Charles Dickens

Full Name

Charles John Huffam Dickens

Vital Statistics

• Born: February 7, 1812, Landport, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
• Died: June 9, 1870, Gad’s Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England (age 58)
• Burial: Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, London (against his wishes for private burial)
• Cause of Death: Stroke (apoplexy)
• Spouse: Catherine Hogarth (married April 2, 1836; separated 1858)
• Children: 10 children (Charley, Mamie, Katey, Walter, Frank, Alfred, Sydney, Henry, Dora, and Edward)

Nationality

British (English)

Primary Occupations

• Novelist
• Social critic
• Journalist
• Magazine editor
• Public performer (reading tours)
• Short story writer

Era

Dickens lived during the Victorian era (1837-1901), the period of Queen Victoria’s reign that saw: - The height of the British Empire - The Industrial Revolution’s transformation of society - Rapid urbanization and its accompanying social problems - Reform movements addressing poverty, child labor, and education - Expansion of the middle class and mass literacy - Development of the novel as the dominant literary form

His career coincided with the emergence of literature as a mass medium, made possible by serialized publication, cheaper printing, and growing literacy rates among the middle and working classes.

Introduction

Charles Dickens is widely regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and one of the finest writers in the English language. His works combine profound social criticism with unforgettable characters, vivid descriptions of London life, and narrative inventiveness that transformed the novel as an art form. From the hopeful optimism of “The Pickwick Papers” to the dark complexity of “Our Mutual Friend,” Dickens’s fiction captured the soul of 19th-century England while addressing universal themes of justice, compassion, and human dignity.

Born into a middle-class family that experienced sudden financial ruin, Dickens’s personal history shaped his literary preoccupations. His father’s imprisonment for debt and his own humiliating work in a blacking factory at age 12 gave him an intimate understanding of poverty, shame, and social precarity that would infuse his novels with moral urgency. This traumatic childhood experience - which Dickens kept secret from all but his closest confidants until revealing it in his autobiography, posthumously published - made him the champion of the poor, the advocate for children, and the scourge of institutional indifference.

Dickens’s literary career began with journalism. Writing under the pseudonym “Boz,” he produced colorful sketches of London life for newspapers and magazines. These caught the attention of publishers who commissioned a series of sporting tales that became “The Pickwick Papers” (1836-1837). Published in monthly installments, “Pickwick” was an immediate sensation, establishing the 24-year-old Dickens as a literary celebrity.

Over the next three decades, Dickens produced an extraordinary body of work: fifteen major novels, numerous Christmas books, hundreds of short stories and journalistic pieces, and edited two weekly magazines. His novels were published serially - in monthly or weekly parts - making them accessible to readers of modest means who could purchase or borrow individual installments. This mode of publication shaped his narrative style, with cliffhangers, multiple plot lines, and vivid characterizations designed to keep readers eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Dickens’s social criticism was inseparable from his art. “Oliver Twist” (1837-1839) attacked the workhouse system; “Nicholas Nickleby” (1838-1839) exposed the abuses of Yorkshire boarding schools; “Bleak House” (1852-1853) satirized the Court of Chancery; “Hard Times” (1854) criticized utilitarian philosophy and industrial capitalism; “Little Dorrit” (1855-1857) attacked debtors’ prisons and bureaucratic inefficiency. His most enduring social critique, “A Christmas Carol” (1843), created the modern Christmas and established Scrooge as the archetype of redeemed miserliness.

His personal life was marked by contradictions. The champion of domestic virtue in his fiction separated from his wife after 22 years of marriage, publicly announcing the separation in a newspaper statement that caused a scandal. His relationship with the young actress Ellen Ternan - which began when he was 45 and she was 18 - was carefully concealed from the public and remained secret until long after his death.

In his final decade, Dickens embarked on exhausting public reading tours, performing scenes from his works to enthusiastic audiences in Britain and America. These tours, while enormously profitable, took a toll on his health. He died of a stroke on June 9, 1870, at his country home, Gad’s Hill Place, leaving his final novel, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” unfinished.

Dickens was buried in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey - an honor he would have rejected, having requested a simple private funeral. His death was mourned internationally. Today, his works remain among the most widely read and adapted in English literature, their relevance undiminished by the passage of time. His characters - Scrooge, Fagin, Oliver Twist, Pip, Miss Havisham, Sydney Carton - have entered the cultural imagination as permanently as Shakespeare’s creations.

Early Life of Charles Dickens

Family Background

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, at 13 Mile End Terrace (now 393 Old Commercial Road), Landport, Portsea, Portsmouth. His father, John Dickens (1785-1851), worked as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. A friendly, generous man with little financial sense, John Dickens would shape his son’s life in ways both inspiring and traumatic.

Charles’s mother, Elizabeth Barrow Dickens (1789-1863), came from a family with musical and theatrical connections. She was intelligent and literate, though her husband’s financial incompetence would force her into humiliating circumstances.

The Dickens family was respectable but not wealthy. John’s position in the Navy Pay Office provided a middle-class income when the government paid its bills. Charles was the second of eight children: - Frances Elizabeth (Fanny) (1810-1848) - Charles (1812-1870) - Letitia (1816-1893) - Frederick (1819-1868) - Alfred Lamert (1822-1860) - Augustus Newnham (1827-1866) - Two siblings died in infancy

Childhood Moves (1812-1822)

The Dickens family moved frequently during Charles’s early years, following John’s naval postings: - 1812-1815: Portsmouth - 1815-1816: London (briefly) - 1816-1822: Chatham, Kent

The Chatham years (ages 4-10) were the happiest of Dickens’s childhood. The family lived at 2 Ordnance Terrace, then 18 St. Mary’s Place, and later 11 Ordnance Terrace. Young Charles explored the Kent countryside, read voraciously in his father’s library, and developed the observational habits that would serve his literary career.

Key childhood experiences in Chatham: - Reading: Access to his father’s collection including Smollett, Fielding, Goldsmith, and Cervantes - Theatre: Family outings to Rochester Theatre; his aunt’s theatrical connections - Exploration: Rambles through the countryside and along the Medway River - Education: Attended a dame school run by a Miss Roylance, then a school kept by William Giles

The Blacking Warehouse Episode (1824)

The defining trauma of Dickens’s life occurred in 1824 when he was 12 years old. John Dickens’s debts had accumulated beyond management, and on February 20, 1824, he was arrested for debt and imprisoned in the Marshalsea Prison in Southwark, London.

The family, except for Charles and his sister Fanny (who was studying at the Royal Academy of Music), moved into the prison with John. Charles was sent to work at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse, a rat-infested factory at Hungerford Stairs near the Strand, where he: - Labeled pots of shoe polish for six shillings a week - Worked alongside rough boys in squalid conditions - Was humiliated that his father allowed such work - Felt abandoned by his parents - Experienced shame that would haunt him throughout his life

Dickens later wrote of this period: “The deep remembrance of the sense I had of being utterly neglected and hopeless; of the shame I felt in my position; of the misery it was to my young heart… can never be written.”

John Dickens was released from prison after three months when his mother died and left him a small inheritance. Charles continued working at the blacking warehouse for a time, then was removed and sent back to school. The experience was never forgotten and never fully forgiven. His parents’ failure to acknowledge the trauma or apologize for it left permanent emotional scars.

This experience: - Created his lifelong identification with the poor and oppressed - Gave him intimate knowledge of London’s streets and working-class life - Inspired his social criticism of debtors’ prisons, child labor, and institutional cruelty - Provided material for characters like the young David Copperfield at Murdstone and Grinby’s warehouse - Remained a closely guarded secret until revealed in his autobiography

Education (1824-1827)

After the blacking warehouse, Charles briefly attended Wellington House Academy in London (1824-1827), a private school in Hampstead Road. The school was run by a brutal headmaster, William Jones, who appears as Mr. Creakle in “David Copperfield.”

The education was mediocre, but Charles: - Participated in theatrical performances - Continued reading voraciously - Developed a talent for mimicry and storytelling - Began writing (a farce, “O’Thello”)

His formal education ended at age 15 when John Dickens’s financial difficulties made school fees unaffordable.

