The study of the depth of the human soul, the desire to know the world in its contradictions and diversity, the analysis of human actions - this is what Charles Dickens devoted his work to.

Biography of the writer

Charles John Huffham Dickens was born in Portsmouth on 02/07/1812. He was the second child in the family. Sister Fanny is two years older than him. Father, John Dickens, a minor employee in the Admiralty, the son of a maid and footman, was a very generous and good-natured person. He liked to brag and tell jokes. All this was combined in him with a weakness for gin and whiskey.

He dreamed of becoming an actor, but he could not fulfill his dream. Addiction to the theater, living beyond his means led him eventually to a prison for debtors. The whole family was there with him. Dickens, in Little Dorit, does an excellent job of describing the debtor's prison. At the age of 12, Charles Dickens was forced to work in a wax factory. Memories of this period of life will be reflected in the novel "David Copperfield", in the episode of washing bottles.

Dickens was tormented by these memories even in his mature years. In his mind forever remained the fear of poverty. During the six months that he worked at this factory, Charles felt helpless, humiliated. In one of his letters, he wrote that no one suspected how bitterly and secretly he suffered.

Family. Father

However, Charles did not hide the fact that he loved his father more than his mother. Mr. John tried not to refuse anything to the children, he surrounded them with care and affection. Particularly Charles' favorite. For the boy, the father became a close friend. He often took him with him to Maitre Inn, where, together with his sister, they sang songs to the regulars of the tavern.

From him, Charles Dickens inherited a love of the theater, a rich imagination, and ease of speech. Dickens was so interested in the theater that he tried not to miss a single amateur production. I have been to the Royal Theater in Rochester several times. At home, they played plays with pleasure, read poetry.

With delight, he recalls walks outside the city, riding with his father on the river and magical pictures that opened from the top of the hill. Father always asked Charles to tell about his impressions. Passing by the Gadshill house, he told his father how beautiful and majestic this house was. To which his father replied that it might happen that Charles could live in this house if he worked hard.

Family. Mother

Elizabeth's mother, a kind, honest woman, was by birth superior to her husband. Among her relatives were officials. But the softness of her character did not allow her to somehow influence her husband. Charles learned to read and write early, with the help of his mother. She also taught him Latin. She did not have time to study with Charles, distracted by the chores and worries about younger children. The nanny who worked in their house said that Mrs. Dickens was an excellent woman and a caring mother.

The family had eight children. Charles simply did not understand that all the worries about the well-being of the family lay on the shoulders of the mother. He, as often happens with sickly children who do not have full-fledged communication with their peers, closed in on himself. And maternal love seemed to him fragile and fickle.

Childhood

A good memory and unusual powers of observation manifested themselves in Charles when he was not even two years old. As an adult, he clearly remembered everything that happened at that time: what was going on outside the window, how the soldiers took him to watch, recalled the garden along which he stomped with his little feet behind his older sister.

In 1814, Charles's father occupies a responsible post, and the family moves to Chatham. The first few years were the happiest for Charles. He recalled those days with pleasure, childhood left a bright trace in his soul. Together with his sister, the boy scouted all the Chatham docks, climbed the cathedral and the castle, walked all the streets and paths.

He remembered to the smallest detail everything that happened: every event, every little thing, an accidentally thrown word or glance. Little Dickens grew up as a sickly child, and therefore he could not play enough with the children, but he loved, looking up from reading, to watch them. A neighbor boy, slightly older than Charles, became his friend.

Dickens already at such an early age noticed the habits, oddities and quirks of people. Later, he reflected these memories in the "Essays of Boz".

First school

When the boy was nine years old, family affairs were so bad that the spacious, bright and cheerful house had to be replaced with a poor house. But the boy's life was in a serious mood. He went to school, where a young priest advised him to read the English classics as much as possible, writes Charles Dickens in his memoirs. Books became for him the greatest joy and the main school.

In early 1823 the family moved to London. Charles, who arrived a little later, was saddened. Leaving school was a hard blow for the boy. The Dickens could not afford servants, and Charles had to babysit his brothers and sisters, run errands, shine shoes. He didn't have any friends. He also left that joyful feeling that he experienced at school - familiarization with knowledge.

Sister Fanny was leaving to study at the Royal Academy of Music. Many years later, Charles will complain to one of his friends how painful it was for him to see his sister off and think that now no one cares about you. Soon things got really bad. In order to pay off their creditors, the Dickens are forced to pawn everything they had. The family ended up in a "debt prison".

Debt hole

In order to somehow help them, a relative of his mother takes Charles to his wax factory. Charles is going through this period very painfully. In early 1924, Mr. John received a small inheritance and paid off the debt. Soon the family moved to a separate house. By chance, Charles's father went to the factory where his son worked and saw horrendous conditions. He did not like it, the boy was immediately fired.

The mother was upset and tried to negotiate with the owner to take her son back. Resentment is deeply embedded in the soul of the boy. In his memoirs, Charles writes that he will never forget how she wanted to doom him again to endless torment for 6 shillings a week. But his father insisted that he needed to study. And Charles becomes a visiting student of a private school, where he studied for two years.

School and first job

At school, he quickly became everyone's favorite - the first student in the school, friendly, agile. Charles on notebook pages began to publish a weekly school newspaper, in which he wrote himself. He gave it to read in exchange for slate pencils. All in all, he had a great time. These were the happiest years of his life.

There was no money for further education in the family. After school at the age of 15, Charles goes to work for a lawyer. Reading books, his observation and life experience did their job. He was offered a position as a reporter at the local court. In parallel, he collaborates with several London magazines and newspapers, receiving a pittance for his work. But he is working hard, hoping to establish himself as a journalist soon.

Dickens knew London very well, every street, with all the slums, factories, markets and luxurious mansions. He was the first to describe the city with deep knowledge of the matter, nightlife and crime. Perhaps this was the beginning of his literary activity.

