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Charles Dickens - Children's Author
Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic who is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period and the creator of some of the world's most memorable fictional characters. During his lifetime Dickens's works enjoyed unprecedented popularity and fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was fully recognized by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to enjoy an enduring popularity among the general reading public.
Throughout 2012 there are numerous Dickens Events mark the bicentenary of his birth - www.dickens2012.org .
He was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on 7th February 1812, in Portsmouth, to John, a clerk at the Naval Pay Office, and Elizabeth Dickens. The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine was short-lived because his father, inspiration for the character of Mr Micawber in David Copperfield, was imprisoned for bad debt in the Marshalsea in 1824.
12 year old Charles was sent to work in Warren's boot-blacking factory, in Hungerford Market near The Strand, London. Earning six shillings a week to help support the family, he endured appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair. After three years he was returned to school, but the experience was never forgotten and became fictionalised in two of his better-known novels David Copperfield and Great Expectations.
This childhood poverty and feelings of abandonment, although unknown to his readers until after his death, would be a heavy influence on Dickens' later views on social reform and the world he would create through his fiction.
Like many others, he began his literary career as a journalist. His own father became a reporter and Charles began with the journals 'The Mirror of Parliament' and 'The True Sun'. Then in 1833 he became parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. With new contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym 'Boz'.
In April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth who edited Sketches by Boz. Within the same month came the publication of the highly successful Pickwick Papers, and from that point on there was no looking back for Dickens.
Dickens would go on to write 15 major novels and countelss short stories and also a published autobiography. He edited weekly periodicals including 'Household Words' and 'All Year Round', wrote travel books and administered charitable organisations.
He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed before Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad - for example lecturing against slavery in the United States and touring Italy with companions Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, a contemporary writer who inspired Dickens' final unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the birth of their ten children..
He died of a stroke on 9th June 1870. He wished to be buried, without fanfare, in a small cemetery in Rochester, but the Nation would not allow it. He was laid to rest in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, the flowers from thousands of mourners overflowing the open grave. Among the more beautiful bouquets were many simple clusters of wildflowers, wrapped in rags.
The Charles Dickens Museum can be found at 48 Doughty Street, London. Two of his daughters were born here, his sister-in-law Mary died aged 17 in an upstairs bedroom and some of Dickens’s best-loved novels were written here, including Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.
Major Works of Charles Dickens
Sketches by Boz (1836)
Pickwick Papers (serialized monthly 1836-37)
Oliver Twist (serialized monthly 1837-39)
Nicholas Nickleby (serialized monthly 1838-39)
The Old Curiosity Shop (serialized weekly 1840-41)
Barnaby Rudge (serialized weekly 1841)
Martin Chuzzlewit (serialized monthly 1843-44)
Dombey and Son (serialized monthly 1846-48)
David Copperfield (serialized monthly 1849-50)
Bleak House (serialized monthly 1852-53)
Hard Times (serialized weekly 1854)
Little Dorrit (serialized monthly 1855-57)
A Tale of Two Cities (serialized weekly 1859)
Great Expectations (serialized weekly 1860-61)
Our Mutual Friend (serialized monthly 1864-65)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood - unfinished (serialized monthly 1870)
Featured Books, with extracts by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Ebenezer Scrooge is famous for hating Christmas. He hates the celebration and the feasting, regarding it all as humbug! But then he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, as well as the ghost of...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 9+ readers | Children's Classics
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/09/2012
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Charles Dickens
Ebenezer Scrooge is famous for hating Christmas. He hates the celebration and the feasting regarding it all as humbug! But then he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come as well as the ghost...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 9+ readers | Children's Classics
Format: Hardback - Released: 02/08/2012
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Charles Dickens
Best-selling illustrator Quentin Blake brings fresh appeal to Charles Dickens’s classic Christmas story in this lovely edition. He captures the essence of the miserable Ebenezer Scrooge who would like to live without kindness, charity, love and especially Christmas which he...