Early Employment (1827-1829)

In May 1827, Charles began working as a junior clerk at Ellis and Blackmore, solicitors, in Gray’s Inn. The work was tedious, but he: - Learned legal procedures and terminology - Observed the legal profession’s absurdities - Gathered material for future novels

In 1828, he left to work for another law firm, Charles Molloy, but found the legal profession uncongenial. Determined to improve his prospects, he: - Learned Gurney’s system of shorthand - Became a freelance reporter at Doctor’s Commons, covering cases in ecclesiastical courts - Observed human nature in extremis - divorce cases, disputed wills, breach of promise

This experience provided material for the Court of Chancery in “Bleak House” and the ecclesiastical court in “David Copperfield.”

Journalism (1829-1833)

Dickens’s reporting career advanced rapidly: - 1829: Freelance shorthand reporter at Doctor’s Commons - 1831: Became a reporter for his uncle John Henry Barrow’s newspaper, the Mirror of Parliament - 1833: Joined the Morning Chronicle as a parliamentary reporter

As a parliamentary reporter, Dickens: - Traveled the country covering elections and political events - Developed the ability to write rapidly and vividly - Observed politicians and public life - Honed the descriptive skills that would characterize his fiction

He also began writing short pieces for magazines. His first published story, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk,” appeared in the Monthly Magazine in December 1833. He adopted the pseudonym “Boz” - his youngest brother Augustus’s nickname, which Dickens pronounced “bose” (as in Moses).

Courtship of Catherine Hogarth (1834-1836)

In 1834, Dickens met Catherine Hogarth (1815-1879), the daughter of George Hogarth, a fellow journalist at the Morning Chronicle. George Hogarth was a Scottish journalist and music critic who had moved to London.

The courtship proceeded quickly: - Dickens was 22, Catherine 19 when they met - They became engaged in 1835 - Married on April 2, 1836, at St. Luke’s Church, Chelsea

Catherine was gentle, affectionate, and domestic - qualities Dickens initially valued. She came from a large family, and Dickens developed close relationships with her siblings, particularly her sister Mary Hogarth.

The Death of Mary Hogarth (1837)

On May 7, 1837, Mary Hogarth died suddenly at age 17 in Dickens’s arms. She had been living with the Dickenses and was Charles’s favorite among Catherine’s family. Her death devastated him: - He took a ring from her finger and wore it for the rest of his life - He expressed a wish to be buried with her - Her character appears in his novels as the perfect, dying young woman (Little Nell, Rose Maylie) - The trauma intensified his romantic idealization of youthful feminine purity

This loss compounded the emotional wounds of his childhood and shaped his fictional treatment of death, particularly the deaths of young women.

Early Success (1833-1836)

Between 1833 and 1836, Dickens’s literary career gained momentum: - Published “Sketches by Boz” in various periodicals - Attracted attention of publishers Chapman and Hall - Commissioned to write text accompanying sporting illustrations by Robert Seymour - Seymour’s suicide after the first installment transformed the project - Dickens took control of the narrative, creating “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”

“The Pickwick Papers” began appearing in monthly parts in April 1836. By the time of his marriage that same month, Dickens was already becoming famous. The success of “Pickwick” transformed him from an obscure journalist into England’s most celebrated young writer.

Summary of Early Life Influences

Dickens’s early experiences profoundly shaped his fiction: - Poverty and imprisonment: Created his social conscience and identification with the downtrodden - Child labor: Gave him authentic knowledge of exploitation - Legal work: Provided material for satire of the law - Journalism: Developed his style and observational skills - Theatre: Influenced his dramatic sense and character creation - Mary Hogarth’s death: Shaped his idealization of feminine virtue

By age 24, when “Pickwick” concluded its run, Dickens had transformed himself from a traumatized child worker into England’s most popular author, with the experiences that would fuel a lifetime of literary creation already accumulated.

Career of Charles Dickens

The Pickwick Papers (1836-1837)

Origins and Publication

“The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” transformed Dickens from an obscure journalist into a literary celebrity. The project began when publishers Chapman and Hall commissioned Dickens to write text accompanying sporting illustrations by the popular artist Robert Seymour. When Seymour committed suicide after the first installment, Dickens took control of the narrative, shifting focus from sporting scenes to the adventures of Samuel Pickwick and his friends.

Publication details: - First installment: March 1836 - Final installment: October 1837 - Format: 20 monthly numbers, 32 pages each, illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne (“Phiz”) - Price: One shilling per number - Sales: Started at about 400 copies; by the end, reached 40,000 copies per installment

The novel’s episodic structure suited serial publication. Mr. Pickwick, the benevolent, naive founder of the Pickwick Club, travels through England with his friends, encountering comic adventures and eventually the indomitable Sam Weller, whose Cockney wit became immensely popular.

Significance

“Pickwick” established several patterns in Dickens’s career: - Serial publication as the primary mode - Illustrations integral to the text - Mixture of humor and sentiment - Creation of unforgettable characters - Popular success with serious literary quality

The novel’s warmth and optimism reflected the young Dickens’s rising fortunes, though darker elements (the Fleet Prison scenes) hinted at his preoccupation with social injustice.

Oliver Twist (1837-1839)

While “Pickwick” was still running, Dickens began his second novel, “Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress.” Published in Bentley’s Miscellany (which Dickens edited), the novel appeared in monthly installments from February 1837 to April 1839.

Thematic shift: - Moved from comedy to darker social criticism - Exposed the New Poor Law of 1834 and the workhouse system - Depicted London criminal underworld through characters like Fagin, Bill Sikes, and Nancy - Created the innocent child victim in Oliver

Controversy: - The character of Fagin, described as “the Jew,” drew accusations of antisemitism - Dickens later created the sympathetic Jewish character Riah in “Our Mutual Friend” partly in response to criticism

Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839)

Published in monthly numbers from April 1838 to October 1839, “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” attacked the Yorkshire boarding schools that mistreated unwanted children.

Key targets: - Dotheboys Hall, modeled on actual abusive schools - Wackford Squeers, the cruel schoolmaster - The Yorkshire school trade

Plot: - Nicholas Nickleby, impoverished after his father’s death, protects his sister Kate from the predatory world - Nicholas’s adventures as teacher, actor, and ultimately successful man of business - Serves as Dickens’s fullest portrait of the theatrical world

The novel’s exposure of Yorkshire schools led to reforms and the closing of several abusive institutions.

The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841)

Published in weekly parts in Dickens’s own periodical, “Master Humphrey’s Clock” (April 1840 to February 1841), “The Old Curiosity Shop” contains one of Dickens’s most famous characters: Little Nell Trent.

Publication: - Weekly serialization created different narrative demands than monthly - Greater intensity, tighter plotting - Enormous public interest in Nell’s fate

The death of Little Nell: - Readers awaited each installment anxiously - American readers reportedly greeted ships from England asking if Nell lived - Oscar Wilde later quipped: “One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without dissolving into tears… of laughter” - The sentimentality reflected Victorian taste but also Dickens’s unresolved grief for Mary Hogarth

Barnaby Rudge (1841)

Also published in “Master Humphrey’s Clock” (February to November 1841), “Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of ‘Eighty” was Dickens’s first historical novel, set during the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780.

While less popular than his contemporary novels, it: - Demonstrated Dickens’s interest in history - Provided practice in crowd scenes and historical reconstruction - Influenced his later historical novels

American Tour (1842)

In January 1842, Dickens and Catherine traveled to the United States for a five-month tour. The visit had profound effects on his life and work.

Reception: - Enthusiastic crowds greeted him everywhere - Celebrated as the champion of common people - Met President John Tyler - Visited Niagara Falls, the Mississippi, prisons, and institutions

Disillusionment: - Disgusted by slavery (visited Virginia) - Horrified by spitting and lack of copyright protection - Criticized American press and manners in “American Notes” (1842) - Attacked slavery and American institutions in “Martin Chuzzlewit” (1843-1844)

The American tour marked a turning point in Dickens’s public career and his relationship with his audience.

A Christmas Carol (1843)

Published December 19, 1843, “A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas” became Dickens’s most famous work and transformed the celebration of Christmas.

