Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (1812-70), British novelist. After his father was imprisoned for debt, the 12-year-Old Dickens worked for a time in a blacking factory. He worked tremendously hard to teach himself shorthand and became a reporter. In 1833 his first published piece appeared, under the pen-name Boz. The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him overnight fame, which never diminished. As editor of the periodicals Household Words and. All the Year Round, he encouraged other writers, including Mrs. Gaskell. His novels, many of which reflect his childhood experience of poverty and protest against social injustice, were bestsellers. They include Oliver Twist (1837-39), The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), David Copperfield (1850), and Great Expectations (1860-61). Dickens gave very successful public readings from his works in Britain and the US, even after a stroke left him lame in 1865. His unsatisfactory married life ended in separation in 1858, when he left his wife an4 ten children. He died from overwork, leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) unfinished.