The beginning of literary activity

As a reporter, Dickens visited the London courthouse. Soon what he heard and saw there spilled onto the pages of his novels. In 1833, Charles read in the Monthly Magazine a story by an unknown author, "Dinner in Poplar Alley." It was his literary debut. Dickens created a cycle of essays about London and its inhabitants under the pseudonym "Woz". Readers liked them, and the publisher published them as a separate book, Essays by Woz.

Charles Dickens entered English literature with the Essays of Woz, but established himself in it with the novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. The novel was published in installments, filled with humor and told about the adventures of the good-natured Mr. Pickwick. At the same time, in the novel, the author makes fun of English justice. In terms of genre, it was close to the "sports news" common at that time in England.

Dickens did not accidentally choose this genre, as it allowed the introduction of new themes, heroes, to whom he provided greater freedom of action, allowed him to interrupt the narrative. So, from the first pages of the novel, Dickens has images dear to his heart, affirming goodness in spite of circumstances.

The Artistic World of Dickens

Dickens had the richest imagination. It was this knowledge of the unsightly sides of London, and England in general, that helped him create a diverse artistic world. The stories of Charles Dickens were populated by countless dramatic, comical and tragic characters. His novels are full of people of all classes, life, customs and details, written out with reporter's accuracy.

From the first pages, the reader's attention is riveted by funny scenes and humor in relation to their favorite characters - ordinary people. The world created by Dickens is theatrical and is a mixture of realism and fantasy. It is bright and hyperbolic. For example, the images of Truhty Wack, Scrooge, the Artful Dodger are hyperbolic, but nevertheless, despite all the exaggerations, they are quite realistic types.

The Artful Dodger is not just ridiculous - he is a caricature. But quite typical. A boy living in a corrupt world takes revenge on him for all his misfortunes. In court, he declares that the shop is not suitable for justice. Raised in the slums of London, the Dodger is rude and funny, but he makes you realize how terrible this world is - he created it in order to trample it.

The artistic world of the writer represents the eternal struggle between good and evil. The confrontation of these forces determines not only the theme of the novel, but also a peculiar solution to this problem. Dickens the moralist asserts in the novel his ideal - goodness. Dickens the realist cannot but admire his heroes, both personifying evil and personifying good.

The main periods of creativity

In numerous essays, short stories, notes, essays and sixteen novels by Dickens, the reader is presented with the image of England in the 19th century, embarking on the path of economic development. The realistic picture of England created by the writer reflects the process of evolution of the writer-artist. At the same time, a convinced realist, he always remains a romantic. In other words, realism and romanticism are closely intertwined in his work by Charles Dickens. Books and stages of his creative path are conditionally divided into four periods.

Period one (1833-1837)

At this time, the Pickwick Papers and Woz Essays were created. They clearly looms the satirical orientation of his work. And, of course, the ethical opposition of "good and evil." It is expressed in a dispute between truth (an emotional perception of life based on imagination) and falsehood (a rational approach to reality based on figures and facts).

Second period (1838-1845)

During this period, the writer acts as a reformer of the genre. It expands a niche that is not being seriously developed by anyone - children's topics. In Europe, he was the first to display the life of children in his works. Here, Charles Dickens directly connects two themes - "great expectations" and childhood. It becomes central in this period of creativity, and continues to sound in subsequent works.

  • "Barnaby Rudge" (1841) - an appeal to historical topics is explained by the author's attempt to understand the modern world through the prism of history.
  • The Antiquities Shop (1841) is an attempt to find an alternative to evil in fairy tales.
  • "American Notes" (1843) - comprehension of modern England. Charles's trip to America broadened the writer's horizons, and he had the opportunity to look at England from the "other side".

During this period of creativity, he also created the following works, which deeply affect the children's theme, in which the author touchingly and carefully revealed the soul of the child. Humiliation, bullying and hard work - this is what Charles Dickens was outraged to the core. Oliver Twist is the hero of his novel, a sad example of the cruelty and heartlessness of the public.

  • 1838 - "Oliver Twist".
  • 1839 - "Nicholas Nickleby".
  • 1843 - "Martin Chuzzlewit".
  • 1843-1848 - "Christmas stories" series.

Period Three (1848-1859)

At this stage, the social pessimism of the writer deepens. The writing technique is noticeably changing, it becomes more restrained and thoughtful. The author deepens his research into child psychology. A new, previously unexplored, moral emptiness also appears. During this time, the following novels were published:

  • 1848 - "Dombey and Son".
  • 1850 - "David Copperfield".
  • 1853 - "Bleak House".
  • 1854 - "Hard Times".
  • 1857 - "Little Dorrit".
  • 1859 - "A Tale of Two Cities".

Period Four (1861-1870)

In the novels of this period you will no longer find mild humor. It is replaced by ruthless irony. And Charles Dickens turns "great hopes" into, in fact, Balzac's "lost illusions." Only more irony, skepticism, more bitterness. Dickens subjects his last novels to deep philosophical reflection - the face and the mask that hides it. His latest novel, Our Mutual Friend, is based on this face-mask game. Dickens' last two masterpieces:

  • 1861 - "Great Expectations".
  • 1865 - "Our Mutual Friend".

The novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" remained unfinished. He still remains a mystery to literary critics, critics and readers.

Three most popular novels

"David Copperfield" is largely an autobiographical novel, many of the events here echo the life of the author. This is a memory novel. This is what Charles Dickens himself experienced. The biography of the protagonist is closely intertwined with his own life. Carefully conveys to the reader the impressions and judgments of the child by an adult who has managed to preserve the purity of the child's perception in his soul. It tells the story of a boy who became a writer.

Copperfield tells the life story of already achieved heights. By the end of the story, faith in the victory of justice is replaced by fatigue - you can only remake yourself, but you cannot remake the world. Charles Dickens comes to this conclusion. The summary of the novel already clearly shows how a person managed to remain good, although there were always injustice, lies, deceit, losses on his way.