Publication: - Published by Chapman and Hall as a complete book, not serial - Illustrated by John Leech - Price: 5 shillings (expensive for a small volume) - Sold 6,000 copies by Christmas Eve

Cultural impact: - Created or popularized Christmas traditions: turkey dinner, family gathering, charitable giving - Established the “Christmas book” genre - Scrooge became an archetype (name now means miser) - “Merry Christmas” as greeting popularized

Social message: - Redemption through generosity and community - Critique of industrial capitalism’s dehumanization - The Cratchit family as deserving poor - Tiny Tim’s famous line: “God bless us, every one!”

Christmas Books (1844-1848)

Following “Carol’s” success, Dickens wrote four more Christmas books:

“The Chimes” (1844): - Attack on Malthusian economics and indifference to the poor - Goblin spirits show Toby Veck visions of his daughter’s terrible future

“The Cricket on the Hearth” (1845): - Domestic story of mistaken jealousy and reconciliation - Less social criticism, more sentimental

“The Battle of Life” (1846): - Least successful Christmas book - Story of sisterly sacrifice

“The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain” (1848): - A chemist learns he cannot forget pain without forgetting joy - Philosophical exploration of memory and feeling

Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844)

Published in monthly numbers from January 1843 to July 1844, “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit” initially disappointed in sales, leading Dickens to send his characters to America.

American sections: - Satire of American boasting and commercialism - Eden, the malarial swamp sold as paradise - Mrs. Hominy, the female philosopher - Attacked slavery and American manners

English sections: - Pecksniff, the hypocritical architect - Mrs. Gamp, the dissolute nurse (one of Dickens’s greatest comic characters) - Jonas Chuzzlewit, the murderer - Young Martin’s moral education

Dombey and Son (1846-1848)

“Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation” (October 1846 to April 1848) marked a shift toward greater structural complexity and psychological depth.

Themes: - Pride and humiliation - The power of money - Estrangement between father and daughter - Railway age transforming England

Significance: - Tighter plotting than earlier novels - Paul Dombey’s death scene among Dickens’s most affecting - Railway symbolism representing modernity - Florence Dombey as victim of patriarchal indifference

David Copperfield (1849-1850)

Published in monthly numbers from May 1849 to November 1850, “The Personal History of David Copperfield” is Dickens’s most autobiographical novel and, in his own estimation, his “favorite child.”

Autobiographical elements: - Blacking warehouse experience (Murdstone and Grinby’s) - School experiences (Salem House) - Early journalism (reporting for the Commons) - Struggle to become a writer - Marriage to “child-wife” Dora (based on Catherine)

Characters: - Mr. Micawber (based on John Dickens) - Uriah Heep, the hypocritical clerk - Betsey Trotwood, the eccentric aunt - James Steerforth, the betrayer - Agnes Wickfield, the ideal wife

The novel traces David’s growth from abused child to successful novelist, incorporating Dickens’s own experiences and reflections on his art.

Bleak House (1852-1853)

Published in monthly parts from March 1852 to September 1853, “Bleak House” is often considered Dickens’s greatest novel, demonstrating his mature powers.

Structure: - Dual narrators: Esther Summerson (first-person) and omniscient narrator - Vast cast of characters connected through the Court of Chancery - Complex plotting spanning social classes

Targets: - Jarndyce and Jarndyce, the endless lawsuit - The Court of Chancery’s delays and costs - Charitable “telescopic philanthropy” (Mrs. Jellyby) - Poverty and disease (Jo, the crossing sweeper) - Spontaneous combustion of Krook (scientifically disputed but dramatically powerful)

Achievement: - Widely considered the greatest Victorian novel - Masterpiece of social criticism and narrative complexity - Demonstrates Dickens’s mature understanding of society’s interconnectedness

Hard Times (1854)

“Hard Times: For These Times” appeared weekly in Household Words from April to August 1854, Dickens’s shortest novel.

Target: Utilitarian philosophy and industrial capitalism, represented by Thomas Gradgrind and Josiah Bounderby.

Setting: Coketown, the industrial city (modeled on Manchester and Preston)

Characters: - Louisa Gradgrind, whose emotional education is neglected - Sissy Jupe, child of the circus representing imagination - Stephen Blackpool, the honest worker crushed by circumstances - Mrs. Sparsit, the aristocratic busybody

The novel attacks: - “Facts, facts, facts” education - Industrial conditions - Labor relations - Class arrogance

Little Dorrit (1855-1857)

“Little Dorrit” appeared in monthly numbers from December 1855 to June 1857, attacking the Circumlocution Office (bureaucracy) and debtors’ prisons.

Structure: - Book One: Poverty - Book Two: Riches - Based on Dickens’s father’s imprisonment

Targets: - The Marshalsea Prison (where William Dorrit is imprisoned) - Government inefficiency - Social climbing and pretension - Merdle, the financier whose schemes collapse (based on real scandals)

Themes: - Imprisonment (literal and metaphorical) - Money and social status - Family duty - Society’s indifference

A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

Published in weekly installments in All the Year Round from April to November 1859, “A Tale of Two Cities” is Dickens’s most popular work of historical fiction.

Setting: London and Paris before and during the French Revolution

Plot: - Dr. Manette, imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years - His daughter Lucie’s love for Charles Darnay, the French aristocrat who renounces his title - Sydney Carton, the alcoholic lawyer who resembles Darnay - The Defarges, revolutionary leaders - Carton’s sacrifice: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done”

Famous opening: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

Achievement: - Best-selling novel in Dickens’s lifetime - Memorably cinematic scenes (the storming of the Bastille, the guillotine) - Carton’s redemption one of literature’s great moments

Great Expectations (1860-1861)

Published weekly in All the Year Round from December 1860 to August 1861, “Great Expectations” is a masterpiece of first-person narration and psychological complexity.

Plot: - Pip, the orphan, encounters escaped convict Magwitch on the marshes - Expectations of wealth from mysterious benefactor - Education as a gentleman in London - Discovery that Magwitch is his benefactor - Pip’s moral education and disillusionment

Characters: - Miss Havisham, jilted at the altar, frozen in time - Estella, raised to break men’s hearts - Joe Gargery, the simple, noble blacksmith - Jaggers, the lawyer - Wemmick and his “castle” (work/life separation)

Themes: - Social mobility and class - Crime and punishment - Guilt and redemption - True gentility vs. wealth

Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865)

Dickens’s last completed novel, published in monthly numbers from May 1864 to November 1865, represents his darkest and most complex vision.

Themes: - Money as filth (dust heaps, river mud) - Social climbing and pretension - Death and resurrection - The corrupting power of wealth

Characters: - John Harmon, presumed dead, returning to claim inheritance - Bella Wilfer, the mercenary who learns better values - Eugene Wrayburn and Bradley Headstone, rivals for Lizzie Hexam - Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, the inheritors - Silas Wegg, the blackmailer

Significance: - Mature, complex symbolism - Social criticism without sentimentality - Demonstrates Dickens’s continued development as artist

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)

Dickens’s final, unfinished novel was being published in monthly installments when he died. Only six of twelve planned parts were completed.

Plot as published: - Edwin Drood, engaged to Rosa Bud, disappears - John Jasper, Drood’s uncle (and opium addict), loves Rosa - Neville Landless as suspect - The mysterious Dick Datchery

The mystery: - Did Jasper murder Drood? - Is Drood dead or in disguise as Datchery? - Numerous theories proposed; no definitive solution

The novel’s incompleteness has generated endless speculation and alternative endings.

Magazine Editing

Household Words (1850-1859)

Dickens founded and edited this weekly magazine: - Published his own novels serialized - Featured articles on social issues - Employed Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins, and others - Platform for social reform journalism

All the Year Round (1859-1870)

After disputes with publishers, Dickens founded this replacement weekly: - Similar format to Household Words - Published “A Tale of Two Cities,” “Great Expectations,” and “Our Mutual Friend” - Wilkie Collins’s “The Woman in White” appeared here - Continued after Dickens’s death until 1895

Public Readings (1858-1870)

Beginning in 1858, Dickens performed public readings of his works: - Adapted scenes from his novels for solo performance - Created dramatic characterizations and voices - Enormously popular and profitable - Performed in Britain and America (1867-1868)

Impact on health: - Exhausting schedule (hundreds of performances) - Contributed to his declining health - Final reading: March 15, 1870, in London

Summary of Career Achievements

Dickens’s career spanned 34 years and produced: - 15 major novels (14 completed) - 5 Christmas books - Hundreds of short stories and sketches - Thousands of pages of journalism - Two edited magazines - Hundreds of public readings

His career transformed the novel into a popular art form that could address serious social issues while entertaining millions. No English writer since Shakespeare has created so many enduring characters or exerted such profound influence on his culture.

