Dickens' life

Charles John Hul'fam Dickens was born in Portsmouth on Feb. 7, 1812. He moved with his family to London when he was about two years old. Many of the events and people in his books are based on events and people in his life. Dickens' father, John Dickens, was a poor and easygoing clerk who worked for the navy. John served in some respects as the model for Wilkins Micawber in «David Copperfield». He spent time in prison for debt, an event Charles re-created in «Little Dorrit».

Even when John was free, he lackcd the money to support his family adequately. At the age of 12, Charles worked in a London factory pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish. He held the job only a few months, but the misery of that experience remained with him all his life.

Dickens attended school off and on until he was 15, and then left for good. He enjoyed reading and was especially fond of ad­venture stories, fairy tales, and novels. He was influenced by such earlier English writers as William Shakespeare, Tobias Smollett, and Henry Fielding. However, most of the knowledge he later used as an author came from his observation of life around him.

Dickens became a newspaper reporter in the late 1820's. He specialized in covering debates in Parliament, and also wrote fea­ture articles. His work as a reporter sharpened his naturally keen ear for conversation and helped develop his skill in portraying his characters' speech realistically. It also increased his ability to ob­serve and to write swiftly and clearly. Dickens' first book, «Sketches by Boz» (1836), consisted of articles he wrote for the «Monthly Magazine» and the London «Evening Chronicle». These descrip­tions, fictional portraits, and short stories surveyed manners and conditions of the time.

Literary success. Dickens won his first literary fame with «The

Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club». Published in monthly parts in 1836 and 1837, the book describes the humorous adven­tures and misadventures of a group of slightly eccentric characters in London and the English countryside. After a slow start, «The Pickwick Papers» - as the book is usually called — gained a popu­larity seldom matched in the history of literature. At 24, Dickens suddenly found himself famous. He remained so until his death.

Dickens founded and edited two highly successful weekly maga­zines. He edited «Household Words» from 1850 to 1859 and «All the Year Round» from 1859 to his death. As apublic figure, Dickens was constantly in the news, and was recognizcd and honored wher­ever he went. He was famous in America as well as in Britain, and he toured the United Stales in 1842 and in 1867 and 1868.

Personal life. Personal unhappincss marked Dickens' public success. In 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth. Catherine had a sister Mary, who died in 1837. Dickens' grief at Mary's death has led some scholars to believe that he loved Mary more than his wife. Catherine was a good woman but lacked great intelligence. She and Dickens had 10 children. The couple separated in 1858.

Dickens had remarkable mental and physical energy. He re­corded his activities in thousands of letters, many of which make delightful reading. He spent much of his crowded social life with friends from the worlds of art and literature. Dickens enjoyed drama and went to the theater as often as he could. When he was rich and famous, he made a hobby of producing and acting in amateur the­atrical productions. He had great success giving public readings of his works. Dickens' gift for creating dramatic scenes in his novels can be traced to his love for the theater.

Besides writing, editing, and touring as a dramatic reader, Dickens busied himself with various charities. These charities in­cluded schools for poor children and a loan society to enable the poor to move to Australia. Dickens often walked for hours to work off his remaining energy. He came to know the streets and alleys of London better, perhaps, than any other person of his time.

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Dickens' health began to decline about 1865 and he died of a stroke on June 9, 1870.

Dickens' books

Dickcns wrote 20 novels (including 5 short Christmas books), and many sketches, travel books, and other non-fiction works. Not all of his books were best sellers, but the most popular ones broke all sales records for the time. Most of his novels were published in sections.

The first phase. After the success of «The Pickwick Papers», Dickcns turned to more serious themes and plots. However, he al­ways introduced enough humor to keep his books entertaining.

«Oliver Twist» (1837—1839) describes the adventures of a poor orphan boy. The book was noted for its sensational presentation of London's criminal world and for its attack on England's mistreat­ment of the poor.

In «Nicholas Nickleby» (1838—1839), Dickens criticized greedy proprietors of private schools, who treated students brutally and taught them nothing.

«The Old Curiosity Shop» (1840—1841) is less respected to­day than when it was first published, largely because the death scene of Little Nell seems sentimental to modem tastes.