The hero of the novel, who grew up next to a sweet, kind, but weak mother, faces evil for the first time when she marries. The cruel stepfather and sister hated the boy, humiliated him in every possible way and mocked him. But the worst is yet to come. David's mother dies, his stepfather does not want to pay for his studies and sends him to work in a warehouse. The boy suffers from heavy work, but most of all from the fact that he was deprived of the opportunity to study. But, despite all the difficulties, David retained the pure soul of the child and faith in goodness.

David recalls his life and assesses many events in it in a completely different way, not in the way he assessed them as a boy. Through the narration, the voice of a talented kid breaks through, who remembered and understood a lot.

Dickens shows how a child learns to distinguish between good and evil, to soberly assess forces, and even tries to discern something good in a negative character. The gentle humor of the author saves the reader from excessive edification. And the reader not only learns life lessons, but also lives life with David Copperfield.

"The Adventures of Oliver Twist"

Charles Dickens' Oliver is a boy whose life has been cruel since birth. He was born in a workhouse, his mother dies after childbirth, and he never knew his father. As soon as he was born, he immediately receives the status of a criminal, and he is taken to a farm where most of the children died.

Irony is felt in the novel when the author talks about what kind of upbringing the boy received there: he managed to survive on the farm, "a pale, stunted child", which means he is suitable for work. Dickens denounces public trustees, showing all their cruelty. These unfortunate children had little choice. In particular, Oliver had three of them: to go as an apprentice to a chimney sweep, a mourner to an undertaker, or to the underworld.

With all his heart, the author is attached to his hero and helps him pass the test. The novel ends happily, but the reader is given the opportunity to think about the unfair laws of life, about the humiliation and bullying that the bulk of the people are subjected to. This is something that Charles Dickens could not come to terms with until the end of his days. "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" is a lively response to the hot topics of our time.

"Christmas Carol"

The protagonist of the story is the stingy and ruthless old man Scrooge. He is alien to fun and joy. He only loves money. The old man is preparing to meet the approaching Christmas at work. Returning home, he sees before him the ghost of a companion who died several years ago. The ghost tells him how he suffers from the weight of the sins committed before. He does not want Scrooge to suffer the same fate. And informs him that three spirits will visit him.

The first, the Christmas spirit of yesteryear, takes Scrooge back to childhood. The old man sees himself as a carefree young man, enjoys life, loves, has hopes and dreams. After that, he takes it to a time when he focuses on accumulating wealth. Where his beloved goes to another person. Scrooge is hard to see and he asks to move it back.

The second one, the Spirit of Christmas time, comes and shows how happy all people are about Christmas. They prepare meals, buy gifts, rush home to their loved ones to celebrate the holiday. Home, family, comfort - what Charles Dickens attached great importance to.

He always associated the Christmas pre-holiday fuss with the hearth, where any person was warm and safe. Here the Spirit takes Scrooge to a poor house, where the family is preparing for Christmas. The fun is overshadowed by the fact that the youngest child is very sick and may not live until next Christmas. This is the house of the clerk who works for Scrooge.

The third, the Spirit of the future Christmas time, is silent and, without saying a word, takes the old man to different places and shows a possible future. He sees a well-known person die in the city, but this brings a thinly concealed joy to everyone. Scrooge realizes that it could be the same with him. He prayed that the Spirit would let him change the present.

Scrooge becomes a different person, becomes kind and generous, spends Christmas with his nephew. The main idea of ​​the story is the moral rebirth of Scrooge. He rethought values, revived his once living soul, remembered what joy and good deeds are. What happens on the eve of Christmas is a symbol of renewal and the birth of a new one.

Famous writer, caring father and husband

By the mid-thirties, Charles Dickens was a famous writer in England. The works were a huge success. Dickens' popularity was so great that he was repeatedly asked to run for Parliament. The whole world was interested in his opinion, the name of Charles Dickens became so famous. When he decided to give a reading of the novels and meet with his readers, all of England rejoiced.

Everyone was looking forward to Dickens' new novel. When a ship arrived in New York with his next masterpiece, he was already greeted by crowds of readers. In America, people stormed the halls where he spoke with readings of his own novels. People slept in the bitter cold in front of the ticket offices. The halls were all small, and as a result, the Brooklyn Church was given over to the writer and his listeners for reading.

Dickens was a wonderful father to his children. He and his wife Mary Hoggard raised and raised seven daughters and three sons. The house of Charles Dickens literally rang with children's laughter. He paid them a lot of attention, despite the workload. Children received a decent education and a place in society. All their lives they warmly remembered their father and appreciated the love and kindness that surrounded them.


(Charles Dickens) - one of the most famous English-language novelists, a renowned creator of vivid comic characters and a social critic. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 at Landport near Portsmouth. In 1805 his father, John Dickens (1785/1786-1851), the youngest son of a butler and housekeeper in Crewe Hall (Staffordshire), received a clerkship in the financial department of the maritime department. In 1809 he married Elizabeth Barrow (1789–1863) and was assigned to the Portsmouth Dockyard. Charles was the second of eight children. In 1816 John Dickens was sent to Chatham (Kent). By 1821 he already had five children. Charles was taught to read by his mother, for some time he attended elementary school, from nine to twelve he went to a regular school. Developed beyond his years, he eagerly read the entire home library of cheap publications.

In 1822 John Dickens was transferred to London. Parents with six children huddled in dire need in Camden Town. Charles stopped going to school; he had to pawn silver spoons, sell the family library, serve as an errand boy. At twelve he began working for six shillings a week in a wax factory at Hungerford Stears in the Strand. He worked there for little more than four months, but this time seemed to him a painful, hopeless eternity and aroused the determination to break out of poverty. On February 20, 1824, his father was arrested for debt and imprisoned in Marshalsea Prison. Having received a small inheritance, he paid off his debts and was released on May 28 of the same year. For about two years, Charles attended a private school called Wellington House Academy.

