| There is something about Charles Dickens' | | | | afterward, that he felt a deep sense of |
| imaginative power that defies explanation in | | | | abandonment at this time; the major themes of |
| purely biographical terms. Nevertheless, his | | | | his novels can be traced to this period. His |
| biography shows the source of that power and | | | | sympathy for the victimized, his fascination |
| is the best place to begin to define it.The | | | | with prisons and money, the desire to |
| second child of John and Elizabeth Dickens, | | | | vindicate his heroes' status as gentlemen, |
| Charles was born on February 7, 1812, near | | | | and the idea of London as an awesome, lively, |
| Portsmouth on England's south coast. At that | | | | and rather threatening environment all |
| time John Dickens was stationed in Portsmouth | | | | reflect these experiences. No doubt this |
| as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. The family | | | | temporary collapse of his parents' ability to |
| was of lower-middle-class origins, John | | | | protect him made a vivid expression on him. |
| having come from servants and Elizabeth from | | | | Out on his own for a time at twelve years of |
| minor bureaucrats. Dickens' father was | | | | age, Dickens acquired a lasting |
| vivacious and generous but had an unfortunate | | | | self-reliance, a driving ambition, and a |
| tendency to live beyond his means. his mother | | | | boundless energy that went into everything he |
| was affectionate and rather inept in | | | | did.At thirteen Dickens went back to school |
| practical matters. Dickens later used his | | | | for two years and then took a job in a |
| father as the basis for Mr. Micawber and | | | | lawyers office. Dissatisfied with the work, |
| portrayed is mother as Mrs. Nickleby in A | | | | he learned shorthand and became a freelance |
| Tale of Two Cities.After a transfer to London | | | | court reporter in 1828. The job was seasonal |
| in 1814, the family moved to Chatham, near | | | | and allowed him to do a good deal of reading |
| Rochester, three years later. Dickens was | | | | in the British Museum. At the age of twenty |
| about five at the time, and for the next five | | | | he became a full-fledged journalist, working |
| years his life was pleasant. Taught to read | | | | for three papers in succession. In the next |
| by his mother, he devoured his fathers' small | | | | four or five years he acquired the reputation |
| collection of classics, which included | | | | of being the fastest and most accurate |
| Shakespeare, Cervantes, Defoe, Smollet, | | | | parliamentary reporter in London. The value |
| Fielding, and Goldsmith. These left a | | | | of this period was that Dickens gained a |
| permanent mark on his imagination; their | | | | sound, firsthand knowledge of London and the |
| effect on his art was quite important. | | | | provinces.Dickens was very active physically. |
| dickens also went to some performances of | | | | He loved taking long walks, riding horses, |
| Shakespeare and formed a lifelong attachment | | | | making journeys, entertaining friends, dining |
| to the theater. He attended school during | | | | well, playing practical jokes. He enjoyed |
| this period and showed himself to be a rather | | | | games of charades with his family, was an |
| solitary, observant, good-natured child with | | | | excellent amateur magician, and practiced |
| some talent for comic routines, which his | | | | hypnotism. One tends to share Shaw's opinion |
| father encouraged. In retrospect Dickens | | | | that Dickens, in his social life, was always |
| looked upon these years as a kind of golden | | | | on stage. He was like an eternal Master of |
| age. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, is | | | | Ceremonies, for the most part: flamboyant, |
| in part an attempt to recreate their idyllic | | | | observant, quick, dynamic, full of zest. Yet |
| nature: it rejoices in innocence and the | | | | he was also restless, subject to fits of |
| youthful spirit, and its happiest scenes take | | | | depression, and hot tempered, so that at |
| place in that precise geographical area.In | | | | times he must have been nearly intolerable to |
| the light of the family's move back to | | | | live with, however agreeable he was as a |
| London, where financial difficulties overtook | | | | companion.In view of his very strenuous life |
| the Dickens's, the time in Chatham must have | | | | it was not surprising that he died at |
| seemed glorious indeed. The family moved into | | | | fifty-eight from a stroke. At his death on |
| the shabby suburb of Camden Town, and Dickens | | | | June 9, 1870, Dickens was wealthy, immensely |
| was taken out of school and set to menial | | | | popular, and the best novelist the Victorian |
| jobs about the household. In time, to help | | | | age produced. He was buried in the Poet's |
| augment the family income, Dickens was given | | | | Corner of Westminster Abbey, and people |
| a job in a blacking factory among rough | | | | mourned his death the world over.You may |
| companions. At the time his father was | | | | visit and for instant access to thousands |
| imprisoned for debt, but was released three | | | | of term papers. Several thousand free papers |
| months later by a small legacy. Dickens | | | | are also offered. |
| related to his friend, John Forster, long | | | | |