«Barnaby Rudge» (1841) is a historical novel that deals with a series of riots in London in 1780. «Martin Chuzzlewit» (1843— 1844) is one of two books that Dickcns based on his first trip to America. The other is the travel book «American Notes» (1842). Dickens intended «Martin Chuzzlewit» to be a study of many forms of selfishness. But it is best known for its unflattering picture of the crudeness of American manners and for its comic characters. Two of its finest creations arc the hypocrite Pecksniff and the chatter­ing, alcoholic midwife Sairey Gamp.

Dickcns wrote his five «Christmas books» during the 1840's. The first, «А Christmas Carol» (1843), is one of the most famous stories ever written. In the book, three ghosts show the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge his past, present, and future. Realizing that he has been living a life of greed, Scrooge changes into a warm and unselfish person. The other Christmas books are «The Chimes» (1844), «The Cricket on the Hearth» (1845), «The Battle of Life» (1846), and «The Haunted Man» (1848).

The second phase. During the 1840's, Dickens' view of Victo­rian society, and perhaps of the world, grew darker. His humor became more bitter, often taking the form of biting satire. His char-
aciers and plots seemed to emphasize the evil side of human expe­rience.

At the same time, Dickens increasingly refined his art. The range of his tone widened and he paid more attention to structure and arrangement. He turned to symbolic themes to help express and expand his observations on topical political and social issues and on larger matters of morality and values. The unhealthy London fog in «Bleak House», for example, symbolizes the illness of soci­ety, especially its lack of responsibility toward the downtrodden and the unfortunate.

«Dombey and Son» (1846—1848) deals primarily with a self­ish egotist whose pride cuts him off from the warmth of human love. The book stresses the evils of the Victorian admiration for money. Dickens believed that money had bccome the measure of all personal relations and the goal of all ambition.

With «David Copperfield» (1849—1850), Dickcns temporarily lessened the role of social criticism to concentrate more on semiautobiography. The novel describes a young man's discovery of the realities of adult life. David's youth is clearly patterned after Dickens'youth.

«Bleak House» (1852—1853) is in many respects Dickens' greatest novel. It has a complex structure and талу levels of mean­ing, mixing melodrama with satire and social commentary. The book deals with many social evils, chiefly wasteful and cruel legal pro­cesses. It also attacks the neglcct of the poor, false humanitarians and clergymen, and poor sanitation.

This long novel was followed by the much shorter and simpler «Hard Times» (1854). «Hard Times» attacks philosopher Jeremy Bentham's doctrine of utilitarianism. Bentham believed that all human ideas, actions, and institutions should be judged by their usefulness. Dickens was convinced that Bentham reduced social relations to problems of cold, mechanical self-interest.

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In «Little Dorrii» (1855—1857), Dickens continued his campaign against materialism and snobbery, which were represented by the rich Menile family and their social-climbing friends. He also ridiculed gov­ernment inefficiency in the form of the «Circumlocution Office». The prison, like the fog in «Bleak House», is symbolic. It stands for the painful conditions of life in a materialistic, decaying society.

«Л Tale of Two Cilics» (1859) was the second of Dickcns' two historical novels. It is set in London and Paris and tells of the hero­ism of fictional Sidney Carton during the French Revolution.

In «Great Expectations» (1860—1861), Dickcns returned to the theme of a youth's discovery of the realities of life. An unknown person provides the young hero Pip with money so that Pip can live as a gentleman. Pip's pride is shattered when he learns the source of his «great expectations». Only by painfully revising his values does Pip reestablish his life on a foundation of sympathy, rather than on vanity, possessions, and social position.

«Our Mutual Friend» (1864—1865) was Dickens' final novel of social criticism. Dickens again attacked the false values of the newly rich. He satirized greed, using the great garbage heaps of the London dumps as a symbol of filthy money. The novel is also no­table for its suggestive use of London's River Thames.

Dickens had completed about one-third of his novel «The Mys­tery of Edwin Drood» when he died. Nobody knows how Dickens intended the story to end. Scholars and readers throughout the years have proposed many possible solutions for the mystery.