While working as a junior clerk in one of the law firms, Charles began to study shorthand, preparing himself for the work of a newspaper reporter. By November 1828 he had become a freelance reporter for Doctors Commons. By his eighteenth birthday, Dickens received a library card in the British Museum and began to diligently replenish his education. In early 1832 he became a reporter for The Mirror of Parliament and The True Sun. The twenty-year-old boy quickly stood out among the hundreds of regulars in the reporters' gallery of the House of Commons.

Dickens's love for the daughter of a bank manager, Mary Bidnell, strengthened his ambitious aspirations. But the Bidnell family did not care for a simple reporter whose father had a chance to sit in a debtor's prison. After a trip to Paris "to complete her education," Maria lost interest in her admirer. During the previous year he had begun to write fiction about the life and types of London. The first of these appeared in The Monthly Magazine in December 1833. The next four appeared during January–August 1834, the last being signed by the pseudonym Boz, the nickname of Dickens' younger brother, Moses. Dickens was now a regular reporter for The Morning Chronicle, a newspaper that reported on significant events throughout England. In January 1835, J. Hogarth, publisher of The Evening Chronicle, asked Dickens to write a series of essays on urban life. Hogarth's literary connections - his father-in-law J. Thomson was a friend of R. Burns, and he himself - a friend of W. Scott and his legal adviser - made a deep impression on the novice writer. In the early spring of that year, he became engaged to Katherine Hogarth. February 7, 1836, on the twenty-fourth anniversary of Dickens, all his essays, incl. several previously unpublished works, came out as a separate edition called "Essays of Boz" ( Sketches by Boz). In essays, often not fully thought out and somewhat frivolous, the talent of a novice author is already visible; almost all further Dickensian motifs are touched upon in them: the streets of London, courts and lawyers, prisons, Christmas, parliament, politicians, snobs, sympathy for the poor and oppressed.

This publication was followed by an offer by Chapman and Hall to write a story in twenty editions to comic engravings by the famous cartoonist R. Seymour. Dickens objected that the Nimrod Notes, which dealt with the adventures of unfortunate London sportsmen, had become boring; instead, he offered to write about the eccentric club and insisted that he not comment on Seymour's illustrations, but that he make engravings for his texts. The publishers agreed, and on April 2 the first issue of The Pickwick Club was published. Two days before, Charles and Catherine had married and settled in Dickens' bachelor pad. At first, the responses were cool, and the sale did not promise much hope. Even before the release of the second issue, Seymour committed suicide, and the whole idea was in jeopardy. Dickens himself found the young artist H.N. Brown, who became known under the pseudonym Fiz. The number of readers grew; by the end of the Pickwick Papers (published from March 1836 to November 1837) each issue sold forty thousand copies.

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club) represent an intricate comic epic. Her hero, Samuel Pickwick, is a resilient Don Quixote, plump and ruddy, who is accompanied by the dexterous servant Sam Weller, Sancho Panza of the London common people. The freely following episodes allow Dickens to present a number of scenes from the life of England and use all kinds of humor - from crude farce to high comedy, richly seasoned with satire. If Pickwick does not have a strong enough plot to be called a novel, then it undoubtedly surpasses many novels in the charm of gaiety and joyful mood, and the plot in it can be traced no worse than in many other works of the same indefinite genre.

Dickens refused to work at the Chronicle and accepted R. Bentley's offer to head a new monthly, Bentley's Almanac. The first issue of the magazine appeared in January 1837, a few days before the birth of Dickens' first child, Charles Jr. The first chapters of Oliver Twist appeared in the February issue ( Oliver Twist; completed in March 1839), begun by the writer when Pickwick was only half written. Before finishing Oliver, Dickens set to work on Nicholas Nickleby ( Nicholas Nickleby; April 1838 - October 1839), another series in twenty issues for Chapman and Hall. During this period, he also wrote the libretto of a comic opera, two farces and published a book about the life of the famous clown Grimaldi.

From Pickwick, Dickens descended into the dark world of horror, tracing in Oliver Twist (1839) the growth of an orphan, from the workhouse to the criminal slums of London. Although portly Mr. Bumble and even Fagin's thieves' den are amusing, a sinister, satanic atmosphere prevails in the novel. Nicholas Nickleby (1839) mixes Oliver's gloom and Pickwick's sunshine.

In March 1837, Dickens moved to a four-story house at 48 Doughty Street. His daughters Mary and Kate were born here, and his sister-in-law, sixteen-year-old Mary, to whom he was very attached, died here. In this house, he first received D. Forster, the theater critic of the Examiner newspaper, who became his lifelong friend, literary adviser, executor and first biographer. Through Forster, Dickens met Browning, Tennyson and other writers. In November 1839, Dickens leased House No. 1, Devonshire Terrace, for a period of twelve years. With the growth of wealth and literary fame, the position of Dickens in society was also strengthened. In 1837 he was elected a member of the Garrick Club, and in June 1838 a member of the famous Ateneum Club.

Frictions that arose from time to time with Bentley forced Dickens in February 1839 to refuse work in the Almanac. The following year, all his books were concentrated in the hands of Chapman and Hall, with whose assistance he began to publish the threepenny weekly Mr. Humphrey's Hours, in which the Antiquities Store (April 1840 - January 1841) and Barnaby Rudge (February 1841) were printed. - November 1841). Then, exhausted by the abundance of work, Dickens discontinued The Hours of Mr. Humphrey.

Although the "Shop of Antiquities" ( The Old Curiosity Shop), when published, conquered many hearts, modern readers, not accepting the sentimentality of the novel, believe that Dickens allowed himself excessive pathos in describing the bleak wanderings and the sadly long death of little Nell. The grotesque elements of the novel are quite successful.

