Charles Dickens is one of the best-known writers in the world, and is considered to be the
greatest novelist of the Victorian Era.
If you live in an English-speaking country, you probably read Great Expectations, Oliver
Twist, and A Christmas Carol in school.
His work became so popular, it even sparked the creation of the world “Dickensian”
to describe his style.
So, why is Charles Dickens’ work considered to be so good that it has inspired future
generations?
And who was the man who created all of these well-known characters?
Early Life
Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England to John and Elizabeth
Dickens.
He was just one of 8 children, and two of his siblings died at a very young age.
Throughout his childhood, young Charles loved to play outside, and he read as many books
as he possibly could.
His father, John Dickens was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, which meant that he guarded
money in a safe and handed out paychecks to sailors.
The Navy would often move him from place to place whenever it was necessary.
So as a boy, Charles was able to live in several different areas of England.
John Dickens was a very ambitious man, and hoped to climb the ranks at his job.
Eventually, he was able to move the family to London and pay for Charles to get a private
education.
Once he was living in the big city, Charles was exposed to performances from the local
theater.
He became inspired by actors, and would jump up on the tables of the local pub to sing
and dance.
He also performed plays with his siblings, and imagined growing up to be an actor.
His father John was optimistic, and did not prescribe to the old-fashioned notion that
people are born in the place they were supposed to stay throughout their lives.
He taught all of his children that they could be rich if they worked hard enough.
One day, while walking with Charles, he pointed to a mansion called Gads Hill Place, saying
that if he worked hard, he could own a house like that someday.
Even though John Dickens was a hard worker and an excellent father, he made the mistake
of spending his money before he could make it.
With so many children and a wife to take care of, he lived beyond his means.
His father struggled so much with money, that Charles Dickens had to leave school to work
in a blacking polish factory at 12 years old.
He had the tedious task of gluing labels to bottles for 11 hours a day, making just 6
shillings per week.
Even though this was clearly child labor, it was totally legal at the time.
Charles was actually lucky to have found that job, though, because his father ended up in
a debtor’s prison.
John owed 40 pounds and 3 shillings, and the only way he could get out was to pay back
his debt.
But obviously, if he was not allowed to work or earn money in prison, he could not be released.
The entire Dickens family had to move into the prison with him- even the young children-
because there was nowhere else for them to live.
Since twelve year old Charles was the only one who actually had a job, he could afford
to rent a room that was just big enough for himself, and the responsibility of freeing
his entire family fell on his small shoulders.
Charles visited his family every Sunday, and helped them in any way he could.
However, since he only made 6 shillings a week, there was not much the poor boy could
do.
John Dickens was able to inherit some money from his mother, and pay off his debt in full.
Even though he only had to endure this lifestyle for a year, and he was eventually able to
return to school, this deeply affected Charles Dickens for the rest of his life.
They had been fortunate enough to receive the inheritance to save the family just in
time, but what about the people who were not so lucky?
Charles realized that even well-to-do-families full of good people like his could fall on
hard times.
Years later, this would inspire his stories Oliver Twist and Little Dorrit.
In 1827, Charles became a junior law clerk for an attorney at 15 years old, and he began
to learn how to write shorthand.
While he worked at the firm, he would pay attention to the clients who were coming in
looking for legal advice.
He often wrote down their physical descriptions and mannerisms, and wrote stories about them.
Charles had a knack for finding humor in even the most awful situations, and would often
laugh at some of the issues that people were complaining about.
This was just the beginning of his fascination with true crime, as well as his ability to
write about difficult topics with a sense of humor.
Now that he was growing up and had more experience in the workforce, Charles Dickens tried to
go after his dream of becoming an actor.
When he was 20 years old, he had an audition for a play Covent Garden.
But he came down with a terrible cold, and had to miss his appointment.
He was never given another chance.
At the time, it must have seemed like a horrible setback, because it had been his life-long
dream.
But if he had become an actor, he would have never fulfilled his destiny of being a great
writer.
He eventually moved on from being a law clerk and became a journalist at the Morning Chronicle.
Even at the paper, he was still interested in law, and sat through court cases at the
House of Commons to report what had happened.
This is where he met the daughter of his editor, Catherine Hogarth.
After only knowing one another for three months, Charles proposed, and they were married in
1836.
They would go on to have ten children throughout the course of their marriage.
Writing Career
Through his writing, Charles Dickens paints the Victorian Era as a time that was dirty,
dark, and crude, especially for those who were living in the lower class.
While some of his social commentary is very critical, it’s clear that he truly did love
England, and he wanted it to be better.
He felt that the best way he could help was to write stories that put a spotlight on social
and political issues.
It wasn’t all dark, of course, Dickens also wrote touching scenes where people could enjoy
the simple things in life, like a warm fire, a good story, and spending time with family.
In fact, his story called A Christmas Carol is credited for capturing all of England’s
best holiday traditions, and it still warms people’s hearts to this very day.
In all of his stories, there was always an underlying moral lesson, and one of the first
issues he decided to tackle was the treatment of the poor.
