When and where were Dickens's novels set? Dickens, Charles - short biography

Charles Dickens is an English writer, one of the greatest English-language prose writers of the 19th century, a humanist, and a classic of world literature.

The characterization that Chesterton gives to Dickens is close to the truth: “Dickens was a vivid exponent,” writes this English writer who is in many ways related to him, “a kind of mouthpiece of the universal inspiration that took possession of England, impulse and intoxicating enthusiasm, calling everyone to high goals. His best works are an enthusiastic hymn to freedom. All his work shines with the reflected light of the revolution.”

Dickens's prose is permeated with wit, which influenced the originality of the national character and way of thinking, known in the world as "English humor."

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the town of Landport, near Portsmouth. His father was a fairly wealthy official, a very frivolous man, but cheerful and good-natured, who enjoyed with relish that coziness, that comfort that every wealthy family of old England treasured. Mr. Dickens surrounded his children and, in particular, his pet Charlie with care and affection. Little Dickens inherited from his father a rich imagination and ease of speech, apparently adding to this some seriousness in life inherited from his mother, on whose shoulders all the everyday worries of preserving the family’s well-being fell.

The boy's rich abilities delighted his parents, and the artistically inclined father literally tormented his son, forcing him to act out various scenes, tell his impressions, improvise, read poetry, etc. Dickens turned into a little actor, full of narcissism and vanity.

However, Dickens' family suddenly went bankrupt. The father was thrown into debtor's prison for many years, and the mother had to fight poverty. Pampered, fragile in health, full of imagination, in love with himself, the boy found himself in difficult operating conditions at a factory for the production of blacking.

Throughout his subsequent life, Dickens considered this ruin of his family and this wax of his to be the greatest insult to himself, an undeserved and humiliating blow. He didn’t like to talk about it, he even hid these facts, but here, from the bottom of need, Dickens drew his ardent love for the offended, for the needy, his understanding of their suffering, understanding of the cruelty that they meet from above, deep knowledge life, poverty and such horrific social institutions as the then schools for poor children and orphanages, the exploitation of child labor in factories, the debtor's prisons where he visited his father, etc. Dickens also took from his adolescence a great, dark hatred of the rich , to the ruling classes. Colossal ambition possessed young Dickens. The dream of rising back into the ranks of the wealthy, the dream of outgrowing his original social place, of winning wealth, pleasure, freedom - that was what excited this teenager with a shock of brown hair over a deathly pale face, with huge eyes burning with a healthy fire.

Dickens found himself primarily as a reporter. Expanded political life, deep interest in the debates taking place in Parliament and in the events that accompanied these debates, increased the interest of the English public in the press, the number and circulation of newspapers, and the need for newspaper workers. As soon as Dickens completed several reporting assignments as a test, he was immediately noted and began to rise, the further he went, the more surprising his fellow reporters with irony, vividness of presentation, and richness of language. Dickens feverishly seized on his newspaper work, and everything that blossomed in him in childhood and that received a peculiar, somewhat painful twist at a later time, now poured out from under his pen, and he was well aware not only that thereby he communicates his ideas to the public, but also what makes his career. Literature was now the ladder for him to climb to the top of society, while at the same time doing a good deed in the name of all mankind, in the name of his country and above all and most of all in the name of the oppressed.

Dickens's first moral essays, which he called Boz's Sketches, were published in 1836. Their spirit was quite consistent with Dickens's social position. It was to some extent a fictional declaration in the interests of the bankrupt petty bourgeoisie. Psychological sketches, portraits of Londoners. Like all Dickens's novels, these sketches were also first published in a newspaper version and have already brought the young author enough fame.

But Dickens enjoyed a dizzying success that same year with the appearance of the first chapters of his “Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.” This success was elevated to extraordinary heights new job Dickens, and we must give him justice: he immediately used the high platform on which he ascended, forcing the whole of England to laugh until the colic at the cascade of oddities of the Pickwickiad, for more serious tasks.

Two years later, Dickens appeared with Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. Dickens's fame grew rapidly. Both liberals saw him as their ally, because they defended freedom, and conservatives, because they pointed out the cruelty of new social relationships.

After traveling to America, where the public greeted Dickens with no less enthusiasm than the British, Dickens wrote his “Martin Chuzzlewit.” At the same time, Dickens became editor-in-chief of the Daily News. In this newspaper he expressed his socio-political views.

