Brief biography charles

Born on February 7, , in Portsmouth, England, Dickens faced financial hardship from an early age. Renowned for his humor, satire, and acute observations of society, Dickens pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, captivating audiences with his serialized novels and engaging characters.

Brief biography charles

However, critics like Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf criticized his perceived lack of psychological depth and sentimentalism. In he embarked on a visit to Canada and the United States in which he advocated international copyright unscrupulous American publishers, in particular, were pirating his works and the abolition of slavery. His American Notes , which created a furor in America he commented unfavorably, for one thing, on the apparently universal — and, so far as Dickens was concerned, highly distasteful — American predilection for chewing tobacco and spitting the juice , appeared in October of that year.

Martin Chuzzlewit , part of which was set in a not very flatteringly portrayed America, was begun in , and ran through July A Christmas Carol , the first of Dickens's enormously successful Christmas books — each, though they grew progressively darker, intended as "a whimsical sort of masque intended to awaken loving and forbearing thoughts" — appeared in December In that same year, Dickens and his family toured Italy, and were much abroad, in Italy, Switzerland, and France, until Dickens returned to London in December , when The Chimes was published, and then went back to Italy, not to return to England until July of The Cricket and the Hearth , a third Christmas book, was published in December, and his Pictures From Italy appeared in in the "Daily News," a paper which Dickens founded and of which, for a short time, he was the editor.

The Battle of Life appeared in December of that year. In Dickens also wrote an autobiographical fragment, directed and acted in a number of amateur theatricals, and published what would be his last Christmas book, The Haunted Man , in December. In that year, too, Dickens founded and installed himself as editor of the weekly Household Words , which would be succeeded, in , by All the Year Round , which he edited until his death.

In he toured Italy with Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins , and gave, upon his return to England, the first of many public readings from his own works. Hard Times began to appear weekly in Household Words in , and continued until August. Dickens's family spent the summer and the fall in Boulogne. In they arrived in Paris in October, and Dickens began Little Dorrit , which continued in monthly parts until June The Dickens family spent the summer of at a renovated Gad's Hill.

Hans Christian Anderson , whose fairy tales Dickens admired greatly, visited them there and quickly wore out his welcome. Its themes focus on the need for sacrifice, the struggle between the evils inherent in oppression and revolution, and the possibility of resurrection and rebirth. This is a Dickens who has at last captured in prose fiction the stage heroics he adored.

With extreme imagery and colorful characters, the well-received novel touches on wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and good versus evil. In June , Dickens was a passenger on a train that plunged off a bridge in Kent, according to biographer Fred Kaplan. He tended to the wounded and even saved the lives of some passengers before assistance arrived, and he was able to retrieve his unfinished manuscript for his next novel, Our Mutual Friend , from the wreckage.

Serial Publication: April Novel Publication: However, Dickens died less than two months later, leaving the novel unfinished. Only six of a planned 12 installments of his final work were completed at the time of his death, according to biographer Fido Martin. In , Dickens and his wife, Catherine, embarked on a five-month lecture tour of the United States.

Dickens spoke of his opposition to slavery and expressed his support for additional reform. His lectures, which began in Virginia and ended in Missouri, were so widely attended that ticket scalpers gathered outside his events. Biographer J. Although he enjoyed the attention at first, he eventually resented the invasion of privacy. After his criticism of the American people during his first tour, Dickens later launched a second U.

On December 19, , Dickens published A Christmas Carol , one of his most timeless and beloved works. The book features the famous protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly old miser who—with the help of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come—finds the holiday spirit. Dickens penned the book in just six weeks, beginning in October and finishing just in time for Christmas celebrations.

The book was a roaring success, selling more than 6, copies upon publication. In , he wrote a stage play titled No Thoroughfare. He died the next day at age At the time, Edwin Drood had begun its serial publication; it was never finished. Open since , it appears like a middle-class Victorian home exactly as Dickens lived in it, and it houses a significant collection related to Dickens and his works.

Some adaptations have taken unique approaches to the source material. However, John Dickens spent beyond his means and he was sent to Marshalsea debtors prison when Charles was In those days people in debt could be imprisoned until their debts were paid off. Charles found a job in a boot blacking factory. Fortunately, after a few months, a relative of John Dickens died and left him some money so he was able to pay his debts.

Charles was eventually able to leave the blacking factory and return to school. However, Charles never forgot this horrid experience. However, when he was 16 Charles became a journalist. Then in , Dickens had his first story published. Then in the first novel by Dickens, The Pickwick Papers was published as a serial.