Charles Dickens

Biographical Summary

Charles Dickens is one of the most influential writers in history and was “born in Landport, now part of Portsmouth, on February 7th, 1812”(Priestly 5). Despite being the successful writer that he was in life, Dickens had very humble beginnings and because his Father, John Huffman Dickens, “lacked the money to support his family adequetly” , Dickens lived in poverty through out most of his childhood (Collins). Matters only got worse, however, when Dickens’s Father had to “spen[d] time in prison for debt” causing Dickens to have to “work in a London factory pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish” (Collins). It was a horrible experience for him, but it also helped him to no doubt feel pity for the poor, which is prominent in his novel Oliver Twist with his sympathizing with the down trod characters in their sad conditions and the mocking of the people and rules that put them there. It should also be noted that in Oliver Twist most of the poor characters that the reader is supposed to sympathize with are young boys, such as the character Oliver Twist and young Dick, which demonstrates how most experiences and events that Dickens characters go through are very similar to his own, making his writing seem more real and genuine at times. Charles Dickens did not receive much education and only went to school “until he was fifteen and then [left] for good” (Collins). He did not stop learning though, and continued to use his every day experiences to enhance his writing. Dickens also had many literary authors that aided him in his writing, such “as William Shakespeare, Tobias Smollett, and Henry Fielding” who were also all very famous English writers (Collins). By using these authors works as teaching tools, Dicke...

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...raised himself up by teaching himself to write great literary works through trial and error. He was not afraid to experiment with new characters and themes and this is shown prominently in “Oliver Twist” with him trying many ideas which makes him the great writer people know him as today.

Work Cited

Bloom, Harold. Charles Dickens. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. Print.

Collins, K. K. "Dickens, Charles." World Book Student. World Book, 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2003. Print.

Hobsbaum, Philip. A reader's guide to Charles Dickens. [1st American ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1972. Print.

Lepore, Jill. "Dickens in Eden." New Yorker. 29 Aug 2011: 52. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 03 Nov 2013.

Priestley, J. B.. Charles Dickens: a pictorial biography. New York: Viking Press, 1962. Print.