Major Achievements of Charles Dickens

Novelistic Output

Dickens produced an extraordinary body of fiction that transformed the English novel and remains central to world literature.

Major Novels (15 works)

“The Pickwick Papers” (1836-1837): - Established Dickens as major literary figure - Pioneered episodic comic novel form - Created Sam Weller, one of literature’s great comic characters - Monthly serialization format perfected

“Oliver Twist” (1837-1839): - First novel to center on a child protagonist - Exposed workhouse conditions - Created Fagin, Bill Sikes, Nancy in memorable criminal underworld - “Please, sir, I want some more” - iconic literary moment

“Nicholas Nickleby” (1838-1839): - Exposed Yorkshire boarding school abuses - Led to closure of several abusive schools - Created Wackford Squeers and Mrs. Nickleby - Theatrical world memorably portrayed

“The Old Curiosity Shop” (1840-1841): - Weekly serialization demonstrated formal versatility - Little Nell’s death: unprecedented public reaction - International fame established

“Barnaby Rudge” (1841): - First historical novel - Practice for later historical fiction - Crowd scenes and revolutionary atmosphere

“Martin Chuzzlewit” (1843-1844): - Mrs. Gamp: one of Dickens’s greatest comic creations - American satire sections - Pecksniff: archetype of hypocrisy

“Dombey and Son” (1846-1848): - Tighter plotting and structural control - Railway age themes - Paul Dombey’s death among most affecting scenes

“David Copperfield” (1849-1850): - Most autobiographical novel - “Favorite child” according to author - Mr. Micawber and Uriah Heep: indelible characters - Bildungsroman form mastered

“Bleak House” (1852-1853): - Often considered greatest Victorian novel - Dual narration technique - Attack on Court of Chancery - Vast social panorama

“Hard Times” (1854): - Shortest novel; focused attack on utilitarianism - Industrial novel subgenre contribution - Coketown: symbol of industrial dehumanization

“Little Dorrit” (1855-1857): - Circumlocution Office satire - Marshalsea Prison autobiographical elements - Merdle: satire on financial speculation

“A Tale of Two Cities” (1859): - Best-selling novel in his lifetime - French Revolution narrative - “It was the best of times…” most famous opening - Sydney Carton’s sacrifice: iconic literary moment

“Great Expectations” (1860-1861): - Masterpiece of first-person narration - Miss Havisham: unforgettable gothic creation - Pip’s moral education - Mature psychological complexity

“Our Mutual Friend” (1864-1865): - Last completed novel - Darkest and most complex vision - Money and filth symbolism - Continued artistic development to end of career

“The Mystery of Edwin Drood” (1870): - Unfinished final novel - Generated endless critical speculation - Demonstrated continued creativity at death

Christmas Books (5 works)

“A Christmas Carol” (1843): - Transformed Christmas celebrations - Created Scrooge archetype - Established charitable giving as Christmas tradition - Most widely adapted Dickens work

“The Chimes” (1844), “The Cricket on the Hearth” (1845), “The Battle of Life” (1846), “The Haunted Man” (1848): - Contributed to Christmas literature genre - Continued social criticism in shorter form - “The Cricket” particularly popular in its era

Social Reform Achievements

Exposing Social Evils

Dickens’s novels directly contributed to social reforms:

Workhouse Reform (“Oliver Twist”): - Exposed New Poor Law cruelties - Public pressure contributed to workhouse improvements - “Please, sir, I want some more” became reform slogan

School Reform (“Nicholas Nickleby”): - Yorkshire boarding school abuses revealed - Several abusive schools closed - Government inspection of schools improved

Legal Reform (“Bleak House”): - Court of Chancery delays and costs exposed - Contributed to Chancery reform in 1870s - Jarndyce and Jarndyce became symbol of legal delay

Debtors’ Prison Reform (“Little Dorrit”): - Marshalsea and similar prisons attacked - Imprisonment for debt abolished in England (1869) - Personal experience lent authenticity

Industrial Conditions (“Hard Times”): - Factory conditions exposed - Utilitarian philosophy criticized - Contributed to labor reform discussions

Public Health: - Jo the crossing sweeper in “Bleak House” highlighted sanitation problems - Connection between poverty and disease emphasized - Influenced public health reforms

Journalism and Reform

Through Household Words and All the Year Round, Dickens: - Published hundreds of articles on social issues - Employed other reform-minded writers (Elizabeth Gaskell) - Made social criticism accessible to middle-class readers - Supported sanitary reform, education, and labor legislation

Literary Innovation

Serial Publication Mastery

Dickens transformed serialized fiction: - Cliffhangers maintaining reader interest - Character development across installments - Double numbers for Christmas sales - Feedback from readers influencing plot - Advertising and marketing innovations

Narrative Techniques

Character Creation: - Idiosyncratic naming (Scrooge, Pecksniff, Bounderby) - Externalized psychology through mannerisms - Memorably visual characters - Secondary characters fully realized

Dialogue: - Distinctive voices for each character - Cockney dialect and slang (Sam Weller) - Repetition as characterization - Humor integrated with social criticism

Symbolism: - Fog in “Bleak House” - River and dust heaps in “Our Mutual Friend” - Prison metaphors throughout - Houses as character reflections

Structure: - Dual narrators (“Bleak House”) - Flashbacks and anticipations - Multiple plot lines converging - First-person narration mastery (“Great Expectations”)

Genre Development

Social Problem Novel: - Defined the genre of social criticism fiction - Combined entertainment with reform agenda - Influenced Gaskell, Kingsley, Disraeli

Historical Novel: - “A Tale of Two Cities” set standard for historical fiction - Researched details of French Revolution - Balanced historical accuracy with narrative excitement

Detective Fiction: - Inspector Bucket in “Bleak House” first significant literary detective - Influenced Wilkie Collins and detective fiction development

Christmas Literature: - Created genre of Christmas moral tale - Influenced subsequent Christmas stories and films

Cultural Impact

Language and Idiom

Dickens added words and phrases to English: - “Scrooge” as term for miser - “Fagin” for corrupter of youth - “Pecksniffian” for hypocrisy - “Gradgrind” for fact-obsessed pedant - “Podsnappery” for complacent nationalism - “The law is a ass” (Mr. Bumble) - “Bah! Humbug!” - “It was the best of times…”

Character Archetypes

Dickens created character types that became permanent cultural references: - Scrooge: Redeemed miser - Fagin: Corrupting villain - Oliver Twist: Innocent orphan - Miss Havisham: Betrayed woman frozen in time - Uriah Heep: False humility - Sydney Carton: Sacrificial redemption - Mr. Micawber: Optimistic debtor - Mrs. Gamp: Dissolute nurse

Christmas Traditions

“A Christmas Carol” transformed Christmas celebrations: - Turkey as Christmas dinner centerpiece (previously goose or beef) - Family gathering as essential element - Charitable giving at Christmas - Christmas as season of redemption and goodwill - Christmas cards (developed shortly after Carol’s publication)

Adaptations and Derivative Works

Theatrical Adaptations: - Dickens’s own public readings (1858-1870) - Hundreds of stage versions during his lifetime - Unauthorized adaptations proliferated

Film and Television: - Over 300 film and television adaptations - “A Christmas Carol” most adapted (hundreds of versions) - “Oliver Twist,” “Great Expectations,” “David Copperfield” frequently filmed

Musical Adaptations: - “Oliver!” (1968 Academy Award winner) - Various “Christmas Carol” musicals - “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” (Broadway musical)

Literary Influence: - Countless writers influenced (Dostoevsky, Kafka, Orwell, Nabokov) - Techniques imitated and developed - Social novel tradition continued