In subsequent years, Dickens reached the zenith of his fame. He was the darling of fate - a famous writer, master of thoughts and a rich man - in a word, a person for whom fate did not skimp on gifts.

On June 9, 1870, fifty-eight-year-old Dickens old for years, but exhausted by colossal work, a rather chaotic life and a lot of all sorts of troubles, he dies in Gadeshill from a stroke.

Dickens's fame continued to grow after his death. He was turned into a real god of English literature. His name began to be mentioned next to the name of Shakespeare; his popularity in England in the 1880s and 1890s eclipsed the fame of Byron. But critics and readers tried not to notice his angry protests, his peculiar martyrdom, his tossing and turning among the contradictions of life. They did not understand and did not want to understand that humor was often for Dickens a shield from the excessively wounding blows of life. On the contrary, Dickens primarily gained fame as a cheerful writer of merry old England. “Dickens is a great humorist,” - this is what you will hear primarily from the lips of ordinary Englishmen from the most diverse classes of this country.

Charles John Huffam Dickens. Born 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth, England - died 9 June 1870 in Higham, England. English writer, novelist and essayist. The most popular English-language writer during his lifetime. A classic of world literature, one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century.

Dickens's work is considered to be the pinnacle of realism, but his novels reflected both sentimental and fairy-tale beginnings. Dickens's most famous novels (published in separate editions with continuations): “Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, “Oliver Twist”, “David Copperfield”, “Great Expectations”, “A Tale of Two Cities”.

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the Portsmouth suburb of Landport. He was the second child of eight children of John Dickens (1785-1851) and Elizabeth Dickens née Barrow (1789-1863).

His father served as an official at a Royal Navy naval base; in January 1815 he was transferred to London; in April 1817 the family moved to Chatham. Here Charles attended the school of the Baptist minister William Gilles, even when the family moved again to London. Living beyond his means in the capital led his father to debtor's prison in 1824.

His elder sister continued to study at the Royal Academy of Music until 1827, and Charles worked in Warren's Blacking Factory, where he received six shillings a week. But on Sunday they too were in prison with their parents. A few months later, after the death of his paternal grandmother, John Dickens, thanks to the inheritance he received, was released from prison, received a pension from the Admiralty and a position as a parliamentary reporter in one of the newspapers. However, at the insistence of his mother, Charles was left at the factory, which influenced his attitude towards women in later life. After some time, he was assigned to Wellington House Academy, where he studied until March 1827.

In May 1827 he was hired by Ellis and Blackmore as a junior clerk at 13 shillings a week. Here he worked until November 1828. Having studied shorthand according to the system of T. Garnier (Thomas Gurney), he began to work as a free reporter, together with his distant relative, Thomas Charlton.

In 1830, Charles was invited to the Morning Chronicle. In the same year, Charles Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a bank director.

Dickens found himself primarily as a reporter. As soon as Dickens completed - on trial - several reporting assignments, he was immediately noticed by the reading public.

Literature was what was most important to him now.

Dickens's first morally descriptive essays, which he called "Sketches of Boz", were published in 1836. Their spirit was quite consistent with Dickens's social position. It was, to some extent, a fictional declaration of the interests of the bankrupt petty bourgeoisie. Psychological sketches and portraits of Londoners, like all Dickens's novels, were also first published in a newspaper version and have already brought the young author enough fame.

Dizzying success awaited Dickens in the same year with the publication of the chapters of his The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.

In this novel, he paints old England from its most varied sides, admiring its good nature and the abundance of lively and sympathetic features inherent in the best representatives of the English petty bourgeoisie. All these traits are embodied in the most good-natured optimist, the noblest old eccentric, whose name - Mr. Pickwick - was established in world literature somewhere not far from the great name of Don Quixote. If Dickens had written this book of his as a series of comic, adventure pictures, with a deep calculation, first of all, to win the English public, flattering it, allowing it to enjoy the charm of depicting such purely English positive and negative types as Pickwick himself, the unforgettable Sam Weller - the sage in livery , [Alfred Jingle], etc., then even then one would be amazed at the accuracy of his instincts. But most likely, the unbridled energy of the author’s youth and the effect of unexpected success, which had an inspiring effect on him, took its toll here. This novel by Dickens aroused an extraordinary surge of reader interest, and we must do justice to the author: he immediately used the high platform of the writer - which he ascended, making the whole of England laugh until the colic at the cascade of oddities of the Picwickiad - for more serious tasks.