In January 1842, the Dickens couple sailed to Boston, where a crowded enthusiastic meeting marked the beginning of the writer's triumphal journey through New England to New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and further - all the way to St. Louis. But the journey was marred by Dickens's growing resentment of American literary piracy and the inability to fight it, and - in the South - by an openly hostile reaction to his opposition to slavery. "American Notes" ( American Notes), which appeared in November 1842, were met with warm praise and friendly criticism in England, but caused furious irritation overseas. Regarding even sharper satire in his next novel, Martin Chuzzlewit ( Martin Chazzlewit, January 1843 - July 1844), T. Carlyle noted: "The Yankees boiled up like a giant soda bottle".

The first of Dickensian Christmas stories, A Christmas Carol in Prose ( A Christmas Carol, 1843), also exposes selfishness, in particular the desire for profit, reflected in the concept of "economic man". But what often escapes the reader's attention is that Scrooge's desire for enrichment for the sake of enrichment itself is a semi-serious, semi-comic parabola of the soulless theory of perpetual competition. The main idea of ​​​​the story - about the need for generosity and love - pervades the “Bells” that followed it ( The Chimes, 1844), "Cricket behind the hearth" ( The Cricket on the Hearth, 1845), as well as the less successful Battle of Life ( The Battle of Life, 1846) and "Possessed" ( The Haunted Man, 1848).

In July 1844, together with the children, Catherine and her sister Georgina Hogarth, who now lived with them, Dickens went to Genoa. Returning to London in July 1845, he plunged into the care of founding and publishing the liberal newspaper The Daily News. Publishing conflicts with its owners soon forced Dickens to abandon this work. Disappointed, Dickens decided that from now on, books would become his weapon in the struggle for reforms. In Lausanne, he began the novel "Dombey and Son" ( Dombey and Son, October 1846 - April 1848), changing publishers to Bradbury and Evans.

In May 1846 Dickens published a second book of travelogues, Pictures from Italy. In 1847 and 1848, Dickens took part as a director and actor in charitable amateur performances - "Everyone in his own way" by B. Johnson and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" by W. Shakespeare.

In 1849, Dickens began to write the novel "David Copperfield" ( David Copperfield, May 1849 - November 1850), which was a huge success from the very beginning. The most popular of all Dickensian novels, the favorite brainchild of the author himself, "David Copperfield" is most associated with the writer's biography. It would be wrong to assume that "David Copperfield" is just a mosaic of the events of the writer's life, somewhat changed and arranged in a different order. The recurring theme of the novel is the "rebellious heart" of young David, the cause of all his mistakes, including the most serious - an unhappy first marriage.

In 1850, he began publishing a twopence weekly, Household Words. It contained light reading, various information and messages, poems and stories, articles on social, political and economic reforms, published without signatures. Contributors included Elizabeth Gaskell, Harriet Martineau, J. Meredith, W. Collins, C. Lever, C. Reid, and E. Bulwer-Lytton. "Home Reading" immediately became popular, its sales reached, despite episodic declines, forty thousand copies a week. At the end of 1850, Dickens, together with Bulwer-Lytton, founded the Guild of Literature and Art to help needy writers. As a donation, Lytton wrote the comedy We're Not as Bad as We Look, which was premiered by Dickens with an amateur troupe at the London mansion of the Duke of Devonshire in the presence of Queen Victoria. Over the next year, performances were held throughout England and Scotland. By this time, Dickens had eight children (one died in infancy), and another, the last child, was about to be born. At the end of 1851, the Dickens family moved to a larger house in Tavistock Square, and the writer began work on Bleak House ( Black House, March 1852 - September 1853).

In Bleak House, Dickens reaches the heights as a satirist and social critic, the power of the writer manifested itself in all its dark splendor. Although he has not lost his sense of humor, his judgments become more bitter and his vision of the world bleaker. The novel is a kind of microcosm of society: the image of a thick fog around the Chancellery dominates, meaning the confusion of legitimate interests, institutions and ancient traditions; the fog behind which greed hides fetters generosity and obscures vision. It is because of them, according to Dickens, that society has turned into disastrous chaos. The lawsuit "Jarndyce against Jarndyce" fatally leads its victims, and these are almost all the heroes of the novel, to collapse, ruin, despair.

"Hard times" ( hard times, April 1 - August 12, 1854) were published in editions in Home Reading to raise the fallen circulation. The novel was not highly appreciated either by critics or by a wide range of readers. The furious denunciation of industrialism, a small number of nice and reliable characters, the grotesqueness of the satire of the novel unbalanced not only conservatives and people who are completely satisfied with life, but also those who wanted the book to make you cry and laugh, and not think.

Government inaction, mismanagement, and the corruption that became apparent during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, along with unemployment, strike outbreaks, and food riots, reinforced Dickens's conviction that radical reforms were necessary. He joined the Association for Administrative Reforms, and continued to write critical and satirical articles in Home Reading; during a six-month stay in Paris, he observed the hype in the stock market. These themes - bureaucratic obstruction and wild speculation - he reflected in "Little Dorrit" ( Little Dorrit, December 1855 - June 1857).

Summer 1857 Dickens spent in Gadshill, in an old house, which he admired as a child, and now he was able to purchase. His participation in the charity performances of W. Collins's "Frozen Deep" led to a crisis in the family. The years of the writer's tireless work were overshadowed by a growing awareness of the failure of his marriage. While doing theater, Dickens fell in love with the young actress Ellen Ternan. Despite her husband's vows of fidelity, Katherine left his home. In May 1858, after the divorce, Charles Jr. remained with his mother, and the rest of the children with their father, in the care of Georgina as mistress of the house. Dickens enthusiastically set about public readings of excerpts from his books to enthusiastic listeners. Having quarreled with Bradbury and Evans, who took the side of Catherine, Dickens returned to Chapman and Hall. Having ceased publishing Home Reading, he very successfully began publishing a new weekly, All the Year Round, publishing A Tale of Two Cities in it ( A Tale of Two Cities, April 30 - November 26, 1859), and then "Great Expectations" ( Great Expectations, December 1, 1860 - August 3, 1861). A Tale of Two Cities is not one of Dickens' best books. It is based on melodramatic coincidences and violent actions rather than characters. But readers will never cease to be captivated by the exciting plot, the brilliant caricature of the inhuman and refined Marquis d'Evremonde, the meat grinder of the French Revolution and the sacrificial heroism of Sidney Carton, which led him to the guillotine.