Featured in: 7+ readers | Books of the Month
Format: Hardback - Released: 15/09/2011
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Charles Dickens
Well-produced for younger readers, this handsome and easy-to-read edition makes an excellent introduction to one of Charles Dickens’s best-loved novel. The story of Oliver, the boy who famously asked for “More” leading to his expulsion from the workhouse and subsequent...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 9+ readers | Children's Classics
Format: Hardback - Released: 04/03/2010
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Charles Dickens
The Lovereading comment: This edition of The Christmas Carol is one of a range of marvellous comic books created in the '50s and '60s now with artwork re-coloured and covers digitally enhanced for a new generation. Perfect bound at a terrifically...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 14+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/12/2009
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Charles Dickens
“Bah!” “Humbug!” Ebenezer Scrooge hates Christmas and he does his best to stop others enjoying it either. But then he gets a visit from three ghostly visitors – the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come. The three...
Featured in: 7+ readers | Children's Classics
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/09/2009
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Charles Dickens
All the action, bravery and romance of those living through the bloody drama of the French Revolution with the unflinching emblem of the guillotine always in the background are unfolded in Charles Dickens’s classic A Tale of Two Cities. Charles...
Featured in: 9+ readers | Children's Classics
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/03/2009
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Charles Dickens
The classic tale of Oliver Twist brought to life in full colour. This beautiful version of Charles Dickens' tale of childhood in Victorian times will delight readers of all ages. From those who remember the original Classics Illustrated, to new...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 25/10/2008
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Charles Dickens
The original Christmas tale is brought to life in this colourful graphic novel adaptation. It is the second Charles Dickens title from Classical Comics and probably his best-loved story. Set in Victorian England and highlighting the social injustice of the...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 13/10/2008
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Charles Dickens
This is the full story in quick modern English for a fast-paced read. The original Christmas tale is brought to life in this colourful graphic novel adaptation. It is the second Charles Dickens title from Classical Comics and probably his...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 13/10/2008
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Charles Dickens
A favourite of Michael Morpurgo: "The first few pages were so engaging, Marley's ghostly face on the knocker of Scrooge's door still gives me the shivers." This gorgeous and sumptuously illustrated new edition of the completely unabridged A Christmas Carol is...
Featured in: 11+ readers | Children's Classics
Format: Hardback - Released: 01/09/2008
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Charles Dickens
Christmas: everyone loves Christmas except for Ebenezer Scrooge whose name has become synonymous with a miserly outlook on life. Hating Christmas as usual and doing all he can to spoil everyone else’s fun, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts one...
Featured in: 9+ readers | Children's Classics
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/08/2008
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Charles Dickens
Chosen by Michael Morpurgo. As famous lines go in literature, ‘Please sir, I want some more’ is one that not many children are unaware of but have they read the book from which it came? If not, then Oliver Twist,...
Featured in: 9+ readers | Children's Classics
Format: Paperback - Released: 28/02/2008
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Charles Dickens
From Michael Morpurgo: "The first few pages were so engaging, Marley's ghostly face on the knocker of Scrooge's door still gives me the shivers."
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 21/02/2008
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Charles Dickens
History is boring? Well think again. This piece of history and literature by Charles Dickens provides a fast-paced, relevant, exciting history with witty observations and compelling narrative, which will capture a child’s (and parents) imagination. It’s an absolutely fascinating treasure...
Featured in: 11+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/10/2007
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Charles Dickens
Originally published well over 150 years ago this classic from Charles Dickens remains as important in the world of children’s literature as ever. It has captured the hearts and minds of children everywhere over generations and this marvellous new edition complete...
Featured in: 9+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 02/10/2006
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Charles Dickens
October 2011 Guest Editor Roddy Doyle: A small boy called Pip is in a graveyard just as it’s getting dark. He’s looking at the grave where his parents and five brothers are buried. An escaped convict jumps out from behind...
Featured in: 14+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback (b Format) - Released: 30/01/2003
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Charles Dickens
Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder from any young minds. As a consequence, his obedient daughter Louisa marries the...
Featured in: 14+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 31/03/1994
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