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| *Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (] ]–] ]). He migrated to ], and became a member of the ] state parliament. He died in ], NSW. | *Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (] ]–] ]). He migrated to ], and became a member of the ] state parliament. He died in ], NSW. | ||
| In the same year, he accepted the job of editor of '']'', a position he would hold until 1839 when he fell out with the owner. Two other journals in which Dickens would be a major contribut | |||
| In the same year, he accepted the job of editor of '']'', a position he would hold until 1839 when he fell out with the owner. Two other journals in which Dickens would be a major contributor were '']'' and '']''. In 1842, he travelled together with his wife to the ]; the trip is described in the short ] '']'' and is also the basis of some of the episodes in '']''. Shortly thereafter, he began to show interest in ] Christianity, although he remained an ], at least nominally, for the rest of his life. Dickens' writings were extremely popular in their day and were read extensively. In 1856, his popularity allowed him to buy Gad's Hill Place. This large house in ], was very special to the author as he had walked past it as a child and had dreamed of living in it. The area was also the scene of some of the events of ] '']'' and this literary connection pleased Dickens. | |||
| Dickens separated from his wife in 1858. In Victorian times, divorce was almost unthinkable, particularly for someone as famous as he was. He continued to maintain her in a house for the next twenty years until she died. Although they were initially happy together, Catherine did not seem to share quite the same boundless energy for life which Dickens had. Her job of looking after their ten children and the pressure of living with and keeping house for a world-famous novelist certainly did not help. Catherine's sister Georgina moved in to help her, but there were rumours that Charles was romantically linked to his sister-in-law. An indication of his marital dissatisfaction was when, in 1855, he went to meet his first love, Maria Beadnell. Maria was by this time married as well, but she seemed to have fallen short of Dickens' romantic memory of her. | |||
| On ] ], while returning from France to see ], Dickens was involved in the ] in which the first six carriages of the train plunged off of a bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was berthed. Dickens spent some time tending the wounded and the dying before rescuers arrived. Before finally leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for '']'', and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it. Typical of Dickens, he later used the terrible experience to write his short ghost story '']'' in which the protagonist has a premonition of a rail crash. | |||
| Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquiry into the crash, as it would have become known that he was travelling that day with Ellen Ternan and her mother, which could have caused a scandal. Ellen, an actress, had been Dickens' companion since the break-up of his marriage, and, as he had met her in 1857, she was most likely the ultimate reason for that break-up. She continued to be his companion, and likely mistress, until his death. The dimensions of the affair were unknown until the publication of ''Dickens and Daughter'', a book about Dickens' relationship with his daughter Kate, in 1939. Kate Dickens worked with author Gladys Storey on the book prior to her death in 1929, and alleged that Dickens and Ternan had a son who died in infancy, though no contemporary evidence exists. | |||
| ]Dickens, though unharmed, never really recovered from the Staplehurst crash, and his normally prolific writing shrank to completing '']'' and starting the unfinished '']''. Much of his time was taken up with public readings from his best-loved novels. Dickens was fascinated by the theatre as an escape from the world, and theatres and theatrical people appear in '']''. The travelling shows were extremely popular, and on ] ], Dickens gave his first public reading in the ] at a ] theatre. The effort and passion he put into these readings with individual character voices is also thought to have contributed to his death. | |||
| In ] Dickens accepted the Presidency of the ] and became its 16th President | |||
| Five years to the day after the Staplehurst crash, on ] ], he died after suffering a ]. Contrary to his wish to be buried in Rochester Cathedral, he was buried in the ] of ]. The inscription on his tomb reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." Dickens' will stipulated that no memorial be erected to honour him. The only life-size bronze statue of Dickens, cast in 1891 by ], is located in ], ], in the ]. | |||
| <!-- http://www2.cruzio.com/~varese/dickens/statue.html --> | |||
| ==Literary style == | |||
| {{spoiler}} | |||