Professional Achievements

Magazine Editing

Household Words (1850-1859): - Founded and edited weekly magazine - Published own serialized novels - Platform for social journalism - Employed major writers of era

All the Year Round (1859-1870): - Founded after dispute with publishers - Continued format of Household Words - Published major late novels - Continued until 1895 (posthumously)

Publishing Innovations

• Christmas book format invented
• Marketing and promotion techniques
• International copyright advocacy
• Authorial control over illustrations and production

Public Readings

• Performed hundreds of readings 1858-1870
• Adapted novels for solo performance
• Created character voices and mannerisms
• Earned substantial income (£45,000 from American tour alone)
• Established author as public performer tradition

Sales and Popularity

Contemporary Sales

• “Pickwick Papers”: 40,000 copies per installment at peak
• “A Christmas Carol”: 6,000 copies first day; 15,000 first week
• “A Tale of Two Cities”: Best-selling novel in his lifetime
• Overall sales: Millions of copies during his lifetime

Posthumous Sales

• Dickens has never been out of print
• Estimated 200+ million copies sold
• Translated into every major language
• Consistently among best-selling classic authors

Critical Reception

During His Lifetime

• Unprecedented popularity with general readers
• Mixed reviews from some critics (complaints about melodrama, sentimentality)
• Henry James’s criticism of “loose baggy monsters”
• Recognition as leading novelist of his era
• Literary establishment acknowledged his genius despite reservations

Posthumous Reputation

Late 19th Century: - Continued popularity with readers - Critical respect but some condescension - “For children” reputation in some quarters

20th Century: - F.R. Leavis and Scrutiny movement: Dickens’s art taken seriously - Film adaptations renewed popular interest - Academic study proliferated - Recognition as literary genius beyond social reformer

21st Century: - Unquestioned status as one of greatest English writers - Continuous adaptations and retellings - Academic industry of Dickens studies - Popular and critical esteem combined

Awards and Honors (Posthumous)

• Burial in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey (1870)
• Statue in Philadelphia (first American statue of British author)
• Dickens Museum, London (48 Doughty Street, his former home)
• Gad’s Hill Place preserved as school (now museum)
• Portsmouth Birthplace Museum
• Numerous Dickens festivals worldwide
• Charles Dickens Society and scholarly journals

Summary Statistics

Publication output: - 15 novels (14 complete) - 5 Christmas books - Hundreds of short stories and sketches - Thousands of pages of journalism - Edited 2 weekly magazines for 20 years

Financial success: - Earned approximately £93,000 from writings and readings - Equivalent to several million pounds in modern value - Financially independent from early career

Cultural impact: - Transformed the novel as an art form - Influenced social reforms - Created enduring characters and archetypes - Established Christmas traditions - Added phrases to English language - Most adapted author in English literature

Charles Dickens achieved what few writers have: both immediate popular success and lasting literary greatness. His works entertained millions while exposing social injustice; they made readers laugh while moving them to tears; they captured the particularities of Victorian England while addressing universal human experiences. His achievement remains unmatched in English literature.

Technique and Style of Charles Dickens

Narrative Technique

Dickens developed a distinctive narrative voice that combined journalistic observation with theatrical performance, creating fiction that was both immediately engaging and structurally complex.

Serialization as Craft

Dickens’s novels were written for serial publication, which profoundly shaped his technique:

Monthly Parts (20 numbers, 32 pages each): - Two illustrations per number by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) or others - Cliffhanger endings to ensure continued readership - Double-length numbers for Christmas sales - Reader feedback could influence plot developments - Each installment needed to satisfy while advancing overall narrative

Weekly Serialization: - Shorter, more intense chapters - Greater immediate impact required - Different pacing than monthly format - Used in “The Old Curiosity Shop,” “Hard Times,” and “A Tale of Two Cities”

This mode demanded: - Strong opening hooks - Memorable chapter endings - Character reintroduction after gaps - Multiple plot lines for variety - Recapitulation for readers joining mid-stream

Narrative Voice

Dickens employed various narrative approaches:

Omniscient Narrator: - Most common in early novels - Direct address to readers - Moral commentary and interpretation - Flexible movement between scenes and consciousness - Theatrical, performative quality

First-Person Narration: - “David Copperfield”: retrospective bildungsroman - “Great Expectations”: more immediate, less certain retrospection - Pip’s limited perspective creates irony and suspense - Greater psychological intimacy

Dual Narration: - “Bleak House”: Esther Summerson (first-person) alternating with omniscient - Combines personal testimony with social panorama - Each voice handles different thematic material

Plot Construction

Dickens’s plotting evolved from episodic to increasingly complex:

Early Episodic Structure (“Pickwick”): - Connected episodes rather than unified plot - Picaresque journey through various scenes - Character-based rather than plot-driven

Middle Period Synthesis: - Subplots connected to main narrative - Mystery and revelation structures - Coincidence as organizing principle - Parallel plots commenting on each other

Late Complexity (“Bleak House,” “Our Mutual Friend”): - Intricate plotting with delayed revelations - Multiple narrative threads converging - Symbolic patterns unifying structure - Social panorama with individual stories embedded

Characterization

Dickens is the supreme character creator in English literature after Shakespeare. His methods included:

Externalization

Dickens revealed character through external signs: - Physical appearance: Distinctive features (Scrooge’s coldness made visible) - Dress and possessions: Material embodiment of character (Mr. Podsnap’s arrogant comfort) - Mannerisms: Repeated gestures and habits (Uriah Heep’s writhing) - Speech patterns: Idiosyncratic syntax, vocabulary, catchphrases - Environment: Rooms and houses reflecting occupants (Satis House, Miss Havisham)

Naming

Dickens created names that embodied character: - Mr. Murdstone: Murder + stone (hard, deadly) - Mr. Gradgrind: Grinding facts - Mr. Bounderby: Boundless, bouncing lies - Uriah Heep: Biblical humility (false) + low animal - Mr. Podsnap: Self-satisfied snap judgment - Mrs. Gamp: Allied with alcohol (Gamp = umbrella, associated with gin)

These names operate on multiple levels: phonetic suggestion, semantic meaning, social resonance.

Comic Grotesques

Dickens’s most distinctive characters are often comic exaggerations: - Mrs. Gamp: Dissolute nurse with imaginary friend Mrs. Harris - Sairey Gamp’s dialect: “Go along with you!” - Mr. Micawber: Optimistic, indignant, perpetually in debt - Pecksniff: Hypocrisy made flesh

These characters are: - Externally observed (we don’t enter their consciousness) - Repetitive in speech and mannerism - Socially representative (types made individual) - Both funny and profound

Child Protagonists

Dickens pioneered the child as central consciousness: - Oliver Twist: Innocence amid corruption - David Copperfield: Development from child to adult - Pip: Moral education through experience - Little Dorrit: Patience and virtue in adversity - Jenny Wren: Child wisdom in corrupt world

These children are: - Morally superior to adult world - Victims requiring protection - Vehicles for social criticism - Sites of reader identification and sympathy

Stylistic Features

Sentence Structure

Dickens’s sentences vary from abrupt simplicity to elaborate periodic structures:

Simple and direct: “Please, sir, I want some more.” (Oliver Twist)

Complex and rhetorical: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” (A Tale of Two Cities)

Comic accumulation: Description of legal procedure or bureaucratic process with mounting clauses

Figurative Language

Dickens employed rich metaphorical language:

Extended metaphors: - Fog in “Bleak House” as moral and physical pollution - River Thames as death and rebirth (“Our Mutual Friend”) - Prisons as social metaphor throughout his work

Personification: - The Circumlocution Office as active malevolent force - Coketown’s machines as monstrous organisms - Buildings and cities endowed with character

Symbolic objects: - Miss Havisham’s stopped clocks and decaying wedding cake - Magwitch’s leg iron as symbol of legal and social imprisonment - Dust heaps as hidden wealth and moral filth

Dialogue

Dickens’s dialogue is distinctive and performative:

Dialect and idiolect: - Sam Weller’s Cockney: “Wellerisms” (proverbs with comic twist) - Stephen Blackpool’s Lancashire dialect - Class markers in speech patterns