Two years later, Dickens performed Oliver Twist and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839).

"The Adventures of Oliver Twist" (Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress), (1838) - the story of an orphan born in a workhouse and living in the slums of London. The boy meets on his way baseness and nobility, criminals and respectable people. Cruel fate gives way to his sincere desire for an honest life.

The pages of the novel capture pictures of the life of English society of the 19th century in all their living splendor and ugliness. A broad social picture from the workhouses and criminal dens of London's bottom to the society of the rich and Dickensian-kind-hearted bourgeois do-gooders. In this novel, Charles Dickens acts as a humanist, affirming the power of good in man.

The novel caused a wide public response. After his release, a number of scandalous proceedings took place in the workhouses of London, which, in fact, were semi-prison institutions where child labor was mercilessly used.

Dickens's fame grew rapidly. Both liberals saw him as their ally, because they defended freedom, and conservatives, because they pointed out the cruelty of new social relationships.

After traveling to America, where the public greeted Dickens with no less enthusiasm than the British, Dickens wrote his “Martin Chuzzlewit” (The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, 1843). In addition to the unforgettable images of Pecksniff and Mrs. Gump, this novel is remarkable for its parody of Americans. The novel caused violent protests from the overseas public.

A Christmas Carol was released in 1843, followed by The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and Possessed. "(The Haunted Man).

At the same time, Dickens became editor-in-chief of the Daily News. In this newspaper he had the opportunity to express his socio-political views.

One of his best novels is “The Dombey and Son Trading House.” Trade in wholesale, retail and for export" (Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation, 1848). The endless string of figures and life positions in this work is amazing. There are few novels in world literature that, in terms of richness of color and variety of tone, can be placed on a par with Dombey and Son, not counting some of the later works of Dickens himself. He created both petty-bourgeois characters and representatives of the London poor with great love. All these people are almost entirely eccentrics, but the eccentricity that makes you laugh makes these characters even closer and more endearing. True, this friendly, this harmless laughter makes you not notice their narrowness, limitations, difficult conditions in which they have to live; but that’s Dickens... It should be noted, however, that when he turns his thunder and lightning against the oppressors, against the arrogant merchant Dombey, against scoundrels like his senior clerk Carker, he finds such striking words of indignation that they sometimes border on revolutionary pathos.

The humor is even more weakened in Dickens's next major work, “David Copperfield” (The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account), (1849-1850).

This novel is largely autobiographical. Its theme is serious and carefully thought out. The spirit of praising the old foundations of morality and family, the spirit of protest against the new capitalist England resounds loudly here too. Many connoisseurs of Dickens's work, including such literary authorities as Charlotte Bronte, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, considered this novel his greatest work.

In the 1850s, Dickens reached the zenith of his fame. He was the darling of fate - a famous writer, a master of thoughts and a wealthy man - in a word, a person for whom fate did not skimp on gifts.

Dickens often spontaneously fell into a trance, was subject to visions and from time to time experienced states of déjà vu.

George Henry Lewis spoke about another oddity of the writer, Chief Editor magazine "Fortnightly Review" (and the writer's close friend George Eliot). Dickens once told him that every word, before going on paper, is first clearly heard by him, and his characters are constantly nearby and communicate with him.

While working on “The Antiquities Shop,” the writer could not eat or sleep peacefully: little Nell was constantly hovering under his feet, demanding attention, crying out for sympathy and being jealous when the author was distracted from her by talking with someone from outside.

While working on the novel Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens was tired of Mrs. Gump with her jokes: he had to fight her off with force. “Dickens warned Mrs. Gump more than once: if she did not learn to behave decently and did not appear only when called, he would not give her another line at all!” - Lewis wrote. That is why the writer loved to wander through crowded streets. “During the day you can somehow manage without people,” Dickens admitted in one of his letters, “but in the evening I simply cannot free myself from my ghosts until I get lost in the crowd.”

“Perhaps it is only the creative nature of these hallucinatory adventures that keeps us from mentioning schizophrenia as a possible diagnosis,” notes parapsychologist Nandor Fodor, author of the essay “The Unknown Dickens” (1964, New York).

