Biography and best books of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens Biography: The Other London

Photograph: US National Archives

Born on February 7, 1812 in Landport, an area of ​​the English city of Portmouth, Charles Dickens was the son of John Dickens, a dock clerk, and Elizabeth Barrow, a housewife. A boy whose childhood was marked by his father’s constant financial excesses , a lack of education until the age of 9, or two moves, one to Kent and the other to Camdem Town, then one of the poorest areas of London. .

At the age of 12, his father was imprisoned for incurring numerous debts, allowing his family to share a cell with the prisoner, although Dickens was sent to a foster home and forced to start working in a shoe polish factory. sticking labels, a job with which he paid for his accommodation and helped his family. Meanwhile, literature became his great ally, devouring picaresque novels and works such as Don Quixote de la Mancha , a hobby that added to his deplorable life allowed Dickens to turn his future work into the perfect kaleidoscope of an infamous childhood plunged into poverty in London.

In 1827, at the age of fifteen, he began work as a court stenographer and a year later as a reporter for Doctor’s Commons and a columnist for the True Sun. Finally, his work as a political journalist for the Morning Chronicle allowed him to publish his own book of political publications , the first hook of an audience that would consume his books voraciously years later.

In 1836 he married Catherine Thompson Hogarth, with whom he had ten children to whom he tried to instill Christianity in many ways, including a simple language book called The Life of Our Lord. His involvement as an editor in several newspapers enabled him to publish Oliver Twist , which was serialized for two months in 1837. In this way, Dickens began to grow as an author, acquiring properties and trying to expand his lyrics throughout the world, specifically in the United States, where his work Notes from America, opposed to the slavery that prevailed on the other side of the Atlantic, meant various reviews. Finally, works such as A Christmas Carol (1843) or David Copperfield (1850) , ended up consecrating him despite leading to a crisis marked by editorial remuneration that was never enough. This is how Charles Dickens ended up traveling around Europe and meeting other authors before becoming one of the most versatile personalities in London , organizing different conferences, founding his own newspaper or even a theater company.

The end of the 1850s brought Dickens as much sorrow as joy: parallel to the creation of A Tale of Two Cities , one of his greatest works, he divorced his wife Catherine. A controversial situation to say the least, given the many prejudices that existed against divorce in Victorian London.

During the following years, Dickens suffered a railway accident that would mark the last stage of his life, although he continued to work tirelessly until his death on June 9, 1870, due to a stroke.

A life marked not only by lyrics, but by social activity at all levels that honor a writer who has become a symbol of an era.

Best books by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist

Turned into a timeless work given the inequality still present in the world and its condition as the perfect canvas to denounce various atrocities that include innocent children, Oliver Twist is one of the great Dickens stories. Published in various installments in 1837, it is the first novel to feature a child as the protagonist, with Oliver being the icon of a generation, a poor orphaned boy used by the city’s thugs to commit various crimes. 

Christmas Story

Published in 1843, A Christmas Carol bears witness to a time when England succumbed to the resurgence of old Christmas traditions fostered by literature or trends from the Victorian court. This is how this work became Dickens’s personal trick to explore human behavior in such a charismatic time, specifically that of Mr. Scrooge, the stingy old man who must succumb to the ghosts of his different Christmases to melt a heart of ice. . Like his other works, A Christmas Carol has been adapted for theater and film on numerous occasions .

David Copperfield

Possibly the most autobiographical work, David Copperfield was always “the favorite son” of Dickens. The protagonist, raised by a wicked stepfather and a submissive mother, perfectly represents the life of the author, his loves, friends, disappointments or achievements traced from his birth to his death. Without a doubt, one of the most influential works of the writer which was published in 1850 in various installments.

A Tale Of Two Cities

The second best-selling novel in history after Don Quixote de la Mancha arrived in 1859 to become Dickens’s magnum opus. An analysis of the time through the prism of two cities: a peaceful and quiet London and a Paris in which the agitation and defiance of a people dissatisfied with their situation was chewed. Such was the success of the novel, that after an initial print run of 12 thousand copies it went on to have 100 thousand weekly.

Would you like to read A Tale of Two Cities?

Great Expectations

Largely conceived on the same pattern as David Copperfield, Great Expectations is a learning novel that could well draw from different references to the author’s own life. 

Have you read Great Expectations?

What are, in your opinion, the best books of Charles Dickens?