Repetition: - Characters repeat catchphrases (“Something will turn up” - Micawber) - Refrains create musical structure - Repetition as characterization

Theatrical quality: - Speeches suitable for performance - Characters perform their roles through language - Public reading style influences written dialogue

Social Criticism

Satirical Techniques

Dickens employed various satirical modes:

Exaggeration: - The Circumlocution Office as satire on bureaucracy - Bounderby’s lies about his origins - Physical exaggeration of moral qualities

Irony: - The “gentleman” who behaves badly - Institutions claiming virtue while practicing cruelty - Gap between appearance and reality

Parody: - Parliamentspeak mocked - Legal language satirized - Social pretension ridiculed through imitation

Contrast: - Rich and poor juxtaposed - Selfishness and generosity compared - Institutions’ claims vs. their effects

Targets of Criticism

Dickens attacked specific social ills:

Institutional cruelty: - Workhouses (“Oliver Twist”) - Schools (“Nicholas Nickleby”) - Law courts (“Bleak House”) - Prisons (“Little Dorrit”) - Government bureaucracy (“Little Dorrit”)

Economic systems: - Utilitarianism (“Hard Times”) - Industrial capitalism (“Hard Times”) - Financial speculation (“Little Dorrit”) - Materialism (“Our Mutual Friend”)

Social attitudes: - Class arrogance - Philanthropic condescension - Telescopic philanthropy (“Bleak House”) - Podsnappery (national complacency)

Comparison with Contemporaries

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

Thackeray was Dickens’s closest rival: - Approach: Thackeray more cynical, realistic; Dickens more emotional, romantic - Characters: Thackeray’s more psychologically complex; Dickens’s more vivid and memorable - Style: Thackeray more polished, ironically controlled; Dickens more energetic, improvisational - Relationship: Rivals with mutual respect; Thackeray died before reconciliation after quarrel

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865)

Gaskell wrote industrial novels influenced by Dickens: - Similarities: Social criticism, concern for poor - Differences: Gaskell more nuanced, less caricature; more regional authenticity - Connection: Published in Household Words; friends with Dickens

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)

Collins was Dickens’s protégé and friend: - Genre: Collins master of sensation novel and detective fiction - Influence: Dickens learned from Collins’s plotting - Collaboration: Acted together, influenced each other’s work - Legacy: Collins’s “Moonstone” first detective novel; Dickens’s Inspector Bucket precedent

George Eliot (1819-1880)

Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) represented alternative Victorian fiction: - Scope: Eliot more philosophical, psychological; Dickens more social, theatrical - Characters: Eliot’s more fully realized psychologically; Dickens’s more visually striking - Style: Eliot more controlled, classical; Dickens more exuberant, popular - Recognition: Both achieved literary greatness by different paths

Theatrical Influences

Dickens’s style was profoundly shaped by the theater:

Performance elements: - Characters enter and exit like stage performers - Dramatic scenes and confrontations - Public confession and revelation - Comic turns and business

Public readings: - Dickens adapted his novels for solo performance - Developed character voices and mannerisms - Influenced how he wrote subsequent fiction - Established theatrical quality of his prose

Melodrama: - Plots borrowed from stage melodrama - Virtue rewarded, vice punished (generally) - Coincidence and revelation - Emotional climaxes

Evolution of Style

Early Period (1833-1841)

Characteristics: - Comic exuberance - Episodic structure - External observation - Optimistic tone - Journalistic immediacy

Representative works: “Pickwick,” “Oliver Twist,” “Nicholas Nickleby”

Middle Period (1842-1858)

Characteristics: - Darker themes - Tighter plotting - Social criticism intensified - Greater psychological depth - Experimentation with form

Representative works: “Dombey and Son,” “David Copperfield,” “Bleak House,” “Hard Times”

Late Period (1859-1870)

Characteristics: - Complex symbolism - Moral seriousness - Psychological depth - Compressed style - Greater darkness and ambiguity

Representative works: “A Tale of Two Cities,” “Great Expectations,” “Our Mutual Friend”

Strengths and Limitations

Strengths

Character creation: - Unmatched in English literature for vividness and variety - Characters become permanent cultural reference points - Minor characters as memorable as protagonists

Social observation: - Sharp eye for detail of Victorian life - Documentation of social conditions - Satirical precision

Narrative energy: - Compelling storytelling - Ability to maintain reader interest - Humor integrated with serious purpose

Emotional power: - Pathos without sentimentality (usually) - Comedy that illuminates truth - Indignation that motivates reform

Limitations

Plotting: - Over-reliance on coincidence - Sometimes sacrificed probability for effect - Mystery plots not always fairly constructed

Characterization: - Female characters often idealized or caricatured - Comic grotesques can become mechanical - Psychological depth uneven

Prose style: - Can be verbose and repetitive - Sentimentality in weaker moments - Didacticism occasionally heavy-handed

Legacy of Technique

Dickens’s methods influenced: - Popular fiction serialization - Social problem novel - Character naming and externalization - Dialogue writing for performance - The novel as public entertainment and art

His technique demonstrated that literature could be both popular and serious, entertaining and profound - a combination that remains the model for socially engaged fiction.

Personal Life of Charles Dickens

Marriage to Catherine Hogarth

The Early Years (1836-1850s)

Charles Dickens married Catherine Hogarth on April 2, 1836, at St. Luke’s Church, Chelsea. Charles was 24, Catherine 21. The marriage initially promised happiness: Catherine was attractive, good-natured, and domestic - qualities Dickens valued in an era when women were expected to manage households while husbands pursued careers.

The early years produced ten children: 1. Charley (Charles Culliford Boz Dickens) (1837-1896) 2. Mary (Mamie) Dickens (1838-1896) 3. Kate (Catherine Elizabeth Macready Dickens) (1839-1929) 4. Walter Landor Dickens (1841-1863, died in India) 5. Frank (Francis Jeffrey Dickens) (1844-1886) 6. Alfred D’Orsay Tennyson Dickens (1845-1912) 7. Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens (1847-1872) 8. Henry Fielding Dickens (1849-1933) 9. Dora Annie Dickens (1850-1851, died in infancy) 10. Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (1852-1902)

Growing Estrangement

By the 1850s, the marriage had deteriorated. Contributing factors included:

Incompatibility: - Catherine suffered from postnatal depression after several births - She became physically less attractive to Dickens (he was disappointed by her weight gain) - Her placid temperament bored him as he sought intellectual companionship - She was not interested in his work or social causes

Dickens’s attitude: - He felt trapped by domesticity - Blamed Catherine for being a poor mother (largely unjustly) - Found her family irritating - Desired a more intellectually engaging partner

The bracelet incident (1857): - Dickens bought a bracelet for Ellen Ternan but mistakenly sent it to Catherine - Catherine’s discovery of the gift confirmed her suspicions - Marked a turning point in the marriage

Separation and Scandal (1858)

The Separation Announcement

In May 1858, Dickens published a statement in Household Words announcing the separation: - Claimed “some domestic trouble of mine” - Insisted no party was at fault - Defended his own conduct - Asked for public sympathy

The statement was extraordinary - no Victorian gentleman publicly discussed private marital difficulties. It created a scandal.

Catherine’s Treatment

Dickens’s handling of the separation was widely criticized: - Catherine was banished from the family home - He prevented her from seeing her children (she was allowed only one son, Charley, to live with her) - He spread rumors that she was mentally unstable and a bad mother - He took custody of all nine surviving children - She received a small allowance

Reasons for Harsh Treatment

Dickens’s cruelty toward Catherine was likely motivated by: - Desire to protect his relationship with Ellen Ternan - Fear of scandal affecting his reputation - Genuine belief that the marriage was a mistake - Pressure from his possessive mother-in-law (Georgina Hogarth)

Relationship with Ellen Ternan

Beginnings (1857)

Ellen “Nelly” Ternan (1839-1914) was a young actress when Dickens met her in 1857. She was 18, he 45. The meeting occurred during the production of Wilkie Collins’s play “The Frozen Deep,” in which Dickens performed.

