Charles John Huffam Dickens, born on February 7, 1812, in Hampshire, England, is widely recognized as one of the greatest novelists of the Victorian era. He is celebrated for creating some of the most iconic fictional characters in literature and is cherished for his poignant social criticism. Dickens’s works enjoyed immense popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century, he was acknowledged as a literary genius. His novels and short stories continue to be widely read and studied. He was the second of eight children born to Elizabeth Dickens and John Dickens, a Navy Pay Office clerk.
At the age of 7, he first saw Joseph Grimaldi. His early exposure to the performances of Joseph Grimaldi, the father of modern clowning, left a lasting impression, and he would later imitate Grimaldi’s clowning. Additionally, Dickens edited the Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi.
1824: At the age of 12, Dickens had to work in a factory due to his father’s debt, while his father, John Dickens, was imprisoned at the Marshalsea debtors’ prison in Southwark, London. This experience deeply influenced him, and he later used the prison setting in his novel “Little Dorrit.”
Despite his lack of formal education, Dickens edited a weekly journal for two decades and wrote numerous novels, novellas, short stories, and non-fiction articles. He was a passionate advocate for children’s rights, education, and various social reforms.
1827 to 1828: Dickens attended the Wellington House Academy in Camden Town, spending around two years there. During this time, he developed a deep love for the theater, regularly attending performances, with a particular fondness for actor Charles Mathews and his “monopolylogues,” a form of entertainment where one actor plays multiple characters. Charles Mathews and Albert Smith pioneered the genre of monopolylogues in 1824, with Mathews famously portraying several characters in a single act. This genre likely influenced Dickens’s writing.
Subsequently, in 1828, he worked as a junior clerk at the law office of Holborn Court, Gray’s Inn. While working in the law office, Dickens learned Thomas Gurney’s shorthand system in his spare time. Shorthand is an abbreviated writing method that enables faster transcription compared to longhand.
1830: Dickens experienced his first love, Maria Beadnell, who is believed to have inspired the character Dora in his novel “David Copperfield.” Unfortunately, their courtship faced opposition from Maria’s parents, effectively ending their relationship.
1832: At the age of 20, Charles Dickens was drawn to the world of theater and even secured an audition at Covent Garden. Dickens prepared meticulously for the audition, intending to imitate the comedian Charles Mathews. However, he missed the audition due to a cold.
In the same year, Dickens worked in the House of Commons, a job offered to him by William Barrow, his uncle on his mother’s side. He worked for “The Mirror of Parliament.”
1833: Dickens submitted his first story, titled “A Dinner at Poplar Walk,” to the London periodical Monthly Magazine.
1836: As a political journalist, Dickens traveled across Britain to cover election campaigns for the Morning Chronicle. His experiences in journalism formed the basis of his first collection, “Sketches by Boz,”. The pen name “Boz” was apparently derived from the nickname “Moses,” which Dickens had given to his youngest brother, Augustus Dickens, inspired by a character in Oliver Goldsmith’s “The Vicar of Wakefield.” “Moses” eventually evolved into “Boses” and was later shortened to “Boz.”
1836: Charles Dickens married Catherine Thomson Hogarth, the daughter of George Hogarth, who was the editor of the Evening Chronicle. The couple had ten children over the course of their marriage.
1836-1837: Dickens published his first novel, “The Pickwick Papers.” The full title of the novel is “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.” It is structured as a series of loosely connected comic adventures featuring the members of the Pickwick Club, a fictional organization dedicated to exploring various aspects of English life.
1837-1839: Dickens published “Oliver Twist,” his second novel. Dickens wrote at an incredible pace, producing as many as 90 pages a month. “Oliver Twist” is one of his most famous works and is considered a classic of English literature. It was also the first Victorian novel to feature a child protagonist.
During this time, Dickens’s younger brother Frederick, and Catherine’s 17-year-old sister, Mary Hogarth, moved in with them. Dickens grew very attached to Mary, and tragically, she died in his arms after a brief illness in 1837. Dickens idealized Mary, and he created characters in his fiction inspired by her, such as Rose Maylie in his later works. Ackroyd suggests that he drew on his memories of Mary for his descriptions of characters like Little Nell and Florence Dombey.
Charles Dickens’s success as a novelist continued to grow, with even the young Queen Victoria reading his works, including “Oliver Twist” and “The Pickwick Papers,” often staying up until midnight to discuss them.
1838–1839: Nicholas Nickleby. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby; monthly serial.
1840–41: The Old Curiosity Shop. weekly serial in Master Humphrey’s Clock.
1840–41: Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of ‘Eighty, as part of the weekly serial Master Humphrey’s Clock series, his first historical novel.
1842: In January 1842, Charles Dickens embarked on his first visit to the United States. During his American tour, he spent a month in New York City, giving lectures and raising the issue of international copyright laws and the unauthorized copying of his work in America.
1843: After returning from the U.S., Dickens began working on a series of Christmas stories. The most famous among them is “A Christmas Carol”. It became immensely popular and played a significant role in revitalizing the Christmas spirit in both Britain and America.
