his debts,
but the experience was never forgotten
and became fictionalized in two of his
better-known novels 'David Copperfield'
and 'Great Expectations'.
• As a young boy, Charles Dickens was
exposed to many artistic and literary works
that allowed his imagination to grow and
develop considerably.
• He was greatly influenced by the stories his
nursemaid used to tell him and by his many
visits to the theater.
Additionally, Dickens
loved to read. Among
his favorite works
were Don Quijote by
Miguel de Cervantes,
Tome Jones by Henry
Fielding, and Arabian
Nights.
ADOLESCENCEAlthough he had little formal schooling, Dickens
was able to teach himself shorthand and launch a
career as a journalist.
At the age of sixteen, Dickens got himself a job as
a court reporter, his own father became a
reporter, and shortly thereafter he joined the
staff of A Mirror of Parliament, a newspaper that
reported on the decisions of Parliament.
During this time Charles continued to read
voraciously at the British Library, and he
experimented with acting and stage-managing
amateur theatricals.
Fast becoming disillusioned with politics, Dickens
developed an interest in social reform and began
contributing to the True Sun, a radical newspaper because
he fast became disillusioned with politics.
YOUTH
• Then in 1833 he became parliamentary journalist
for The Morning Chronicle.
• With new contacts in the press he was able to
publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym
'Boz'.
In 1836 Dickens also married Catherine Hogarth,
the daughter of a fellow co-worker at his
newspaper. The couple had ten children before
their separation in 1858.
His travels abroad in the 1840s, first to America
and then through Europe, marked the beginning
of a new stage in Dickens’ life.
LATER YEARS
• His writings became longer and more serious.
• As well as a huge list of novels he published
autobiography, edited weekly periodicals
including 'Household Words' and 'All Year Round',
wrote travel books and administered charitable
organizations.
• He was also a theatre
enthusiast, wrote plays
and performed before
Queen Victoria in 1851.
• His energy was
inexhaustible and he
spent much time
abroad.
He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the
birth of their ten children, but maintained
relations with his mistress, the actress Ellen
Ternan.
• Dickens’ health began to deteriorate in the
1860s.
• In 1858, in response to his increasing fame, he
had begun public readings of his works.
• These exacted a great physical toll on him.
• An immensely profitable but physically shattering
series of readings in America in 1867-68 sped his
decline.
He died of a stroke in 1870. He is buried at
Westminster Abbey.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• “The Routledge History of Literature in English”, Ronald Carter and John McRae. Britain and Ireland, 1.997.
• Santiago de Compostela (USC) Notes given byManuel Barbeito, Margarita Estévez and Laura Lojo.
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/dickens_charles.shtml
• http://www.dickens-online.info/charles-dickens-biography.htm
• http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/context.html