| Dickens' writing style is florid and poetic, with a strong comic touch. His satires of British aristocratic snobbery—he calls one character the "Noble Refrigerator"—are often popular. Comparing orphans to stocks and shares, people to tug boats, or dinner-party guests to furniture are just some of Dickens' acclaimed flights of fancy. | |||
| ===Characters=== | |||
| ] | |||
| The characters are among the most memorable in English literature; certainly their names are. The likes of ], ], Mrs Gamp, Charles Darnay, ], ], Pecksniff, ], Wackford Squeers and many others are so well known and can be believed to be living a life outside the novels that their stories have been continued by other authors. Dickens loved the style of 18th Century ], though it had already become a bit of a joke—]'s '']'' being a well known parody—and while some are grotesques, their eccentricities do not usually overshadow the stories. One 'character' most vividly drawn throughout his novels is ] itself. From the coaching inns on the outskirts of the city to the lower reaches of the ], all aspects of the capital are described by someone who truly loved London and spent many hours walking its streets. | |||
| ===Episodic writing=== | |||
| Most of Dickens' major novels were first written in monthly or weekly installments in journals such as '']'' and '']'', later reprinted in book form. These installments made the stories cheap, accessible and the series of regular cliff-hangers made each new episode widely anticipated. American fans even waited at the docks in New York, shouting out to the crew of an incoming ship, "Is Little Nell dead?" Part of Dickens' great talent was to incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end. The monthly numbers were illustrated by, amongst others, "]" (a pseudonym for ]). Among his best-known works are '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']''. | |||
| ===Social commentary=== | |||
| Dickens' novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Throughout his works, Dickens retained an empathy for the common man and a scepticism for the fine folk. Dickens' second novel, '']'' (1839), was responsible for the clearing of the actual London slum that was the basis of the story's Jacob's Island. In addition, with the character of the tragic prostitute, ], Dickens "humanised" such women for the reading public; women who were regarded as "unfortunates," inherently immoral casualties of the Victorian class/economic system. '']'' and '']'' elaborated expansive critiques of the Victorian institutional apparatus: the interminable lawsuits of the Court of Chancery that destroyed people's lives in ''Bleak House'' and a dual attack in ''Little Dorrit'' on inefficient, corrupt patent offices and unregulated market speculation. | |||
| ===Literary techniques=== | |||
| {{NPOV-section}} | |||
| Dickens often uses idealised characters and highly sentimental scenes to contrast with his caricatures and the ugly social truths he reveals. The extended death scene of Little Nell in '']'' (1841) was received as incredibly moving by contemporary readers, but viewed as ludicrously sentimental by ]<!--in year ????. Ref-->. In 1903 Chesterton says, on the same topic, "It is not the death of Little Nell, but the life of Little Nell, that I object to." <!--ref--> | |||
| In '']'', Dickens provides readers with an idealised portrait of a young boy so inherently and unrealistically "good" that his values are never subverted by either brutal orphanages or coerced involvement in a gang of young pickpockets. While later novels also centre on idealised characters (Esther Summerson in '']'' and Amy Dorrit in '']''), this idealism serves only to highlight Dickens' goal of poignant social commentary. Many of his novels are concerned with social realism, focusing on mechanisms of social control that direct people's lives (e.g., factory networks in '']'' and hypocritical, exclusionary class codes in '']''). | |||
| Dickens also employs incredible coincidences (for example, Oliver Twist turns out to be the lost nephew of the upper class family that randomly rescues him from the dangers of the pickpocket group). Such coincidences are a staple of the eighteenth-century ] (such as Henry Fielding's '']'') that Dickens enjoyed so much. So there is an ] aspect to this convention. However, to Dickens these were not just plot devices but an index of a Christian humanism that led him to believe that good wins out in the end, often in unexpected ways (see ]). Looking at this theme from a biographical context, Dickens' life, against many odds, led him from a disconsolate child forced to work long hours in a boot-blacking factory at age 12 (his father was in the Marshalsea debtor's prison) to his status as the most popular novelist in England by the age of 27. | |||
| ===Autobiographical elements=== | |||
