Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England.

He was the second of eight children to John Dickens, a naval clerk, and Elizabeth Barrow, an aspiring teacher and school director.

The family was poor but initially happy, moving to Chatham, Kent, in 1816.

Dickens was a sickly child, but he was an avid reader.

In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, London, due to worsening finances.

Charles' father, John, was imprisoned for debt in 1824 when Charles was 12.

Charles worked at a boot-blacking factory to support the family.

After his father's release, Charles was sent to a school in London.

At age 15, he left school to work as an office boy at a lawyer’s office, later becoming a shorthand reporter of parliamentary debates in the House of Commons. Later, he began to work as a reporter for a newspaper.

In 1833, he began writing under the pseudonym "Boz," publishing his first story, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk.”

In 1836, his first book, Sketches by Boz, was published.

He married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, and they had 10 children between 1837 and 1852.

Dickens and his wife, Catherine, toured the U.S. for five months in 1842. He spoke out against slavery and supported reforms. His lectures, starting in Virginia and ending in Missouri, attracted large crowds, with ticket scalpers outside his events. Dickens initially enjoyed the attention but grew resentful of the invasion of privacy and Americans’ habits. He criticized American culture and materialism in his travelogue American Notes for General Circulation.

He separated from his wife in 1858 and began a relationship with the actress Ellen “Nelly” Ternan.

Dickens launched a second U.S. tour in 1867-1868 to improve his reputation after his previous criticisms. He made speeches promising to praise America in reprints of American Notes and in one of his novels.

On June 8, 1870, Dickens had a stroke after a day of writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood and died the next day at age 58. 

He was buried in the Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey, with thousands attending his funeral.

Curiosity: Dickens’ former home at 48 Doughty Street in London (1837-1839) was threatened with demolition. It was saved by the Dickens Fellowship, renovated, and opened as the Dickens House Museum in 1925.The museum preserves the home as it was during Dickens’ time and holds a significant collection related to his life and works.

Published: 1837–1839 (serialized)

Plot: Raised in a harsh orphanage plagued by overcrowding and starvation, Oliver is punished for asking for more food and sent to work for an undertaker. After enduring relentless mistreatment, he escapes to London, where he falls in with Fagin, a criminal who trains children as pickpockets. Oliver is mistakenly arrested during a theft but is taken in by the victim, the kind Mr. Brownlow. Fagin’s gang kidnaps Oliver, forcing him into a burglary where he is injured and cared for by the compassionate Maylie family. Investigations are made about who Oliver really is and it is discovered that he has noble origins. Fagin and Monks, Oliver’s half-brother,  who had conspired to ruin him in order to have their father’s property all for himself, are arrested. In the end, Oliver finds a peaceful life with Mr. Brownlow and the Maylies.

Setting: London

Themes:

• Social inequality and the plight of the poor.

• Corruption and crime in urban society.

Published: 1843

Plot: Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser, is visited by four ghosts who teach him the value of kindness and generosity.

Themes:

• Redemption and second chances.

• Moral Responsibilities

Published: 1849–1850 (serialized)

Plot: The story is told in the first person by a middle-aged David Copperfield, who is looking back on his life.

David is born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, shortly after his father’s death and is raised by his mother and their housekeeper, Clara Peggotty. His mother remarries the cruel Edward Murdstone, whose abuse leads to David being sent to a harsh boarding school, where he befriends Tommy Traddles and James Steerforth. After his mother’s death, David is sent to work in a wine factory in London, where he lodges with the financially troubled but generous Micawber family. Seeking a better life, David escapes to his great-aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood, who takes him in and provides him with an education. As David matures, he begins a career in law and meets various characters, including the manipulative Uriah Heep, who schemes to take advantage of David’s mentor, Mr. Wickfield, and marry Wickfield’s daughter, Agnes. David also falls in love with Dora Spenlow, whom he marries. Meanwhile, Steerforth seduces and abandons Emily, Mr. Peggotty’s niece, leading to her family’s despair. Tragedy strikes when Dora dies following a miscarriage, and Ham, Emily’s former fiancé, drowns while trying to rescue survivors from a shipwreck, one of whom is Steerforth. David spends several years abroad to recover and later returns to marry Agnes, his lifelong friend and true love. The novel concludes with the redemption of the Micawbers, who immigrate to Australia with Emily and Mr. Peggotty to start anew, while David finds happiness in his writing career and family life.

Curiosity: Dickens used to refer to the novel as his "favourite child". This work is semiautobiographical; although David Copperfield differs in many ways from Dickens himself, the author drew on significant personal experiences (his work in a factory, his schooling and reading, and (more cursorily) his emergence from parliamentary reporting into successful novel writing).

Published: 1854

Plot: Thomas Gradgrind, a strict schoolmaster, raises his children, Louisa and Tom, to value facts over imagination and emotion. This cold upbringing leaves Louisa emotionally distant and unhappy, leading her into a loveless marriage with Josiah Bounderby, a boastful and wealthy factory owner. Meanwhile, Tom rebels against his upbringing, becoming lazy, selfish and corrupt. As events unfold, Louisa suffers an emotional breakdown and confronts her father, leading Gradgrind to realize the harm of his rigid beliefs. Tom flees and eventually dies while Louisa tries to rebuild her life, though permanently scarred.

Setting: Coketown, an imaginary industrial mill town

Themes

• The dehumanizing effects of a fact-driven, utilitarian worldview

• Industrialisation and class inequality

Published: 1860–1861 (serialized)

Plot: Pip (Philip Pirrip) grows up in the marshlands of Kent, where he lives with his disagreeable sister and her sweet-natured husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery. As a child, Pip helps an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch. Later, he visits the wealthy but eccentric Miss Havisham and he becomes infatuated with her cold but beautiful ward, Estella. Believing he needs to become a gentleman to win Estella’s affection, Pip is disheartened when he is instead apprenticed to Joe. His life changes when a lawyer named Mr. Jaggers informs him that an anonymous benefactor will fund his education in London. Pip assumes Miss Havisham is the source of the money, but he later learns that his true benefactor is Magwitch, now a wealthy man who wishes to repay Pip’s childhood kindness. This revelation forces Pip to confront his misguided ambitions and moral shortcomings. He seeks to help Magwitch escape from the authorities, but their plan fails, and Magwitch is arrested. After Magwitch’s death and the loss of his fortune, Pip reconciles with Joe and finds redemption by accepting a job with his friend Herbert, maturing into a humble and compassionate man. After many years, Pip returns to England, where he reunites with Estella, now a widow. However their future is left uncertain (in fact Dickens wrote two endings).

Setting: a small, rural village in Kent and London

Themes: 

• Critical examination of Victorian social norms and values

• Moral Growth