Charles DICKENS

Charles John Hufffman DICKENS
(1812 – 1870 )


He is considered to be one of the greatest English novelists of the Victorian period. Dickens's works are characterized by attacks on social evils, injustice, and hypocrisy. Charles Dickens was born in Landport, Hampshire on February 7, 1812. His father was a clerk in the navy pay office, who was well paid but often ended up in financial troubles. In 1814 Dickens moved to London, and then to Chatham, where he received some education. He worked in a blacking factory, Hungerford Market, London, while his family was in Marshalea debtor's prison in 1824). In 1824-27 Dickens studied at Wellington House Academy, London, and at Mr. Dawson's school in 1827. From 1827 to 1828 he was a law office clerk, and then worked as a shorthand reporter at Doctor's Commons. He wrote for True Son (1830-32), Mirror of Parliament (1832-34) and the Morning Chronicle (1834-36). He was in the 1830s a contributor to the Monthly Magazine, and The Evening Chronicle and edited Bentley's Miscellany. In the 1840s Dickens founded Master Humphry's Clock and edited the London Daily News. Dickens's career as a writer of fiction started in 1833 when his short stories and essays appeared in periodicals. His Sketches By Boz and The Pickwick Papers were published in 1836.In the same year he married the daughter of his friend George Hogarth, Catherine Hogarth. The Pickwick Papers were stories about a group of rather odd individuals and their travels to Ipswich, Rochester, Bath and elsewhere. Dickens's novels first appeared in monthly installments, including Oliver Twist (1837-39), which depicts the London underworld and hard years of the foundling Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickelby (1838-39), a tale of young Nickleby's struggles to seek his fortune, and The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41).

Among his later works are David Copperfield (1849-50), where Dickens used his own personal experiences of work in a factory, Bleak House (1852-53), A Tale Of Two Cities (1859), set in the years of the French Revolution and Great Expectations (1860-61)

From the 1840s Dickens spent much time traveling and campaigning mo most model motor motiv motal omotal odmotal můj můstek můstkemagainst many of the social evils of his time. In addition he gave talks and reading, wrote pamphlets, plays, and letters. In the 1850s Dickens was founding editor of Household Words and its successor All the Year Round (1859-70).

In 1844-45 he lived in Italy, Switzerland and Paris. He gave lecturing tours in Britain and the United States in 1858-68. From 1860 Dickens lived at Gadshill Place, near Rochester, Kent. He died at Gadshill on June 9, 1870. The unfinished mystery novel The Mystery Of Edwin Drood was published in 1870. David Copperfield is my favorite book by Charles Dickens. HE enjoys his early childhood with his mother and their kindly servant, Peggotty. But when his mother marries the cruel Mr. Murdstone, he is sent away to Salem House, a run-down London boarding school where the boys are beaten by Mr. Creakle. Here David befriends Tommy Traddles and the aristocratic James Steerforth. Shortly after she gives birth to a son by Mr. Murdstone, however, David's mother dies, and David is pulled out of the school and forced to go to work at Murdstone's wine warehouse. He lives with the impoverished Micawber family, whom he grows to love, but when Micawber is sent to debtor's prison, David runs away from his work and goes to live with his indomitable great-aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood. Miss Trotwood adopts David and sends him to Dr. Strong's school in Canterbury, where he thrives. David lives in Canterbury with a lawyer named Mr. Wickfield (whose scheming clerk, Uriah Heep, takes advantage of Wickfield's alcoholism to secure himself a position as partner in the firm) and Wickfield's daughter Agnes, with whom David forms a close and lasting friendship. When David finishes at Dr. Strong's school, he goes to work at the law firm of Mr. Spenlow and Jorkins, where he falls in love with and becomes engaged to Dora Spenlow.

When Em'ly, David's childhood sweetheart and Peggotty's niece, runs away with Steerforth, Mr. Peggotty (Peggotty's brother) sets out to find her. Miss Trotwood is suddenly and unexpectedly plunged into financial ruin, and David begins doing extra work to help support her--he learns shorthand and begins reporting on Parliament for the papers, and he eventually begins writing stories for magazines. He marries Dora, who proves inept at housework. Soon after, he is shocked to learn that Mr. Micawber has gone to work as a clerk for Uriah Heep and that Heep intends to marry Agnes.

Dora becomes ill after the birth of their child and dies, as does the child. With the help of Martha Endell, David and Mr. Peggotty succeed in locating Em'ly; the Peggottys plan to leave for Australia to begin a new life.

After exposing Uriah Heep as a criminal and a fraud--and forcing him to make reparations for all the money he embezzled--Mr. Micawber also plans to move his family to Australia. Steerforth is killed in a shipwreck, as is Ham--Em'ly's cousin, who loved her--and David remains deeply saddened by Dora's death. He travels abroad for several years but returns at last, realizing that he loves and has always loved Agnes Wickfield. Now a famous writer, David marries Agnes, and the two live happily ever after, as do their friends in Australia.









David Copperfield
The protagonist of the novel, a talented, intelligent, sensitive young boy whose father dies before he is born and whose mother dies when he is still very young. Maltreated by his stepfather, Mr. Murdstone, David goes to live with his great-aunt, Miss Trotwood. He attends school, becomes apprenticed to a law firm, and eventually becomes a famous writer. As a young man he marries Dora Spenlow; after she dies, he marries Agnes Wickfield. Clara Copperfield
David's mother, a caring and generous woman who makes an unwise marriage to Mr. Murdstone and dies shortly after the birth of their child. Edward Murdstone
Mrs. Copperfield's second husband, David's stepfather. Handsome but cruel, Murdstone marries David's mother only for her money. He beats David savagely and enrolls him in a miserable school. Later, he forces David to go to work in his London wine warehouse when David is still a young boy. Clara Peggotty
The Copperfields' housekeeper, later Barkis' wife, later Miss Trotwood's housekeeper. A kind woman, she is loyal to David throughout the novel. Tommy Traddles
David's friend from Salem House, who eventually becomes a lawyer and later a magistrate. Marries Sophy Crewler. Miss Betsey Trotwood
David's domineering great-aunt, a formidable woman with an extremely kind heart. Agnes Wickfield
Mr. Wickfield's angelic daughter, kind, serene, and beautiful. She is a friend to David throughout the novel; near the end of the book, he realizes that he loves her, and she becomes his second wife. Mr. Spenlow
A lawyer who runs the firm at which David is apprenticed. Conservative and set in his ways, he becomes enraged when David proposes to marry his daughter Dora. Dora Spenlow
Mr. Spenlow's beautiful, spoiled daughter, with whom David falls madly in love and eventually marries. Dora is a horrible housekeeper, and she dies shortly after the birth (and almost immediate death) of her first child.