| All authors incorporate autobiographical elements in their fiction, but with Dickens this is very noticeable, even though he took pains to cover up what he considered his shameful, lowly past. '']'' is one of the most clearly autobiographical but the scenes from '']'' of interminable court cases and legal arguments could only come from a journalist who has had to report them. Dickens' own family was sent to prison for poverty, a common theme in many of his books, and the detailed depiction of life in the Marshalsea prison in '']'' is due to Dickens' own experiences of the institution. Little Nell in '']'' is thought to represent Dickens' sister-in-law, Nicholas Nickleby's father and ] are certainly Dickens' own father, just as Mrs Nickleby and Mrs Micawber are similar to his mother. The snobbish nature of ] from '']'' also has some affinity to the author himself. Dickens may have drawn on his childhood experiences, but he was also ashamed of them and would not reveal that this was where he got his realistic accounts of squalor. Very few knew the details of his early life until six years after his death when ] published a biography on which Dickens had collaborated. A shameful past in Victorian times could taint reputations, just as it did for some of his characters, and this may have been Dickens' own fear. | |||
| {{endspoiler}} | |||
| ==Legacy== | |||
| ] | |||
| Charles Dickens was a well-known personality and his novels were immensely popular during his lifetime. His first full novel, ''The Pickwick Papers'' (1837), brought him immediate fame and this continued right through his career. He maintained a high quality in all his writings and, although rarely departing greatly from his typical "Dickensian" method of always attempting to write a great "story" in a somewhat conventional manner (the dual narrators of ''Bleak House'' are a notable exception), he experimented with varied themes, characterisations and ]s. Some of these experiments were more successful than others and the public's taste and appreciation of his many works have varied over time. He was usually keen to give his readers what they wanted, and the monthly or weekly publication of his works in episodes meant that the books could change as the story proceeded at the whim of the public. A good example of this are the American episodes in '']'' which were put in by Dickens in response to lower than normal sales of the earlier chapters. In ''Our Mutual Friend'' the inclusion of the character of Riah was a positive portrayal of a ] character after he was criticised for the depiction of ] in '']''. | |||
| His popularity has waned little since his death and he is still one of the best known and most read of English authors. At least 180 motion pictures and TV adaptations based on Dickens' works help confirm his success. Many of his works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime and as early as 1913 a silent film of ''The Pickwick Papers'' was made. His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life of their own outside his books. Gamp became a slang expression for an umbrella from the character ] and Pickwickian, Pecksniffian and Gradgrind all entered dictionaries due to Dickens' original portraits of such characters who were quixotic, hypocritical or emotionlessly logical. ], the carefree and irreverent valet of ''The Pickwick Papers,'' was an early superstar, perhaps better known than his author at first. It is likely that ''A Christmas Carol'' is his best-known story, with new adaptations almost every year. It is also the most-filmed of Dickens' stories, many versions dating from the early years of cinema. This simple ] with both pathos and its theme of redemption, for many, sums up the true meaning of Christmas and eclipses all other Yuletide stories in not only popularity, but in adding archetypal figures (''Scrooge'', Tiny Tim, the Christmas ghosts) to the Western cultural consciousness. ''A Christmas Carol'' was written by Dickens in an attempt forestall financial disaster as a result of flagging sales of his novel '' Martin Chuzzlewit''. Years later, Dickens shared that he was "deeply affected" in writing ''A Christmas Carol'' and the novel rejuvenated his career as a renowned author. | |||
| At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged at the heart of empire. Through his journalism he campaigned on specific issues—such as ] and the ]—but his fiction was probably all the more powerful in changing public opinion in regard to class inequalities. He often depicted the exploitation and repression of the poor and condemned the public officials and institutions that allowed such abuses to exist. His most strident indictment of this condition is in ''Hard Times'' (1854), Dickens' only novel-length treatment of the industrial working class. In that work, he uses both vitriol and satire to illustrate how this marginalised social stratum was termed "Hands" by the factory owners, that is, not really "people" but rather only appendages of the machines that they operated. His writings inspired others, in particular journalists and political figures, to address such problems of class oppression. For example, the prison scenes in ''Little Dorrit'' and ''The Pickwick Papers'' were prime movers in having the ] and ]s shut down. As ] said, Dickens, and the other novelists of Victorian England, "…issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together…"<ref>, Karl Marx, published in the ], 1 August 1854</ref>. The exceptional popularity of his novels, even those with socially oppositional themes (''Bleak House'', 1853; ''Little Dorrit'', 1857; ''Our Mutual Friend'', 1865) underscored not only his almost preternatural ability to create compelling storylines and unforgettable characters, but also insured that the Victorian public confronted issues of social justice that had commonly been ignored. | |||