The beginning of the Victorian Era was at the height of the Industrial Revolution, and
it was now more necessary than ever to get cheap labor into factories of the country
wanted to move forward in economic progress.
When Charles was 22 years old, The 1834 Poor Law made it a rule that if anyone was living
on the street, they were taken to live in a workhouse, and forced to work in a factory.
Children were educated while the parents would work several hours a day in exchange for food
and shelter.
This caused a huge amount of debate, because workhouses were essentially prisons for poor
people.
Once they entered a workhouse, there was no escape.
Everyone knew that life in the workhouse was awful, but people in the upper class were
taught that poverty was someone’s own fault.
Any harsh treatment was necessary, because they deserved it.
As someone who grew up suffering through poverty, Charles Dickens knew that good, hard-working
people could sometimes fall on hard times, and that doesn’t mean they should be thrown
in a workhouse.
It was clear to him that the lawmakers from the upper class were out of touch with reality,
and totally lacked empathy for people in the working class.
It became his mission to change the hearts and minds of the people of England.
He knew two very important things that set him apart from other writers: Firstly, no
one likes being lectured to.
Second is that his audience would never care about anything unless it had something to
do with them.
So Dickens had to figure out how to make a story entertaining first, and almost hide
his moral lessons within the context of the story.
He would also incorporate people in the middle-to-upper classes, and show that even having a privileged
birth does not necessarily mean you are immune to hardship.
When he was 24 years old, he began publishing his stories in serialized form.
These were The Pickwick Papers, which was a satire based on real-life political corruption.
At first, the stories were not so successful, and Dickens was only earning 14 pounds per
month.
But after the fourth issue was published, it became a huge hit, and sales of his serial
went from 400 to 40,000 copies per month.
The fact that his work was serialized a few chapters at a time rather than releasing a
full novel all at once was actually a huge benefit to him.
His fans would speculate what was going to happen next, just like someone watching a
TV series in modern times.
People were so excited to talk about the stories to their friends, that it soon spread by word
of mouth.
Soon, the name Charles Dickens was being mentioned all over London, and he became a celebrity
writer.
At age 25, Dickens would publish his serialized story called Oliver Twist, which showed what
life was truly like for a child living in the workhouse.
The main character, Oliver, was born into a well-to-do-family, and he had the misfortune
of getting lost and ending up in the workhouse.
Readers were able to think, “What if this had happened to me?”
He was sure to make the stories humorous and easy for anyone to read.
More and more people began to have empathy for the poor, and understand that something
needed to be changed.
This was years before the internet, of course, so the only way Charles Dickens could do his
research about the biggest social issues throughout England was to act like a reporter, and travel
to locations in person.
When he heard that young boys were being abused in orphanages, he took a two-day carriage
journey to visit one so that he could have a first-hand account of what was truly going
on.
This inspired his story called Nicholas Nickleby.
He also visited insane asylums to witness the mistreatment of people with mental illnesses,
and often walked through some of the worst parts of London.
So you might be wondering- Charles Dickens showed up to witness people being abused,
and he didn’t do anything about it except write a book?
He never claimed to have all of the solutions to the problems in society, and with his experience
sitting as a reporter in court, he knew that changing a law was a complicated ordeal.
All he could do was simply observe, and write stories about the truth.
This alone was enough for people to talk about the issues, and begin to have empathy for
the down-trodden.
Everyone wanted their country to be better.
In that way, there has perhaps been no other man alive who has done so much for social
reform in the United Kingdom that Charles Dickens.
On the Road, and Making A Difference
Even though Charles Dickens was never able to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming
a professional actor, he decided to try becoming a showman.
In 1842, Charles and his wife Catherine decided to travel to the United States together so
that he could give public readings of his work.
At the time, books were one of the main forms of entertainment, so the idea of a favorite
author coming to town was like a rock star going on tour.
Dickens insisted that tickets should be discounted for working-class people, and he spoke to
sold out-theaters every time.
People who witnessed his readings described how passionately he would read in the voices
of each of his characters, and that no other performance of his works would ever rival
the author.
In 1844 and 45, he spent time living in Italy and Switzerland doing public speaking engagements,
and wrote a few more books.
By 1847, he had earned such a substantial amount of money from his tour that he was
finally able to invest some of the money into actually taking action on helping people.
At the time, there were so few job opportunities and child care options for women.
Their only option was to get married and find a man to take care of them.
And if they fell on hard times, they had no choice but to become “fallen women”, or
sex workers.
If they were arrested, many of these women were sent to “Magdalen Hospitals”- (Yep,
like Mary Magdalen from the Bible.)
They were constantly told they were an awful person, and they were punished harshly for
their sins.
The only other option for an uneducated woman besides the life of a sex worker, would be
to live in the work house, which was essentially going to prison.
At least, with sex work, they got to be free.
Charles Dickens knew that many of these women did not deserve to be in this situation.
And many would be able to turn their lives around, if only they were given a place to
stay to get their life together.
He founded the Home for Homeless Women at Urania Cottage.