In Great Expectations, the protagonist Pip tells the story of a mysterious beneficence that enabled him to leave his son-in-law's rural forge, Joe Gargery, and receive a proper gentleman's education in London. In the image of Pip, Dickens exposes not only snobbery, but also the falsity of Pip's dream of a luxurious life as an idle "gentleman". Pip's great hopes belong to the ideal of the 19th century: parasitism and abundance at the expense of the inheritance received and a brilliant life at the expense of other people's labor.

In 1860, Dickens sold the house in Tavistock Square, and Gadshill became his permanent home. He read his works publicly throughout England and in Paris with success. His last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend ( Our Mutual Friend), was published in twenty issues (May 1864 - November 1865). In the last completed novel of the writer, images reappear and combine, expressing his condemnation of the social system: the thick fog of Bleak House and the huge, crushing prison cell of Little Dorrit. To them, Dickens adds another, deeply ironic image of the London dump - huge piles of garbage that created Harmon's wealth. This symbolically defines the goal of human greed as filth and filth. The world of the novel is the all-powerful power of money, worship of wealth. Fraudsters flourish: a man with a significant surname Veneering (veneer - external gloss) buys a seat in parliament, and the pompous rich Podsnap is the mouthpiece of public opinion.

The writer's health was deteriorating. Ignoring the threatening symptoms, he undertook another series of tedious public readings, and then went on a major tour of America. The income from the American trip amounted to almost 20,000 pounds, but the trip fatally affected his health. Dickens was overjoyed at the money he had earned, but it was not only it that prompted him to undertake the trip; the ambitious nature of the writer demanded the admiration and delight of the public. After a short summer break, he began a new tour. But in Liverpool in April 1869, after 74 speeches, his condition worsened, after each reading, his left arm and leg were almost taken away.

Having somewhat recovered in the peace and quiet of Gadshill, Dickens began to write The Mystery of Edwin Drood ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood), planning twelve monthly releases, and persuaded his doctor to allow him twelve farewell performances in London. They began on January 11, 1870; The last performance took place on March 15th. Edwin Drood, whose first issue appeared on March 31, was only half written.

On June 8, 1870, after working all day in a chalet in the Gadshill Gardens, Dickens suffered a stroke at dinner and died about six o'clock the next day. In a private ceremony held on 14 June, his body was interred in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.

Bio note:

  • Fantasy in the work of the author

    Ghosts are an element of national culture in England, and for this they owe much to Charles Dickens. Thanks to him, British ghosts on Christmas Eve feel like birthdays. In 1843 Dickens published his story A Christmas Carol in Prose. Christmas story with ghosts”, which became perhaps the most popular work of the writer, and the hero of the story, Scrooge, a heartless miser who was visited by ghosts on Christmas night, became a household character. Generation after generation, the British - and not only them - remember, read, listen to this story on Christmas days, and for some time now watch films based on its plot. With this story, Dickens made an invaluable contribution to the area of ​​literature that tells about the supernatural, and in addition, he connected this topic with the Christmas holidays. Subsequently, this connection became traditional in Dickens' prose. On December days, special Christmas issues of the magazines "Home Reading" (1850-1859) and "All the Year Round" (1859-1870), published by Dickens, were published. On their pages saw the light of the first works of famous authors - adherents of the genre of interest to us: Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Elizabeth Gaskell, Amelia Edwards, Wilkie Collins.

    Dickens repeatedly addressed the theme of ghosts both in his novels, where there are inserted episodes with ghosts, and in stories, of which the most often included in various anthologies, The Murder Trial (1865) and The Signalman (1866).

    © From the notes of L. Brilova and A. Chameev to the anthology “Face to Face with Ghosts. Mysterious stories, M.: Azbuka, 2005

    • Charles Dickens- famous English writer, novelist and essayist. The most popular English-language writer during his lifetime. A classic of world literature, one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century.

    Dickens wrote most of his works in the genre of realism, but in some of his works one can notice lyrical and fabulous features.

    There are many in Dickens that we will tell you about right now.

    So, before you is a brief biography of Charles Dickens.

    Biography of Dickens

    Charles John Huffham Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the suburbs of the English city of Portsmouth.

    His father, John Dickens, worked as an officer in the navy. Mother, Elizabeth Dickens, was a housewife and raised children. In addition to Charles, seven more children were born in the Dickens family.

    Childhood and youth

    After the Dickens moved to Chatham, Charles began attending a local school. When he was 12 years old, Dickens' father fell into a serious debt hole.

    According to the British law of that time, creditors had the right to send their debtors to special prisons, where John Dickens actually ended up.

    Charles Dickens as a child

    In addition, his wife and children were also imprisoned on weekends, as they were considered debt slaves. These were far from the best days in the biography of the future writer.

    At an early age, Charles Dickens was forced to go to work. He worked all day at a shoe polish factory, receiving meager wages for his work.

    When the day off came, the young man spent it in prison with his parents.

    However, joyful changes soon took place in the biography of Dickens Sr. He inherited a large inheritance from a distant relative, thanks to which he was able to fully pay off his debts.

    Moreover, he began to receive a pension, as well as work as a journalist in a local publishing house.

    In 1827 Charles Dickens graduated from Wellington Academy. After that, he got a job in a law office as a clerk. During this period of his biography, his salary was twice as much as at the shoe polish factory.

    Dickens then began working as a reporter. His articles were popular with the public, as a result of which his journalistic career took off.

    In 1830, an 18-year-old boy was invited to the editorial office of the Morning Chronicle.

    Works by Dickens

    Charles Dickens quickly attracted the attention of readers. Inspired by the first success, he decided to try himself as a writer.