Ellen came from a theatrical family: - Mother: Frances Ternan, actress - Sisters: Maria and Fanny, also actresses - Respectable but not wealthy

The Relationship

The nature of their relationship has been debated: - Conventional view: They were lovers; Ellen may have borne Dickens a son who died in infancy - Alternative view: Relationship was chaste but emotionally intense - Evidence: Letters suggest deep affection; circumstances suggest physical relationship

Whatever its exact nature, the relationship: - Lasted from 1857 until Dickens’s death in 1870 - Required elaborate secrecy - Caused Dickens considerable guilt and anxiety - May have contributed to his premature death through stress

Ellen’s Role

Ellen became Dickens’s companion: - Accompanied him on trips (as “Miss Robinson” or other pseudonyms) - Visited him at Gad’s Hill Place (secretly) - Provided emotional and possibly intellectual companionship - Influenced his late novels (particularly “Great Expectations”)

After Dickens’s death, Ellen: - Married in 1876 (Reverend George Wharton Robinson) - Had two children with Robinson - Never spoke publicly about Dickens - Destroyed his letters to her - Lived until 1914, maintaining silence about the relationship

Relationship with Georgina Hogarth

Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917), Catherine’s sister, lived with the Dickenses from 1842. After the separation, she: - Remained with Dickens as housekeeper and companion - Sided with Charles against her sister - Managed the household at Gad’s Hill Place - Was the subject of rumors about her relationship with Dickens - Remained devoted to him until his death

Her loyalty to Dickens and rejection of her sister caused lasting family rifts.

Parenting and Family Life

As a Father

Dickens was a complex father:

Positive aspects: - Playful and affectionate with young children - Interested in their development - Provided generously for their material needs - Involved them in theatricals and games

Negative aspects: - Disappointed when children did not meet his expectations - Banished sons he considered failures - Controlled their choices of careers and marriages - Separated them from their mother

The Dickens Children

Most of Dickens’s children disappointed his high expectations:

Charley: Businessman, successful but not brilliant Mamie: Never married, lived with Georgina, wrote about her father Katey: Married artist Charles Collins (Wilkie’s brother), then painter Carlo Perugini; artistic but not famous Walter: Army officer, died young in India (possibly suicide) Frank: Mounted police in Canada, died in Moline, Illinois Alfred: Emigrated to Australia, died there Sydney: Navy officer, died in debtor’s prison in London Henry: Most successful; became judge and baronet Edward: Emigrated to Australia, became politician

Dickens’s disappointment with his sons contributed to his stress and declining health.

Daily Life and Habits

Work Routine

Dickens maintained rigorous work habits: - Morning: Writing from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM - Afternoon: Walks (often 12-20 miles) - Evening: Family dinner, then reading or social engagements - Late night: Sometimes returned to writing

He required absolute quiet during writing hours and was particular about his study arrangements.

Exercise and Walking

Dickens was famous for his walking: - Walked 12-20 miles regularly - Walked at night through London streets - Used walking to think through narrative problems - Observed street life that informed his fiction - Sometimes walked from London to Gad’s Hill (30 miles)

These walks were essential to his creative process and his understanding of London life.

Home Life

London residences: - Furnival’s Inn (1830s) - Doughty Street (1837-1839) - now Dickens Museum - Devonshire Terrace (1839-1851) - Tavistock House (1851-1860)

Gad’s Hill Place: - Purchased 1856, moved in 1860 - Dickens’s dream home (he had admired it as a child) - Site of public readings and entertaining - Where he died in 1870

Entertaining

Dickens loved entertaining: - Elaborate dinner parties - Theatricals at home - Games and charades - Amateur theatrical performances - Large Christmas celebrations

His home was a center of literary and artistic London society.

Religious Views

Dickens was a practicing Anglican with distinctive views:

Beliefs: - Believed in God and Christ’s moral teachings - Rejected organized religion’s dogma and ritual - Opposed Roman Catholicism - Critical of religious hypocrisy

Expression: - Attended church irregularly - Preferred practical Christianity (charity, kindness) - Jesus as moral teacher rather than divine savior in his understanding - Wrote “The Life of Our Lord” for his children (unpublished until 1934)

His religious views were those of a moralist rather than a theologian, emphasizing conduct over doctrine.

Political Views

Dickens was a complex political figure:

Generally: - Liberal, reform-minded - Sympathetic to the poor and oppressed - Critical of aristocratic privilege - Opposed revolution and radicalism

Specific views: - Supported sanitation reform - Advocated for education - Opposed slavery (visited American South) - Critical of trade unions (feared violence) - Suspicious of working-class radical movements

“Hard Times”: - Attacked utilitarian philosophy - Criticized industrial capitalism - Sympathized with workers’ conditions - Feared dehumanization of labor

He was a social reformer rather than a political radical, seeking to improve the existing system rather than overturn it.

Health and Death

Declining Health

Dickens’s final years were marked by declining health: - Exhaustion from public readings - Nervous strain from secret life with Ellen Ternan - Stroke in 1869 during readings - Partial paralysis - Forced to cancel remaining American tour

Final Days

• June 8, 1870: Worked on “Edwin Drood” in morning
• June 8, 1870: Collapsed at dinner at Gad’s Hill Place
• June 9, 1870: Died at 6:10 PM, age 58
• Cause: Stroke (apoplexy)

His death shocked England and the world. He was at the height of his powers, with “Edwin Drood” unfinished.

Burial

Despite his wish for private burial at Rochester Cathedral, Dickens was buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey: - Public demand for recognition - Dean of Westminster arranged it - Simple service on June 14, 1870 - Attended by family, friends, and literary figures - Tomb inscription: “He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world.”

Character and Personality

Positive Traits

Energy and enthusiasm: - Tireless worker - Passionate about causes - Animated conversation - Love of performance and games

Generosity: - Supported numerous charities - Helped struggling writers and artists - Gave money to the poor - Financial assistance to family and friends

Loyalty: - Devoted to friends (Wilkie Collins, John Forster) - Supported protégés - Forgiving of many faults

Social conscience: - Genuine concern for the oppressed - Used fame for reform - Identified with the poor from personal experience

Negative Traits

Pride and touchiness: - Sensitive to criticism - Demanded admiration - Could not tolerate opposition - Resented slights (real or imagined)

Cruelty in personal relations: - Treatment of Catherine - Disowning of sons who disappointed him - Manipulation of friends - Demanding nature

Restlessness: - Constantly seeking new stimulation - Dissatisfied with achievements - Difficulty with domestic routine - Need for public adulation

Contradictions

Dickens embodied contradictions: - Champion of domestic virtue who destroyed his marriage - Advocate for children who was disappointed by his own - Social critic who enjoyed aristocratic society - Moralist who kept a secret mistress - Generous friend who could be cruel to family

These contradictions make him human and fascinating, even as they complicate his legacy.

Conclusion

Dickens’s personal life was marked by: - A failed marriage and scandalous separation - A secret relationship that consumed his final years - Complex relationships with his many children - Tireless energy and devastating overwork - Genuine kindness and troubling cruelty - Public adulation and private guilt

His personal struggles informed his fiction, giving it emotional depth and moral urgency. The traumas of his childhood and the conflicts of his adulthood drove him to create works that understood human weakness while aspiring to human dignity. His personal life was messy, contradictory, and ultimately tragic in its premature end, but it produced the conditions for literary achievement that has never been surpassed.