| His fiction, with often vivid descriptions of life in ] England, has inaccurately and anachronistically come to globally symbolise ] society (1837–1901) as uniformly "Dickensian," when in fact, his novels' time span is from the 1770s to the 1860s. In the decade following his death in 1870, a more intense degree of socially and philosophically pessimistic perspectives invested British fiction; such themes were in contrast to the religious faith that ultimately held together even the bleakest of Dickens' novels. Later Victorian novelists such as ] and ] were influenced by Dickens, but their works display a lack or absence of religious belief and portray characters caught up by social forces (primarily via ] conditions) that steer them to tragic ends beyond their control. ] (1835–1902), most notably in '']'' (1885; pub. 1903), also questioned religious faith but in a more ] milieu. | |||
| Novelists continue to be influenced by his books; for example, such disparate current writers as ], ] and ] evidence direct Dickensian connections. Humorist James Finn Garner even wrote a tongue-in-cheek "politically correct" version of ''].'' Ultimately, Dickens stands today as a brilliant, innovative and sometimes flawed novelist whose stories and characters have become not only literary archetypes but also part of the public imagination. | |||
| == Adaptations of readings == | |||
| There have been several performances of Dickens readings by ], ] and also ] in the ''] ''by ]. | |||
| ==Museums and festivals== | |||
| There are museums and festivals celebrating Dickens' life and works in many of the towns with which he was associated. | |||
| * The ] is the only one of Dickens' ] homes to survive. He lived there only two years but in this time wrote ''The Pickwick Papers'', ''Oliver Twist'' and ''Nicholas Nickleby''. It contains a major collection of manuscripts, original furniture and memorabilia. | |||
| * The '''Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum''' in ] is the house in which Dickens was born. It has been re-furnished in the likely style of 1812 and contains Dickens memorabilia. | |||
| * The '''Dickens House Museum''' in ] is the house of Miss Mary Pearson Strong, the basis for Miss Betsey Trotwood in ''David Copperfield''. It is visible across the bay from the original Bleak House (also a museum until 2005) where ''David Copperfield'' was written. The museum contains memorabilia, general Victoriana and some of Dickens' letters. Broadstairs has held a '''Dickens Festival''' annually since 1937. | |||
| * A '''Dickens World''' theme park covering 71 500 square feet, and including a cinema and restaurants, is scheduled to open in ] in 2007. It will be on the site of the formal naval dockyard where Dickens' father once worked in the Navy Pay Office. | |||
| * The '''Charles Dickens Centre''' in Eastgate House, ], closed in 2004, but the garden containing the author's Swiss chalet is still open. The 16th-Century house, which appeared as Westgate House in ''The Pickwick Papers'' and the Nun's House in ''Edwin Drood'', will probably re-open under a related use. The city's annual '''Dickens Festival''' (summer) and Dickensian Christmas celebrations continue unaffected. | |||
| There are also Dickens festivals across the world. Three notable ones from the United States are: | |||
| * The '''Riverside Dickens Festival''' in ], includes literary studies as well as entertainments. | |||
| * '''The Great Dickens Christmas Fair''' has been held in ], since the 1970s. During the four or five weekends before Christmas, over 300 costumed performers mingle with and entertain thousands of visitors amidst the recreated full-scale blocks of Dickensian London. This is the oldest, largest, and most successful of the modern Dickens festivals outside of England. | |||
| * '''Dickens on The Strand''' in ], ], is a holiday festival held on the first weekend in December since 1974, where bobbies, Beefeaters and the "Queen" herself are on hand to recreate the Victorian London of Charles Dickens. Characters from Dickens novels walk the street. | |||
| ==Bibliography== | |||
| ] | |||
| ===Major novels=== | |||
| *'']'' (1836–1837) | |||
| *'']'' (1837–1839) | |||
| *'']'' (1838–1839) | |||
| *'']'' (1840–1841) | |||
| *'']'' (1841) | |||
| *The Christmas books: | |||
| **'']'' (1843) | |||
| **'']'' (1844) | |||
| **'']'' (1845) | |||
| **'']'' (1846) | |||
| **'']'' (1848) | |||
| *'']'' (1843–1844) | |||
| *'']'' (1846–1848) | |||
| *'']'' (1849–1850) | |||
| *'']'' (1852–1853) | |||
| *'']'' (1854) | |||
| *'']'' (1855–1857) | |||
| *'']'' (1859) | |||