    Charles Dickens in his youth

    The British appreciated his works, which allowed him to continue writing.

    An interesting fact is that he called Dickens a master of the pen, able to perfectly reflect objective reality.

    In 1837, Dickens' novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was published, which became his debut in his creative biography. In it, Charles perfectly described the old one, as well as its inhabitants.

    This work received great popularity and aroused extraordinary interest among readers.

    Each new novel or story that came out from the pen of Charles Dickens literally caused a public outcry.

    His fame grew every day, as a result of which he became the most famous and published English-language writer during his lifetime.

    The most famous works of Charles Dickens are The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend.

    Personal life

    Charles Dickens fell in love for the first time at the age of 18. His lover was Maria Bidnell, who was the daughter of a banker.

    At that point in his biography, Dickens was a little-known reporter working for a modest publication. When Mary's father and mother learned that he wanted to marry their daughter, they became indignant.

    The parents did not want their son-in-law to be a poor journalist, so they sent Maria to study in order to separate the couple.

    Their plan worked, because after returning from, the girl was already indifferent to Dickens. As a result, their relationship ended.

    In 1836, Dickens proposed to Catherine Thomson Hogarth, who was the daughter of a friend. As a result, they got married, and soon they had 10 children.


    Charles Dickens with his wife

    Later, frequent quarrels and misunderstandings began between them. This led to the fact that his wife and children became a real burden for Dickens.

    The family took the writer a lot of free time and did not allow him to fully engage in creative activities.


    Charles Dickens and Ellen Ternan

    In 1857, Charles Dickens met the 18-year-old actress Ellen Ternan. Soon he began to meet with her at any opportunity, as a result of which they began a stormy romance.

    An interesting fact is that after the death of the writer, Helen became his main heir.

    Death

    Shortly before his death, Charles Dickens' health began to deteriorate. However, he did not pay attention to this, continuing to actively write novels and meet girls.

    After the classic traveled to America, his health worsened even more. A year before his death, Dickens occasionally lost his arms and legs.

    Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870 at the age of 58. The day before, he had suffered a stroke, which caused his death.

    The great English writer is buried in Westminster Abbey.

    Photo by Dickens

    Below you can see the most popular photos of Dickens in good quality.

    The work of Charles Dickens

    Novels







    Christmas carol, 1843
    Bells, 1844
    Cricket behind the hearth, 1845











    Storybooks

    Sketches by Boz, 1836
    The Mudfog Papers, 1837
    The Uncommercial Traveler, 1860-1869

    Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. The boy early learned poverty and distress. In 1824, the novelist's father fell into a terrible debt hole, the family was sorely lacking money. According to the state laws of England at that time, creditors sent debtors to a special prison, where John Dickens ended up. The wife and children were also kept in the place of detention every weekend, considered as debt slaves.

    Life circumstances forced the future writer to go to work early. At the factory for the production of wax, the boy received a meager pay: six shillings a week, but fortune smiled on the unfortunate Dickens family. John inherited the property of a distant relative, which allowed him to pay off his debts.

    After his father's release, Charles continued to work in the factory and study. In 1827 he graduated from the Wellington Academy, and after the young man was taken to a law office as a junior clerk with a salary of thirteen shillings a week. Here the guy worked for a year, but having mastered shorthand, he chose the profession of a free reporter.

    Dickens' debut was The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. This book, which is a cycle of genre sketches, revealed his talent as the creator of grotesque characters that express the most rooted features of the English as a nation. It was Dickens who opened to literature and poeticized the world of slums and the customs of their inhabitants. Sympathizing with the heroes, he leads the action to a happy ending, which rewards them for their suffering and humiliation. Possessing an outstanding acting gift, he performed with public readings of his works, and he was invariably accompanied by great success.

    The novels of the writer represent a panorama of English life of the Victorian era, unique in the richness of observations and the variety of human types captured. "The Adventures of Oliver Twist", "The Antiquities Store", "Dombey and Son" create an exhaustively complete portrait of society, exposing its vices and flaws. As a result, the imperfection of society becomes clear to the characters who find their ideal in the comfort of their homes and family traditions.

    The perception of the world expressed in Dickens' books does not recognize hopelessness and despair, although cruel and even catastrophic situations are often described. However, the most painful circumstances are not capable of undermining the heroes' faith in the final triumph of goodness or retribution beyond the grave, if earthly justice is unattainable.

    Humor, which encourages not only to create farcical plot positions in which the true human nature of the characters comes through most clearly, but also to recognize the miraculous under the ugly appearance of things, forcing horror and disgust to recede before joy, Dickens's most important literary property. Dostoevsky highly appreciated the work of Dickens, calling him an unsurpassed master of "the art of depicting modern, current reality."

    Charles Dickens was paralyzed on June 8, 1870; the next day, June 9, the writer died. His body is buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.

    The work of Charles Dickens

    Novels

    Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, published monthly, April 1836 - November 1837
    The Adventures of Oliver Twist, February 1837 - April 1839
    Nicholas Nickleby, April 1838 - October 1839
    The Old Curiosity Shop, weekly editions, April 1840 - February 1841
    Barnaby Rudge, February-November 1841
    Christmas stories (The Christmas books):
    Christmas carol, 1843
    Bells, 1844
    Cricket behind the hearth, 1845
    The Battle of Life, 1846
    Possessed, or Deal with a Ghost, 1848
    Martin Chuzzlewit, January 1843 - July 1844
    Dombey and Son Trading House, wholesale, retail and export trade (eng. Dombey and Son), October 1846 - April 1848
    David Copperfield May 1849 - November 1850
    Bleak House, March 1852 - September 1853
    Hard times (Eng. Hard Times: For These Times), April-August 1854
    Little Dorrit, December 1855 - June 1857
    A Tale of Two Cities, April-November 1859
    Great Expectations, December 1860 - August 1861
    Our mutual friend, May 1864 - November 1865
    The Mystery of Edwin Drood, April 1870 - September 1870. Only 6 out of 12 editions published, novel unfinished.