Legacy of Charles Dickens

Literary Legacy

Transformation of the Novel

Dickens fundamentally changed what the novel could be and do:

Before Dickens: - Novels were entertainment for educated elites - Limited social engagement - Focus on individual psychology or romance - Serialized publication uncommon

After Dickens: - Novels became mass entertainment - Social criticism central to fiction - Panoramic vision of society possible - Serialization established as dominant mode - Literature as agent of social change

Influence on Literature

Dickens influenced virtually every subsequent novelist:

English literature: - George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad - Virginia Woolf (mixed reaction, but influenced) - Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Angus Wilson - Salman Rushdie, A.S. Byatt, Zadie Smith

American literature: - Mark Twain, William Faulkner - John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis - John Irving, Donna Tartt

World literature: - Fyodor Dostoevsky (called Dickens “the great Christian”) - Leo Tolstoy - Franz Kafka - Orhan Pamuk, Haruki Murakami

Narrative Techniques Established

Dickens’s methods became standard: - Serial publication as artistic form - Child protagonists - Social criticism through fiction - Vivid characterization through external traits - Symbolic use of setting and objects - Multiple plot lines converging

Social Reform Legacy

Tangible Reforms

Dickens’s work contributed to actual social changes:

Workhouse reform: - “Oliver Twist” contributed to public pressure for Poor Law reform - Workhouse conditions improved over time - “Please, sir, I want some more” became reformist slogan

Education reform: - “Nicholas Nickleby” exposed Yorkshire boarding schools - Several schools closed following publication - Government inspection increased

Legal reform: - “Bleak House” attacked Court of Chancery - Contributed to Judicature Acts (1870s) reforming legal system - Jarndyce and Jarndyce became symbol of legal delay

Debtors’ prisons: - “Little Dorrit” exposed Marshalsea and similar prisons - Imprisonment for debt abolished in England (1869) - Personal experience gave authenticity to critique

Public health: - Sanitation and public health reform supported - Connection between poverty and disease emphasized - Influenced public health legislation

Method of Social Criticism

Dickens established the model for literature as social criticism: - Entertainment carrying serious message - Specific targets identified and satirized - Emotional engagement leading to moral reflection - Reader identification with victims - Reform through changing hearts rather than political programs

This approach influenced: - Upton Sinclair (“The Jungle”) - John Steinbeck (“The Grapes of Wrath”) - Harriet Beecher Stowe (“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”) - Modern investigative journalism

Cultural Legacy

Christmas Traditions

“A Christmas Carol” created or popularized: - Turkey as Christmas dinner centerpiece - Family gathering as essential Christmas element - Charitable giving at Christmas - Christmas as season of redemption - Ghost stories at Christmas - The phrase “Merry Christmas” - The name “Scrooge” as term for miser - The exclamation “Bah! Humbug!”

Christmas as celebrated today owes more to Dickens than to any other single source.

Language and Expression

Dickens added to English language: - “Scrooge” - miser - “Fagin” - corrupter of youth - “Pecksniffian” - hypocritical - “Gradgrind” - fact-obsessed pedant - “Podsnappery” - complacent nationalism - “The law is a ass” (Bumble) - “Please, sir, I want some more” - “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” - “God bless us, every one!”

Character Archetypes

Dickens created permanent archetypes: - The redeemed miser (Scrooge) - The innocent orphan (Oliver Twist) - The jilted woman (Miss Havisham) - The false humble hypocrite (Uriah Heep) - The self-sacrificing hero (Sydney Carton) - The optimistic debtor (Mr. Micawber) - The corrupting villain (Fagin)

These characters are referenced constantly in literature, journalism, and everyday speech.

Adaptation Legacy

Theatrical Adaptations

Dickens’s works were adapted for stage during his lifetime: - Unauthorized adaptations proliferated - Dickens’s own public readings (1858-1870) - Continuous theatrical tradition to present

Film and Television

Dickens is the most adapted English author after Shakespeare: - Over 300 film and television adaptations - “A Christmas Carol”: hundreds of versions - “Oliver Twist”: numerous films including David Lean’s 1948 version and the musical “Oliver!” - “Great Expectations”: David Lean’s 1946 film; multiple BBC series - “David Copperfield”: George Cukor’s 1935 film; recent Armando Iannucci adaptation

Musical Adaptations

• “Oliver!” (Lionel Bart, 1960) - Academy Award-winning film 1968
• Various “Christmas Carol” musicals
• “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” (Rupert Holmes, Broadway musical)
• “A Tale of Two Cities” (Jill Santoriello, musical)

Modern Retellings

Dickens’s works continue to be reimagined: - “Scrooged” (1988) - “Christmas Carol” update - “Oliver & Company” (1988) - animated “Oliver Twist” - “Great Expectations” (1998) - modernized version - “Dickensian” (BBC series, 2015) - combining characters from multiple novels - Contemporary novelists retelling Dickens (“Dorian,” “Havisham”)

Academic and Institutional Legacy

Dickens Studies

• Charles Dickens Society (founded 1970)
• “Dickens Studies Annual” and “Dickens Quarterly”
• Hundreds of scholarly books and articles annually
• Dickens courses at universities worldwide

Museums and Preservation

• Charles Dickens Museum, London: 48 Doughty Street, his London home (1837-1839)
• Gad’s Hill Place: Now a school, with some areas preserved
• Eastgate House, Rochester: Setting for Westgate in “The Pickwick Papers”
• Portsmouth Birthplace Museum
• Various plaques and markers in London and Kent

Festivals and Celebrations

• Dickens Festivals: Held in Rochester, Portsmouth, and many cities worldwide
• Dickens Christmas Fairs: Popular in Britain and America
• Dickens Universe: Annual conference at UC Santa Cruz

Global Legacy

In Britain

Dickens is central to British cultural identity: - Required reading in schools - Source of national self-understanding - Representation of Victorian England - Reference point for social criticism - Icon of English literary greatness

In America

Dickens was and remains enormously popular in the United States: - First American tour (1842) - mixed reception - Second American tour (1867-1868) - triumphant - “Christmas Carol” essential to American Christmas - Continuous publication and adaptation - Influence on American literature and culture

Worldwide

Dickens is truly global: - Translated into every major language - Read and studied worldwide - Adapted in every film and television culture - Influence on world literature (Dostoevsky, Kafka, etc.)

Modern Relevance

Contemporary Concerns

Dickens speaks to 21st-century issues: - Inequality: “A Christmas Carol,” “Hard Times” - relevant to modern wealth gaps - Homelessness: “Oliver Twist” - street children still with us - Bureaucracy: “Little Dorrit” - Circumlocution Office exists in modern government - Legal system: “Bleak House” - legal delays and costs still problematic - Education: “Hard Times” - testing culture and dehumanization - Environmental destruction: Industrial satire resonates with climate concerns

Popularity Today

Dickens remains extraordinarily popular: - Novels never out of print - Consistently among best-selling classics - Films and television adaptations continue - New biographies and critical studies published regularly - Social media presence (Dickens quotes, memes, etc.)

Why Dickens Endures

Several factors explain his lasting appeal:

Characters: - Memorable, vivid, quotable - Types made individual - Universal appeal across cultures and eras

Storytelling: - Compelling plots - Emotional engagement - Mixture of humor and pathos

Social relevance: - Criticism of injustice timeless - Champion of the underdog - Moral clarity without preachiness

Prose style: - Accessible yet artful - Performative quality - Quotable sentences

Assessment of Legacy

Comparison with Shakespeare

Dickens is often compared to Shakespeare: - Both created characters that became permanent archetypes - Both captured their societies comprehensively - Both combined popular appeal with artistic greatness - Both are endlessly adaptable - Dickens is the novelist equivalent to Shakespeare the dramatist

Position in Literary History

Dickens’s place is secure: - Greatest Victorian novelist - One of the greatest English writers - Among the world’s major authors - Creator of the modern social novel - Transformer of the serial form into art

Conclusion

Charles Dickens’s legacy extends across every domain of culture:

Literary: He transformed the novel into a vehicle for social criticism while maintaining its entertainment value. His influence on subsequent writers is incalculable.

Social: His exposure of specific abuses contributed to real reforms. His method of social criticism through fiction remains the model for engaged literature.

Cultural: He created or transformed Christmas traditions, added expressions to the language, and established character archetypes that remain current.

Global: His works are read, studied, and adapted worldwide, speaking across cultures and generations.

Moral: His emphasis on compassion, social justice, and individual dignity continues to inspire readers and reformers.

Dickens achieved what few writers have: both immediate mass popularity and lasting literary greatness. His works entertained millions in his lifetime and have entertained billions since. More importantly, they opened readers’ eyes to injustice and opened their hearts to compassion. His legacy is not merely literary but moral - a reminder that literature can change the world by changing those who read it.

The final words of his self-chosen epitaph, from “The Pickwick Papers,” capture his legacy: “He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world.” Nearly 150 years after his death, that loss is still felt, and his sympathy still inspires.