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"
appeared in print. These sketches accompanied the popular illustrations
by Robert Seymour. Seymour, however, committed suicide and Dickens
turned his work into what would become his instant success "The
Pickwick Papers" (serialized in 1836-1837).
Dickens
now became a professional novelist, rapidly producing the long
and complex books for which he is still famous. 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 collaborated
with professional actors.
In 1857 Hans Christian Andersen
stayed with Dickens and almost bored him to death. After Andersen
left Dickens 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's
marriage was falling apart. He and his wife had ten children,
which he did not like, and there had been trouble for a long
time. Dickens fell in love with the young actress Ellen ('Nelly')
Ternan, who performed in "The Frozen Deep", a play written by
his close friend Wilkie Collins that was performed by his amateur
theatre company. Dickens formally separated from his wife Catherine
without divorcing her. His liaison with Nelly Ternan was known
to his inner circle but it remained a secret to the public until
long after his death.
Dickens profited from his enormous
popularity by giving public readings of his work, first in London
and later also in Paris and in the United States (1867-1868).
Many people were financially dependent on him, and the readings
earned far him more money than his novels. But he knew that
many years of hard work, little sleep and frequent consumption
of alcohol had taken their toll. He gave a series of farewell
readings in 1868 and 1869 in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Dickens suffered from fits of paralysis and on 18 April 1869
he suffered a stroke in Chester. After he collapsed in Preston
on 22 April 1869, the rest of the tour was cancelled.
Dickens
started to write a new novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".
From January to March 1870, he was sufficiently recovered to
give twelve more readings. On April 9, 1870 he finally met Queen
Victoria. She had tried to meet to him before, bus as long ago
as 1857 he had refused to see her after a dedicated performance
of "The Frozen Deep", claiming he did not want to talk to her
in actor's clothes. Because his daughter wanted to meet the
queen badly, he gave in this time.
Dickens never finished
"Drood", because a second stroke hit him on 8 June 1870 and
he died the next day. The public was horrified, and the Bishop
of Manchester pronounced Dickens 'a teacher sent from God'.
Dickens had specified in his will that he wanted to be buried
at the graveyard of Rochester Cathedral, but the nation decided
otherwise, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Selection
of works: "The Pickwick Papers" (1836-1837); "Oliver Twist"
(1837-1839); "A Christmas Carol" (1843); "David Copperfield"
(1849-1850); "Hard Times"(1854); "A Tale of Two Cities" (1859);
"Great Expectations" (1860-1861); "Our Mutual Friend" (1864-1865);
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (1870, unfinished).
Family
• Daughter: Dickens, Kate
• Son: Dickens, Charles Culliford Boz
• Daughter: Dickens, Mary
• Son: Dickens, Alfred Tennyson
• Son: Dickens, Henry Fielding
• Wife: Hogarth, Catherine (1836-1858, London: St. Luke's Church, Chelsea)
Related persons
• was a friend of Ainsworth, William Harrison
• has a connection with Beadnell, Maria
• cooperated with Bentley, Richard
• visited Blessington, Margaret Gardiner, countess of
• has a connection with Byron, Ada, Lady Lovelace
• was a friend of Chorley, Henry
• was a friend of Collins, Wilkie
• was a friend of Danson, George
• is brother/sister of Dickens, Fanny
• was a friend of Egg, Augustus Leopold
• has a connection with Gaskell, Elizabeth
• knew Hayman, Georgina
• cooperated with Hogarth, George
• employed Hogarth, Georgina
• has a connection with Hogarth, Mary Scott
• knew Hunt, Leigh
• was a friend of Jerrold, Douglas
• had work translated by Judith
• had work illustrated by Leech, John
• has a connection with Lover, Samuel
• was a friend of Maclise, Daniel
• was painted by Maclise, Daniel
• visited Molesworth, Andalusia
• was a friend of Norton, Caroline
• knew Roberts, David
• was the lover of Ternan, Ellen
• was written about by Thackeray Ritchie, Anne
• was a friend of Thackeray, William Makepeace
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