    Known throughout the world for his surprisingly kind and sentimental novels, the English writer Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near the city of Portsmouth.

    He was the second boy in a large family of an officer of the naval base of the United Royal Navy. The family did not have enough money to live on, and in 1815 the father of the family, John Dickens, was transferred to London, and in 1817 to Chetham. It was here that little Charles began his education in the private school of a Baptist pastor, for whom he carried love and respect throughout his life.

    But in the capital of England, John Dickens was not lucky, delighted with an increase in salary, he allowed himself to live beyond his means and ended up in a debtor's prison.

    Due to money problems, as a teenager, Charles worked in a wax factory, and on Sundays, along with his sisters, visited his parents in prison.

    In 1827, after the death of a distant relative and the receipt of an inheritance, John paid off his debts and got out of prison, and also found a job as a reporter in one of the major newspapers.

    The situation of the family changed for the better, but Charles remained to work at the factory at the request of his mother Elizabeth. Of course, such an injustice could not but hurt the teenager, and did not change his attitude towards women for many years.

    And only after a long time he resumed his interrupted education and then entered the law office as a junior clerk. At the same time, the young man was trying to succeed as a gossip and crime reporter.

    In 1830, after several successful articles, he was invited to a permanent job in the Morning Chronicle. It was here that he experienced the feeling of first love, his beloved was the daughter of the director of the bank - Maria Bindl.

    The creative path of the young Dickens

    The first literary work, which was published in 1836, was a collection of short stories called "Essays by Boz". These original, slightly comical, slightly sentimental stories reflected the picture of life and the range of interests of the petty bourgeoisie, rentiers and merchants. But the first published work had a huge impact on the further development of the literary talent of the young man.

    Glory to the writer began to come as the chapters from the novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club were published in one of the major newspapers, which was then repeatedly published as a separate edition.

    Thanks to the talent of Dickens, the name of old Mr. Pickwick became as famous as Don Quixote or Tartarin of Tarascon. This literary hero - good-natured and sly, rustic and cunning - reflects the character of old England with its unusual humor and conservatism, love of tradition and impatience with meanness and hypocrisy.

    In 1838, Charles's talent was revealed in a completely different way with the release of the novel The Adventures of Oliver Twist. The story of an orphan from a workhouse who fell into the hands of criminals who wanted to mold a poor child into the same criminal, but their plans collapsed when faced with his courage and desire to work honestly. This extremely realistic, small novel reveals the social ulcers that existed in an outwardly prosperous state.

    The pen of the writer Dickens is driven by humanism and mercy, he draws pictures of the life of all sectors of society without embellishment: magnificence and luxury among the nobility, and poverty and ugliness in the social classes.

    This literary masterpiece played its part: there were several high-profile trials over the keeping of children in workhouses in England. Instead of educating and teaching orphans, they used child labor and plundered public funds.

    Apogee of creativity

    Dickens quickly became famous: he was recognized by both liberals, because they believed that he was fighting for the rights of the people, and conservatives, because his novels denounced the cruelty of social relations. It was read with equal interest in richly decorated living rooms, and in poor houses, both children and adults - everyone read novels that gave hope for happiness in the future and the triumph of justice.

    In the early forties, Charles visited America, where he enjoyed no less respect than in England. Glory was ahead of the writer and marched around the world. After this trip, he wrote the novel "The Life of Martin Chelswit", where he portrayed the Americans in a rather comical way, which, of course, caused an outburst of indignation from overseas brothers.

    In 1843, a collection of Christmas stories was published, which are still very popular in the world today. Based on the stories "The Cricket on the Stove" and "A Christmas Tale", several films were shot, which are successfully broadcast all over the world.

    Two of Dickens's best critics' novels, The Trading House: Dombey and Son (1848) and The Life and Wonderful Adventures of David Copperfield, Written by Himself (1850), have some autobiographical moments.

    And the time spent in a debtor's prison with his father and mother, and working in a factory with other little boys, and working in a law office and working as a reporter, and meeting different people - all this was reflected on the pages of books that do not lose their relevance and in our days.

    The novel "David Copperfield" was recognized by such masters of the pen as F. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, Charlotte and Emilia Bronte, Henry James and others. Readers wholeheartedly sympathize with the hardships of little Davy, abandoned to the mercy of fate at a young age, and condemn the cruel morality of those in power.

    The last years of creativity

    One of the author's last novels, Hard Times (1854), is imbued with thoughts about the fate of the labor movement and the inevitability of progress. For the first time in the work, doubts arise: is personal success really necessary for a person’s happiness and recognition by society?

    In 1857, the novel Little Dorrit was published, in which we see the image of a debtor's prison and the lost childhood of a girl forced to earn her bread from early childhood.

    One of the most famous novels, Great Expectations (1861), shows the changes taking place in the writer's worldview. For the first time, he wanted to end the book tragically with the death of the protagonist, but not wanting to upset readers, he does not completely destroy Pip's "unfulfilled hopes", but gives hope and faith for the future.

    And finally, his swan song, the novel Our Mutual Friend, debunks bourgeois ideals: the desire for profit and power, reveals the true value of love and friendship. Perhaps that is why a huge garbage heap becomes a symbol of lost wealth.

    In 1870, at the age of 58, Charles Dickens died at his home in Keth, leaving one unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

    The writer left, but left us his soul, his fame continued to grow even after his death. His name is on a par with Shakespeare and Byron, it is he who is considered a real English writer, reflecting true England.

    Modest during his lifetime, Dickens in his will mentioned his desire not to have monuments, but in 2012 a monument to the great writer was opened in Portsmouth, who knew how to make everyone laugh, and make everyone cry and, most importantly, think, regardless of gender, age and time. reading. The novels of Charles Dickens will live forever as long as soft humor, nobility and honesty, love and true friendship live.