|Born||Charles John Huffam Dickens
7 February 1812
Landport, Portsmouth, England
|Died||9 June 1870 (aged 58)
Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England
|Resting place||Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey|
|Notable work(s)||Sketches by Boz, The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Barnaby Rudge, A Christmas Carol, Martin Chuzzlewit, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Hard Times, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers|
Early life [change]
At age five, Charles moved to Chatham. When Charles was ten years old, his family moved to Camden, London. He worked in a blacking factory there while his father went to prison for debt. Dickens's hard times in this blackening factory served as the base of ideas for many of his novels. Many like Oliver Twist soon became famous. When his uncle died and transmitted money, Charles's father paid off his debts and was released from prison. Charles did not like working and wished to stop working after his father was released. However, his mother said that the family needed the money so Charles was forced to continue working. Charles then finished his schooling, and got a job as an office boy for an attorney. After finding that job dull, he taught himself shorthand and became a journalist that reported on the government.
His first book was Sketches by Boz in 1836, a collection of the short pieces he had been writing for the Monthly Magazine and the Evening Chronicle. This was followed by the The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club in 1837. Both these books became popular as soon as they were printed.
Charles Dickens' books include:
- Sketches by Boz (1836)
- The Pickwick Papers (1837)
- Oliver Twist (1838)
- Nicholas Nickelby (1838)
- The Old Curiosity Shop (1840)
- Barnaby Rudge (1841)
- Martin Chuzzlewit (1843)
- Dombey and Son (1846—1848)
- David Copperfield(1849—1850)
- Bleak House (1851—1853)
- Hard Times (1854)
- Little Dorritt (1855—1857)
- A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
- Great Expectations (1861)
- Our Mutual Friend (1865)
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1869—1870), not finished.
He also wrote a number of Christmas books including:
- A Christmas Carol (1843)
- Lansbury, Coral. "Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)" (in English). Australian Dictionary of Biography On Line Edition. Australian National University. http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040065b.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
-  Dickens Family Tree website
- Cousin, John W. (1910). "Charles Dickens (1812-1870)" (in English). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. University of Adelaide. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
Other websites [change]