The Life of Dickens
Charles Dickens’ stories inspired many authors, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Sigmund Freud, and Franz Kafka. Arguably the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and even more arguably the greatest novelist in English Literature, Dickens has given us many incredible works of fiction, mind-boggling mysteries, and amazing novels.
Dickens’ early life was very complicated, but somehow he came out of it as an amazing writer. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Landsport, Portsea (“Dickens” 2). Elizabeth Barrow, Charles’ mother, was a school teacher, and his father, a naval clerk. Therefore there was not much time that was spent between his parents, Charles, and his seven siblings. Being the second child in a long line of eight children, Charles was often over-shadowed by his brothers and sisters, this severed his relationships with most of his family members (Perdue 4). He said it himself that he was not-well-taken-care-of. They stayed poor even though his father had big dreams of striking it rich. Charles enjoyed school and went just like the other children his age did, but at age 12 his father was incarcerated in a debtors’ prison, so he had to quit school to provide for his family (Draper 895). Charles Dickens once said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
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His first book, Sketches by Boz was published in 1836 when he was 24 years old (Draper 895). When writing his books, he sometimes went by the pseudonym Boz, this allowed him to write with more creative freedom (Draper 895). Many of the characters his books included were unforgettable because they related so much to the ordinary person’s daily life. Some of his stories included many problems and obstacles that authors of his time wouldn’t think of writing about, like poverty. Some of his most famous novels include: A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, and Great Expectations (“Top”