Dickens, Charles John Huffham (1812-1870)

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth as the son of a clerk in the Naval Pay Office. His father spent far too much money and in 1824 he was imprisoned in Marshalsea debtor's prison in Southwark. For young Charles this was a very traumatizing experience. Apart from the shame, he had to leave school to work at Warren's Blacking Factory. This terrible period in his life largely explains his social concern in his future novels, especially in "David Copperfield" and "Great Expectations".

In 1829 Dickens became a free lance reporter and in 1830 he fell in love with a banker's daughter, Maria Beadnell. In 1833 their relationship ended. In 1835 he became engaged to Catherine Hogarth and he married her on April 2, 1836.

In 1834 Dickens had adopted the pseudonym "Boz" and in 1836 the first "sketches by Boz" appreared in print. These sketches accompanied the polular illustrations by Robert Seymour. Seymour, however, commited suicide and Dickens turned his work into what would become "The Pickwick Papers" (serialized in 1837), an instant succes.

Dickens now became a professional novelist, rapidly producing the long and complex books he is still famous for. At the same time he was still working as a journalist and an editor. In 1850 he started his own magazine, Household Words, edited by himself.

In 1851 he met Wilkie Collins and the two soon became friends, embarking on trips abroad together. They also shared an interest in theatre and they staged several productions. Dickens was keen on acting himself, but they also worked with professional actors.

In 1857 Hans Christian Andersen stayed with Dickens and almost bored him to death. After Andersen left Dickens put up a plackard put up a placard in his house in Kent with the text "Hans Christian Andersen slept in this room for five weeks which seemed to the family AGES."

Around this time Dickens marriage was falling apart and he fell in love with the young actress Nelly Ternan, who performed in "The Frozen Deep", a play written by Collins and performed by Dickens' Theatre Company. Dickens seperated from his wife Catherine (they had ten children), but his liaison with Nelly Ternan remained a secret to the public.

By now he was so popular that he gave public readings, first in London and later also in Paris and in the United States (1867-1868). In 1869 he sufferdd a stroke and stopped his readings. Dickens now started to write a new novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".

On April 9, 1870 Dickens finally met Queen Victoria. She had tried to talk to him before, bus as long ago as 1857 he had refused to see her after a special performance of "The Frozen Deep", claiming he didn't want to talk to her in actor's clothes. Because his daughter wanted to meet her badly, he gave in this time.

Dickens never finished "Drood", for a second stroke hit him on June 8, 1870 and he died the day after, to the horror of the country. The Bishop of Manchester pronounced Dickens 'a teacher sent from God'. Dickens had specified in his will that he was to be buried at the graveyard of Rochester Cathedral, but the nation decided otherwise and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Work: "A Chrismas Carol" (1843); "A Tale of Two Cities" (1859).

Family
• Daughter: Dickens, Kate Macready
• Son: Dickens, Charles Culliford Boz
• Son: Dickens, Alfred Tennyson

Related persons
• was a friend of Ainsworth, William Harrison
• has a connection with Beadnell, Maria
• visited Blessington, Margaret Gardiner, countess of
• has a connection with Byron, Augusta Ada, Lady Lovelace
• was a friend of Collins, Wilkie
• was a friend of Egg, Augustus Leopold
• cooperated with Hogarth, George
• employed Hogarth, Georgina
• has a connection with Hogarth, Mary Scott
• knew Hunt, Leigh
• was a friend of Norton, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah
• was the lover of Ternan, Nelly
• was a friend of Thackeray, William Makepeace

Events
1851/3/0: First meeting between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins
1856/3/14: Charles Dickens purchases Gad's Hill, Rochester
1857/1/6: "The Frozen Deep" by Wilkie Collins is performed by Charles Dickens' theatre group
It was the first of four semi-public performances at Tavistock House, Dickens' home in London. About ninety people were present.
1857/8/21: Wilkie Collins' play "The Frozen Deep" is performed three times in Manchester at the Free Trade Hall
Dickens played the main part in the play that was written by his friend and the public was completely under his spell. The second night was attended by 3,000 people. He had hired the actress Frances Ternan together with her daughters Maria and Ellen. Ellen was a so impressed by the scene in which Dickens died that her tears fell on his beard and his clothes. The performances were given August 21, 22 and 24.
1859/5/16: Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins dine at Vereys in Regent Street, London

Sources
• David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page
• Tomalin, Claire, The Invisible Woman, Penguin Books, London, 1991
• Pearson, Hesketh, Dickens, Cassell, London, 1988
• Redirects for Victorian Web, Postcolonial Web, and Cyberspace, Hypertext, & Critical Theory

Images
The gravestones of Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling at the Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, Londen. Picture by Androom (27-03-1996)	The house where Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth. Picture by Androom (20 Jun 2010)	The house where Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth. Picture by Androom (20 Jun 2010)