Charles John Huffam Dickens was born February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. Shortly thereafter his family moved to Chatham, and Dickens considered his years there as the happiest of his childhood. In 1822, the family moved to London, where his father worked as a clerk in the navy pay office. Dickens' family was considered middle class, however, his father had a difficult time managing money. His extravagant spending habits brought the family to financial disaster, and in 1824, John Dickens was imprisoned for debt.
Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
CHARLES DICKENS
Charles was the oldest of the Dickens children, and a result of his father's imprisonment, he was withdrawn from school and sent to work in a shoe-dye factory. During this period, Dickens lived alone in a lodging house in North London and considered the entire experience the most terrible of his life. Nevertheless, it was this experience that shaped his much of his future writing...(scroll down)
Personal Favourite Dickens Film Adaptation:
David Lean's Great Expectations (1946) Restored [DVD] Now @ Amazon.co.uk
It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away.
CHARLES DICKENS
------------
KEY FACTS
{Name}Charles Dickens (born Charles John Huffham Dickens)
{Born}7 February 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK
{Spouse}Catherine Hogarth (2 April 1836 - 1858) (separated) 10 children
{Died}9 June 1870, Gadshill, England, UK (stroke)
------------
CHARLES DICKENS: FRAGMENTS FROM A LIFE
(Cont.):
After receiving an inheritance several months later, Dickens' father was released from prison. Although Dickens' mother wanted him to stay at work, resulting in bitter resentment towards her, his father allowed him to return to school. His schooling was again interrupted and ultimately ended when
Dickens was forced to return to work at age 15. He became a clerk in a law firm, then a shorthand reporter in the courts, and finally a parliamentary and newspaper reporter.
In 1833, Dickens began to contribute short stories and essays to periodicals. He then provided a comic narrative to accompany a series of engravings, which were published as the Pickwick Papers in 1836. Within several months, Dickens
became internationally popular. He resigned from his position as a newspaper reporter and became editor of a monthly magazine entitled Bentley's Miscellany. Also during 1836, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. Together, they had nine surviving children, before they separated in 1858.
There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts
CHARLES DICKENS
Dickens' career continued at an intense pace for the next several years. Oliver Twist was
serialized in Bentley's Miscellany beginning in 1837. Then, with Oliver Twist only half completed, Dickens began to publish monthly installments of
Nicholas Nickleby in 1838. Because he had so many projects in the works, Dickens was barely able to stay ahead of his monthly deadlines. After the completion of
Twist and Nickleby, Dickens produced weekly installments of The Old Curiosity Shop and
Barnaby Rudge.
After a short working vacation in the United States in 1841, Dickens
continued at his break-neck pace. He began to publish annual Christmas stories, beginning with
A Christmas Carol in 1843. Within the community, Dickens actively fought for social issues; such as education reform, sanitary measures, and slum clearance, and he began to directly address social issues in novels such
as Dombey and Son (1846-48).
In 1850, Dickens established a weekly journal entitled Household Words
to which he contributed the serialized works of Child's History of England (1851-53), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations
(1860-61). At the same time, Dickens continued to work on his novels, including David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), Little Dorrit (1855-57),
and Our Mutual Friend (1864-65). As his career progressed, Dickens became
more and more disenchanted. His works had always reflected the pains of the common man, but works such as Bleak House
and Our Mutual Friend expressed his
progressing anger and disillusionment with society.
There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated
CHARLES DICKENS
In 1858, Dickens began a series of paid readings, which became instantly popular. Through these readings, Dickens was able to combine his love of the stage with an accurate rendition of his writings. In all, Dickens performed more than 400 times. The readings often left him exhausted and ill, but they allowed him to increase his income, receive creative satisfaction, and stay in touch with his audience.
After the breakup of his marriage with Catherine, Dickens moved permanently to his country house called Gad's Hill, near Chatham in 1860. It was also around this time that Dickens became involved in an affair with a young actress named Ellen Ternan. The affair
lasted until Dickens' death, but it was kept quite secret. Information about the relationship is quite scanty.
Dickens was required to abandon his reading tours in 1869 after his health began to decline. He retreated to Gad's Hill and began to work on
Edwin Drood, which was never completed. died suddenly at home on June 9, 1870. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Selected Books | Dickens Film Adaptation Posters
Kingsley Amis |
Martin Amis |
Baudelaire |
Albert Camus
Lewis Carroll |
John Le Carre |
Jean Cocteau |
Roald Dahl
Dostoevsky |
Daphne du Maurier |
John Fowles |
Jean Genet
Andre Gide |
Goethe |
Graham Greene |
Hermann Hesse
Franz Kafka |
Milan Kundera |
Lautreamont |
Marquis de Sade
Nietzsche |
George Orwell |
Sartre |
Amos Tutuola
Evelyn Waugh |
Oscar Wilde
The Complete Works of Charles Dickens
[Kindle Edition]
The Complete Works of Charles Dickens
[Paperback]
Charles Dickens Film Adaptation Dvds @ Amazon.com
| Charles Dickens Posters
|
Photos/Porcelain Pieces
Charles Dickens Photos @ Allposters.com
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Selected Books
L I S T
- SKETCHES BY BOZ, 1836
- THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB, 1836-37
- THE ADVENTURES OF OLIVER TWIST, 1837-39
- THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, 1838-39
- BARNABY RUDGE, 1841
- AMERICAN NOTES, 1842
- THE CHRISTMAS CAROL, 1843
- THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT, 1843-44
- THE CHIMES, 1845
- THE CRICKET ON THE HEART, 1846
- PICTURES FROM ITALY, 1846
- DOMBEY AND SON, 1848
- DAVID COPPERFIELD, 1849
- A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 1851-53
- BLEAK HOUSE, 1853
- HARD TIMES, 1854
- LITTLE DORRITT, 1855-57
- THE TALE OF TWO CITIES, 1859
- THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER, 1860
- REPRINTED PIECES, 1861
- GREAT EXPECTATIONS, 1861
- OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, 1865
- THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, 1870
- SPEECHES, LETTERS AND SAYINGS, 1870
- COLLECTED WORKS EDITIONS: The Charles Dickens Edition, 21 vols., (1867-75); Nonesuch Edition, 23 vols., (1937-38); The New Oxford Illustrated Dickens, 21 vols. (1947-58); The Clarendon Dickens (in progress, 1966-)
- TO BE READ AT DUSK, 1898
- MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS, 1908 (2 vols.)
- CHARLES DICKENS'S UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS FROM HOUSEHOLD WORDS, 1970 (ed. by Harry Stone)
- THE SUPERNATURAL SHORT STORIES OF CHARLES DICKENS, 1979 (edited by Michael Hayes)
- A DECEMBER VISION, 1986
- DICKENS'S JOURNALISM, vol. I, 1993
- DICKENS'S JOURNALISM, vol. 2, 1997
- THE LETTERS OF CHARLES DICKENS, 1965-2002 (the Pilgrim edition; 12 vols.)
Charles Dickens Books - © Estate of Charles Dickens
Recommended Reading: Dickens: Abridged
- Peter Ackroyd's Seminal Work
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Posters
F I L M A D A P T A T I O N S
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dvd
R E C O M M E N D A T I O N

Dvd Must See:
David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948) Restored [DVD] Now @ Amazon.co.uk
In memory of John Howard Davies (1939-2011).
For many of us he will always remain the Oliver Twist
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
© Lenin Imports
E-mail
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________