charles dickens

Charles Dickens was born February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England but he spent most of his childhood London. Most of the books that he later wrote was based on events and people from his life. His father John Dickens, was a clerk in a navy-pay office and his mother was named Elizabeth Barrow. John Dickens was forced to move with his family to Camden Town in London in 1822 because of his debts. Even after he sold his household goods, he was later arrested because he didn't have enough money to pay off the rest of the debts.

At the age of twelve, Charles started working at Warren's Blacking Factory where he was paid only six shillings a week. Six months later, one of John Dickens's relatives died, who left a will that gave John enough money to get out of jail.

Charles Dickens went to a private school called Wellington House Academy.

English: Detail from photographic portrait of Char...

Charles Dickens, a former resident of Lant Street.

Dickens at the Blacking Warehouse. Charles Dickens...

By the age of fifteen, he left school and started working as an office boy in a firm of solicitors. He started to enjoy reading and was mainly influenced by writers such as William Shakespeare and Henry Fielding. Charles then decided that he wanted to become a reporter. He taught himself by buying a book called Gurney's Brachgraphy. At sixteen, he became a court reporter in which later he joined a newspaper.

Charles Dickens then started writing articles for the newspaper called the True Sun. The True Sun sold about 30, 000 copies a day which later increased to 60,000 because Charles had help pass the 1832 Reform Act which decreased the tax on the newspaper.

He published his first story in 1833 in the Monthly Magazine. People reading his stories knew him as "Boz." Later in 1836 a book was made called Sketches by Boz. Charles Dickens's publisher, William Hall encouraged him to write more stories. These stories included Bentley's Miscellany (1837-1838), Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844), and A Christmas Carol (1843).

By 1842, Charles became a great novelist but he caused great disappointment when he disagreed with slavery. He later then became editor of The Daily News. In the first edition published in 1946, he wrote "The principles advocated in The Daily News will be principles of progress and improvement; of education, civil and religious liberty, and equal legislation." Since The Daily News wasn't selling much as he wanted, he gave up the job as editor and started Household Words between 1850 and 1859. He also started a campaign to help improve the education of the poor. To increase the selling of Household Words, he wrote humorous stories in it. Within days, it was selling 40,000 copies a week. When he earned enough money, he got married to a girl named Catherine Hogarth in 1836. In 1837, Catherine's sister, Mary, had died which brought great sadness towards Charles. It was believed that Charles liked Mary more than his wife since Catherine lacked intelligence. Together, Catherine and Charles had 10 children. They then got separated in 1858.

In 1859 he decided to replace Household Words with All the Year Round. Many novels were written in the All the Year Round such as A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1860-1861). He continued to publish his works until he died on June 8, 1870 of a stroke.

The first article is describing Charles Dickens's great work on writing "Great Expectations." They said that the title itself attracts readers and that the plot has great action and humorous scenes that were well written. They gave a brief synopsis of some characters and stated that they were well chosen and they caused a great impression towards readers. The romance also used in the story is said to be one of the best ever read.

The second article is talking about the dialogue that is used in the story and how it was written. It talks about how the story turns to be grotesque but comical at the same time. It also compares Great Expectations to other works of other authors. It states that it is a more shorter, well written novel compared to other longer stories.

The third article talks about the novels that Dickens has written. It says that he got his idea for writing novels while working on The Uncommercial Traveller. It reads that the characters themselves amuse readers even the ones who weren't much important. It talks about the newspapers that he was editor of such as All the Year Round.