1843–1844: “Martin Chuzzlewit”, the Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit; monthly serial; novel. It explores themes of family, selfishness, and society.
1844: “The Chimes”, a goblin story of some bells that rang an old year out and a new year in; novella.
1845: “The Cricket on the Hearth,” a fairy tale of home; novella.
1846: “The Battle of Life,” a love story; novella. It emphasizes themes of redemption and the human capacity for change.
1846–1848: “Dombey and Son,” a novel. Dickens started working on this novel during his travels to Italy and Switzerland. The character of Paul Dombey is thought to be inspired by Christopher Huffam, a rigger to His Majesty’s Navy and Dickens’s godfather. The novel revolves around a shipping company owned by Paul Dombey.
1848: “The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain”. This Christmas novella, like his other Christmas works, carries a moral message and explores themes of redemption, regret, and transformation.
1849–1850: “David Copperfield” is considered a significant artistic break in Dickens’s career. It represents a shift toward more serious and carefully planned novels. The book is seen as somewhat autobiographical, reflecting elements of Dickens’s own life, and it was a personal favorite of the author. In Dickens’s biography, Life of Charles Dickens (1872), John Forster wrote of David Copperfield, “underneath the fiction lay something of the author’s life”.
1852-1853: “Bleak House” novel known for its intricate plot and strong social commentary on the legal system and bureaucracy. It features two parallel narratives, one focused on a legal case known as Jarndyce and Jarndyce and the other on the life of the protagonist, Esther Summerson.
1854: “Hard Times” novel that explores the harsh realities of industrialization and the impact of utilitarianism on society. It tells the story of characters living in the fictional town of Coketown.
1855-1857: “Little Dorrit” novel delves into themes of imprisonment and social class. It follows the life of Amy Dorrit and her experiences with the Marshalsea debtor’s prison. During this period, he worked closely with the novelist and playwright Wilkie Collins.
1856: In this year, Charles Dickens’s writing income afforded him the opportunity to purchase Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent. As a child, he had often passed by this house and dreamt of living in it. The fact that the area was associated with events from Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1” delighted him due to this literary connection.
During this period, Dickens took on multiple roles as the publisher, editor, and a significant contributor to the periodicals “Household Words” (1850–1859) and “All the Year Round” (1858–1870).
1857: Dickens organized a production of “The Frozen Deep,” a play he co-wrote with, Wilkie Collins. During this endeavor, Dickens developed romantic feelings for one of the actresses, Ellen Ternan, who was 18 years old at the time, while Dickens was 45. In 1858, his wife Catherine left him.
1859: Dickens published “A Tale of Two Cities,” a novel set during the turbulent period of the French Revolution. The book explores themes of resurrection, sacrifice, and the stark contrasts between London and Paris. It is perhaps best known for its iconic opening sentence, which begins with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” and is often cited as one of the best-selling novels of all time.
1861: Another of his notable works “Great Expectations”, delves into themes like wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil.
1865: On June 9, 1865, while returning from Paris with Ellen Ternan, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash in Kent. He later used this harrowing experience as material for his short ghost story, “The Signal-Man,” which features a character who has a premonition of his own death in a rail crash. This story draws on several previous rail accidents, such as the Clayton Tunnel rail crash in Sussex in 1861.
1867: Dickens embarked on his second visit to the United States, starting in Boston. During this trip, he engaged with notable figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and his American publisher, James T. Fields.
1864-1865: Additionally, his novel “Our Mutual Friend” addresses themes of money, society, and morality, focusing on the story of John Harmon, who inherits his father’s wealth and the ensuing consequences.
1868-69: Charles Dickens embarked on a series of “farewell readings” in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Of the originally contracted 100 readings, he managed to deliver 75 in various provinces, with an additional 12 in London. However, during this tour, he suffered a stroke, leading to the cancellation of the remaining readings.
1870: After more provincial readings were canceled due to his health, Dickens began work on his final novel, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” During the 1860s, it was fashionable to explore the slums of London, and Dickens visited opium dens in Shadwell. There, he encountered an elderly opium addict named “Laskar Sal,” who served as the inspiration for the character “Opium Sal” in “Edwin Drood.” Tragically, Dickens passed away before he could complete the novel, leaving it unfinished. “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” is a mystery novel with an unsolved central mystery—the disappearance of Edwin Drood.
1870: On June 8, 1870, Charles Dickens passed away. His last words were “On the ground,” in response to his sister-in-law Georgina’s request that he lie down. On Sunday, June 19, 1870, just five days after Dickens’s burial in the Abbey, Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley delivered a memorial elegy, celebrating the memory of “the genial and loving humorist” whom they were mourning.
Dickens’s literary approach drew from various traditions, including the picaresque novel, melodrama, and the novel of sensibility. He was also significantly influenced by the fables of “The Arabian Nights.” Satire and irony played central roles in the picaresque novel tradition. Comedy, as seen in the works of Laurence Sterne, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett, was another aspect of Dickens’s writing. Dickens, in his youth, had read Fielding’s “Tom Jones,” which was a major influence on 19th-century novelists, including himself. He was so inspired by Fielding that he named one of his sons Henry Fielding Dickens in homage to the author.