| *'']'' (1860–1861) | |||
| *'']'' (1864–1865) | |||
| *'']'' (unfinished) (1870) | |||
| ===Selected other books=== | |||
| *'']'' (1836) | |||
| *'']'' (1840–1841) | |||
| *'']'' (1842) | |||
| *'']'' (1844–1845) | |||
| *'']'' (1846, published in 1934) | |||
| *'']'' (1851–1853) | |||
| *'']'' (1860–1869) | |||
| ===Short stories=== | |||
| *''A Child's Dream of a Star'' (1850) | |||
| *''Captain Murderer'' | |||
| *The Christmas stories: | |||
| **''A Christmas Tree'' (1850) | |||
| **''What Christmas is, as We Grow Older'' (1851) | |||
| **''The Poor Relation's Story'' (1852) | |||
| **''The Child's Story'' (1852) | |||
| **''The Schoolboy's Story'' (1853) | |||
| **''Nobody's Story'' (1853) | |||
| **''The Seven Poor Travellers'' (1854) | |||
| **''The Holly-tree Inn'' (1855) | |||
| **''The Wreck of the Golden Mary'' (1856) | |||
| **''The Perils of Certain English Prisoners'' (1857) | |||
| **''Going into Society'' (1858) | |||
| **''The Haunted House'' (1859) | |||
| **''A Message from the Sea'' (1860) | |||
| **''Tom Tiddler's Ground'' (1861) | |||
| **''Somebody's Luggage'' (1862) | |||
| **''Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings'' (1863) | |||
| **''Mrs Lirriper's Legacy'' (1864) | |||
| **''Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions'' (1865) | |||
| **'']'' (1866) | |||
| **''No Thoroughfare'' (1867) | |||
| *''George Silverman's Explanation'' | |||
| *''Holiday Romance'' | |||
| *''Hunted Down'' | |||
| *''The Lamplighter'' | |||
| *'']'' (1866) | |||
| *''Sunday Under Three Heads'' | |||
| *''The Trial for Murder'' | |||
| ===Essays=== | |||
| *'']'' | |||
| ===Articles=== | |||
| *'']'' | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| <references /> | |||
| ==References== | |||
| * ], ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', (1997), London: Oxford University Press. | |||
| * ], ''Dickens'', (2002), Vintage, ISBN 0-09-943709-0 | |||
| * Slater, Michael, ‘Dickens, Charles John Huffam (1812–1870)’, '']'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| {{Wikisource author}} | |||
| {{wikiquote}} | |||
| {{commons|Charles Dickens}} | |||
| *'''Sources online''' | |||
| ** | |||
| **{{gutenberg author|id=Charles_Dickens|name=Charles Dickens}} | |||
| ** — Chapter-indexed, searchable versions of Dickens’ works | |||
| ** HTML format of Dickens books | |||
| ** Search Dickens' books | |||
| ** Timeline of Dickens' Life | |||
| *'''Critical analysis''' | |||
| ** by ] | |||
| ** An analysis of ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'', ''Nicholas Nickleby'' and ''A Trial For Murder'' | |||
| ** , by Frank Marzials, at Project Gutenberg. 1887 publication with lengthy bibliography. | |||
| ** a seminar by ] from the ] | |||
| *'''Miscellaneous''' | |||
| ** | |||
| ** Twickenham and Richmond | |||
| ** with both original content and links to many other Dickens pages | |||
| ** some of the estimated 989 characters in Dickens | |||
| ** Learn more about the London locations Dickens wrote about | |||
| ** | |||
| ** | |||
| ** Daily Dickens information! | |||
| ** Situated in a former Dickens House, 48 Doughty Street, London, WC1 | |||
| ** Old Commercial Road, Portsmouth | |||
| ** 2 Victoria Parade, Broadstairs, Kent | |||
| ** 2, Onderstraat, Bronkhorst (Netherlands) | |||
| ** | |||
| ** | |||
| ** in San Francisco | |||
| ** A sequence of verses advertising Warren’s Boot Blacking — Dickens’ first known appearance in print | |||
| ** of '']'' at | |||
| ** of '']'' at | |||
| ** | |||
| ** | |||
| **{{imdb name|id=0002042|name=Charles Dickens}} | |||
| ** | |||
| ** | |||
| ** | |||
| ** A scanned, full-text version of the 19th Century book on Charles Dickens' Life | |||
| ** : text, concordances and frequency lists | |||
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Revision as of 09:42, 8 September 2006
| Charles Dickens | |
|---|---|
 Charles Dickens was a prolific writer who was almost always working on a new instalment for a story and rarely missed a deadline. | |
| Born | 7 February 1812 Portsmouth, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 9 June 1870 Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870), pen-name "Boz", was an English novelist. During his career Dickens achieved massive worldwide popularity, winning acclaim for his rich storytelling and memorable characters. Considered one of the English language's greatest writers, he was the foremost novelist of the Victorian era as well as a vigorous social campaigner. He was also a jew but supported the nazis. And his tiny little nipples when to France and he had a boyfriend called chris addison and he had a small cok on top of his head
Later critics, beginning with George Gissing and G.K. Chesterton, championed his mastery of prose, his endless invention of memorable characters and his powerful social sensibilities. Yet he also received criticism from his more rarefied readers, including George Henry Lewes, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, who list faults such as sentimentality, unrealistic events and grotesque characters.