Dickens' social novel Hard Times (1854) is also permeated with melancholy and hopelessness. This novel was a tangible literary and artistic blow dealt to 19th-century capitalism with its idea of unstoppable industrial progress. In his own way, the grandiose and terrible figure of Bounderby is written with genuine hatred. But Dickens in the novel does not spare the leader of the strike movement - the Chartist Slackbridge, who is ready to make any sacrifice to achieve his goals. In this work, the author for the first time questioned - undeniable in the past for him - the value of personal success in society.

The end of Dickens's literary activity was marked by a number of other significant works. The novel Little Dorrit (1855-1857) was followed by Dickens's historical novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859), dedicated to the French Revolution. Recognizing the necessity of revolutionary violence, Dickens turns away from it as if it were madness. This was quite in the spirit of his worldview, and, nevertheless, he managed to create an immortal book in his own way.

Great Expectations (1861), a novel with autobiographical features, dates back to the same time. His hero - Pip - rushes between the desire to preserve the petty bourgeois comfort, to remain faithful to his middle peasant position and the upward desire for splendor, luxury and wealth. Dickens put a lot of his own tossing, his own melancholy into this novel. According to the original plan, the novel was supposed to end in tears for the main character, although Dickens always avoided catastrophic endings in his works and, out of his own good nature, tried not to upset particularly impressionable readers. For the same reasons, he did not dare to lead the hero’s “great hopes” to their complete collapse. But the whole concept of the novel suggests the regularity of such an outcome.

Dickens reaches new artistic heights in his swan song - in a large multi-faceted canvas, the novel Our Mutual Friend (English: Our Mutual Friend, 1864). In this work, Dickens's desire to take a break from tense social topics is guessed. Fascinatingly conceived, filled with the most unexpected types, all sparkling with wit - from irony to touching, gentle humor - this novel, according to the author's plan, was probably supposed to turn out to be light, sweet, and funny. His tragic characters are drawn as if in halftones and are largely present in the background, and the negative characters turn out to be either ordinary people who have put on a villainous mask, or such petty and funny personalities that we are ready to forgive them for their treachery; and sometimes such unhappy people that they can arouse in us, instead of indignation, only a feeling of bitter pity. In this novel, Dickens is noticeably turning to a new style of writing: instead of ironic verbosity, parodying the literary style of the Victorian era, there is a laconic style reminiscent of cursive writing. The novel conveys the idea of the poisonous effect of money - the trash heap becomes its symbol - on social relations and the meaninglessness of the vain aspirations of members of society.

In this last completed work, Dickens demonstrated all the powers of his humor, shielding the wonderful, cheerful, pretty images of this idyll from the gloomy thoughts that took possession of him.

Apparently, gloomy thoughts were supposed to find a way out again in Dickens’s detective novel “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”.

From the very beginning of the novel, a change in Dickens's creative style is visible - his desire to amaze the reader with a fascinating plot, to immerse him in an atmosphere of mystery and uncertainty. Whether he would have succeeded in this fully remains unclear, since the work remained unfinished.

On June 9, 1870, fifty-eight-year-old Dickens, exhausted by colossal work, a rather chaotic life and many troubles, died of a stroke in his home Gadshill Place (English) Russian, located in the village of Higham (Kent).

Dickens's fame continued to grow after his death. He was turned into a real idol of English literature. His name began to be mentioned next to the name of Shakespeare, his popularity in England in the 1880-1890s. eclipsed Byron's fame. But critics and readers tried not to notice his angry protests, his peculiar martyrdom, his tossing and turning among the contradictions of life.

They did not understand and did not want to understand that humor was often for Dickens a shield from the excessively wounding blows of life. On the contrary, Dickens primarily gained fame as a cheerful writer of merry old England.

A crater on Mercury is named after Dickens.

A USSR postage stamp was issued for the 150th anniversary of the writer's birth (1962).

Dickens' portrait was featured on the English 10 pound note issued 1993-2000.

To mark the 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth, the UK's Royal Mint is issuing a commemorative £2 coin featuring Dickens's portrait of his works, from Oliver Twist to David Copperfield to Great Expectations.

Despite the fact that in his will the writer asked not to erect monuments to him, in 2012 it was decided to erect a monument in the main square of Portsmouth. The monument was unveiled on June 9, 2013, by Martin Jeggins.