The women who lived here were taught skills that would get them jobs.
And, of course, he would also interview them to hear their life stories, and he was able
to draw inspiration from them for his future works.
A New Chapter
In March of 1856, Dickens was 44 years old when he learned that the mansion he had dreamed
of as a child, Gads Hill Place, was up for sale.
He purchased the home for £1,790.
At the time, he had let go of his childish wonder of the place, and thought that at the
very least, it might make a good investment to rent it out.
But once he saw it in person again, he truly loved the home, and it reminded him of what
had inspired him to work towards so long ago.
He kept it as his country house, and it became a welcome escape from the city.
It was around this time that Charles Dickens was beginning to have a bit of a crisis.
He was at the peak of his career, but no longer happy in his marriage with Catherine, and
spent more time throwing large parties at Gad’s Hill Place.
At the time, divorce was totally taboo, especially for a public figure.
He had also given himself this reputation of being a pinnacle of morality, and had to
continue pretending that everything was fine.
At one of these parties, Dickens invited over the cast of the local theater, as well as
celebrity friends like author Hans Christian Anderson.
It was around this time in his life when Dickens met a young actress named Ellen Ternan.
He was 45, and she was just 18 years old.
They began having an affair, but he kept their relationship a secret, as not to damage their
reputations.
In 1858, Charles became separated from his wife Catherine.
They no longer lived together, but he was forced to stay legally married.
During their separation, Charles tried to get a divorce by claiming that his wife was
mentally ill.
The word soon got out, and it caused a public scandal.
He wrote 98 letters about his issues with his wife, and they were only recently discovered
when they were sold at auction in 2014.
This has caused a lot of debate among scholars.
Some say that Dickens was lying about his wife’s mental state, and willing to have
her committed in an asylum just so he could be with Ellen Ternan.
Others believe that Catherine truly was sick, and that this man who had so much love and
empathy for other people that he would never send his wife to an asylum if it were not
necessary.
Charles Dickens continued his relationship with Ellen behind closed doors, and bought
her a house just outside of London so that he could go to visit her.
The two of them continued their secret affair for 13 years.
They had a child together, but he died in infancy, and they would never go on to have
another.
On June 9th, 1865.
Charles and Ellen were on a train together when they approached Staplehurst.
The tracks were being repaired, and the conductor had no idea that it was happening.
The conductor hit the breaks, but it was already too late.
All of the first class carriages fell into the river below.
The one and only first class car that remained on the tracks held Charles Dickens, and it
dangled over the edge.
The second class carriages behind him were enough weight to hold on.
Charles jumped into the water to try to help and of the survivors.
If he found someone who was just barely clinging on to life, he would hold them, and tell them
to take a swig of brandy.
More than one person died in his arms.
A total of 10 were killed in the accident, and many others were seriously injured.
Just as he was helping bring the bodies out of the water, he suddenly remembered that
the manuscript for his latest book, Our Mutual Friend, was still inside of the train car.
He risked his life to go inside and retrieve it before it went over the edge.
For the rest of his life, Charles Dickens avoided traveling, and getting on a train
gave him anxiety.
For years, no one knew about Charles Dickens’ secret relationship, because Ellen Ternan
had burned most of their letters.
Eventually, historians began to piece together the evidence throughout the years.
A movie about Ellen Ternan’s life and relationship to Dickens was made in 2012 called The Invisible
Woman.
Death, and Legacy
After the accident, Dickens health was suffering.
In 1867, he was given the opportunity to go on another speaking tour of America, they
offered to pay him 20,000 pounds after expenses.
This is nearly a million pounds in today’s money.
He was still suffering from a lot of travel anxiety, and potentially had PTSD, but Dickens
felt that he could not say “no” to that kind of money.
But when he returned, it was clear to everyone that his health had seriously declined.
In 1870, Charles Dickens had a stroke, and died unexpectedly in his home at Gads Hill
Place.
He was 58 years old, and had believed that he would have lived a much longer life.
Dickens worked up until the day he died, and the last novel that he had been working on
was called Edwin Drood, which involved a murder mystery.
He died before revealing the end, which caused his fans to debate for years over what they
true ending must have been.
When he died, his estate was worth 93,000 pounds, which is close to 4 million today.
In his will, he stated that he wanted a very quiet and private funeral in Rochester.
However, this sparked a debate, because many people wanted to pay their respects.
So his family decided to allow him to be buried in Westminster Abbey.
In the days following his death, crowds of people showed up to pay respect to his open
casket.
There were so many flowers laid on top of him, that no one could see him anymore.
Even though he is gone, the legacy that Charles Dickens left behind will last forever.
Today, his work is still read and analyzed in schools all over the world.
Oliver Twist was made into a musical called Oliver, and there are dozens of film adaptations
of his stories.
Every December, families all over the globe re-visit the stories of Bob Cratchet and Ebinezer
Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
There is almost no way to properly end a video on a man who has accomplished so much, so
what better way to do it than his own words?
He once said, “Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart
to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great
aims and in small I have always thoroughly been
in earnest.”