The popularity of his novels and short stories during his lifetime and to the present is demonstrated by the fact that none has ever gone out of print. Dickens wrote serialised novels, which was the usual format for fiction at the time, and each new part of his stories would be eagerly anticipated by the reading public. He is regarded by many as the greatest writer of his time.
Life
Dickens was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, to John Dickens (1786–1851), a naval pay clerk, and his wife Elizabeth Dickens née Barrow (1789–1863). When he was five, the family moved to Chatham, Kent. When he was ten, the family relocated to 16 Bayham Street, Camden Town in London. His early years were an idyllic time. He thought himself then as a "very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy". He spent his time outdoors, reading voraciously with a particular fondness for the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. He talked later in life of his extremely poignant memories of childhood and his continuing photographic memory of people and events that helped bring his fiction to life. His family was moderately well-off, and he received some education at a private school but all that changed when his father, after spending too much money entertaining and retaining his social position, was imprisoned for debt. At the age of twelve, Dickens was deemed old enough to work and began working for ten hours a day in Warren's boot-blacking factory, located near the present Charing Cross railway station. He spent his time pasting labels on the jars of thick polish and earned six shillings a week. With this money, he had to pay for his lodging and help to support his family, most of whom were living with his father, who was incarcerated in the nearby Marshalsea debtors' prison.
After a few months his family was able to leave the Marshalsea but their financial situation only improved some time later, partly due to money inherited from his father's family. His mother did not immediately remove Charles from the boot-blacking factory, which was owned by a relation of hers. Dickens never forgave his mother for this, and resentment of his situation and the conditions under which working-class people lived became major themes of his works. As Dickens wrote in David Copperfield, judged to be his most clearly autobiographical novel, "I had no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from anyone, that I can call to mind, as I hope to go to heaven!" In May 1827, Dickens began work as a law clerk, a junior office position with potential to become a lawyer. He did not like the law as a profession and after a short time as a court stenographer he became a journalist, reporting parliamentary debate and travelling Britain by stagecoach to cover election campaigns. His journalism formed his first collection of pieces Sketches by Boz and he continued to contribute to and edit journals for much of his life. In his early twenties he made a name for himself with his first novel, The Pickwick Papers.
On 2 April 1836, he married Catherine Thompson Hogarth (1816–1879), with whom he was to have ten children, and set up home in Bloomsbury. Their children were:
- Charles Culliford Boz Dickens (6 January 1837–1896).
- Mary Angela Dickens (6 March 1838–1896).
- Kate Macready Dickens (29 October 1839–1929).
- Walter Landor Dickens (8 February 1841–1863). Died in India.
- Francis Jeffrey Dickens (15 January 1844–1886).
- Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens (28 October 1845–1912).
- Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens (18 April 1847–1872).
- (Sir) Henry Fielding Dickens (15 January 1849–1933). He was the grandfather of the writer Monica Dickens.
- Dora Annie Dickens (16 August 1850–April 1851).
- Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (13 March 1852–23 January 1902). He migrated to Australia, and became a member of the New South Wales state parliament. He died in Moree, NSW.
In the same year, he accepted the job of editor of Bentley's Miscellany, a position he would hold until 1839 when he fell out with the owner. Two other journals in which Dickens would be a major contribut