Novels by Charles Dickens:

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, published monthly, April 1836 - November 1837
The Adventures of Oliver Twist, February 1837 - April 1839
Nicholas Nickleby (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby), April 1838 - October 1839
Antiquities Shop ( The Old Curiosity Shop), weekly issues, April 1840 - February 1841
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of "Eighty", February-November 1841
The Christmas books: A Christmas Carol, 1843
The Chimes, 1844
The Cricket on the Hearth, 1845
The Battle of Life, 1846
The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, 1848
Martin Chuzzlewit (The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit), January 1843 - July 1844
Trading house of Dombey and Son, wholesale, retail and export trade (Dombey and Son), October 1846 - April 1848
David Copperfield, May 1849 - November 1850
Bleak House, March 1852 - September 1853
Hard Times: For These Times, April-August 1854
Little Dorrit, December 1855 - June 1857
A Tale of Two Cities, April-November 1859
Great Expectations, December 1860 - August 1861
Our Mutual Friend, May 1864 - November 1865
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, April 1870 - September 1870. Only 6 of 12 issues published, the novel is not finished.

Collections of stories by Charles Dickens:

Sketches by Boz, 1836
The Mudfog Papers, 1837
"The Uncommercial Traveler", 1860-1869.

Charles Dickens- famous English writer, novelist and essayist. The most popular English-language writer during his lifetime. A classic of world literature, one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century.

Dickens wrote most of his works in the genre of realism, but in some of his works one can notice lyrical and fairy-tale features.

There are many in Dickens, which we will tell you about right now.

So, in front of you short biography Charles Dickens.

Biography of Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in a suburb of the English city of Portsmouth.

His father, John Dickens, worked as an official in the navy. Mother, Elizabeth Dickens, was a housewife and raised children. In addition to Charles, seven more children were born into the Dickens family.

Childhood and youth

After the Dickens moved to Chatham, Charles began attending the local school. When he was 12 years old, Dickens' father fell into serious debt.

According to British law at the time, creditors had the right to send their debtors to special prisons, where John Dickens actually ended up.

Charles Dickens as a child

In addition, on weekends, his wife and children were also kept in custody, since they were considered debt slaves. These were far from better days in the biography of the future writer.

At an early age, Charles Dickens was forced to go to work. He worked all day long at a shoe polish factory, receiving meager wages for his work.

When the day off came, the young man spent it in prison with his parents.

However, soon joyful changes took place in the biography of Dickens Sr. He received a large inheritance from a distant relative, thanks to which he was able to completely pay off his debts.

Moreover, he began to receive a pension and also work as a journalist at a local publishing house.

In 1827, Charles Dickens graduated from Wellington Academy. After that, he got a job in a law office as a clerk. During this period of his biography, his salary was twice as much as at the shoe polish factory.

Dickens then began working as a reporter. His articles were of interest to the public, as a result of which his journalistic career took off.

In 1830, an 18-year-old boy was invited to the editorial office of the Morning Chronicle.

Works of Dickens

Charles Dickens quickly attracted the attention of readers. Inspired by his first success, he decided to try himself as a writer.

Charles Dickens in his youth

The British appreciated his works, which allowed him to continue his writing career.

An interesting fact is that he called Dickens a master of the pen, able to perfectly reflect objective reality.

In 1837, Dickens's novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was published, which became the debut in his creative biography. In it, Charles perfectly described the old city, as well as its inhabitants.

This work gained great popularity and aroused extraordinary interest among readers.

Every new novel or a story coming from the pen of Charles Dickens literally caused a public outcry.

His fame grew every day, resulting in him becoming the most famous and published writer in the English language during his lifetime.

The most famous works of Charles Dickens are The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend.

Personal life

Charles Dickens first fell in love at the age of 18. His lover was Maria Beadnell, who was the daughter of a banker.

At that point in his biography, Dickens was a little-known reporter working for a modest publication. When Mary's father and mother found out that he wanted to marry their daughter, they were indignant.

Parents did not want their son-in-law to be a poor journalist, so they sent Maria to study in order to separate the couple.

Their plan worked, since upon returning from the city, the girl was already indifferent to Dickens. Due to this, their relationship ended.

In 1836, Dickens proposed to Katherine Thomson Hogarth, who was the daughter of his friend. They eventually got married and soon had 10 children.

Charles Dickens with his wife

Later, frequent quarrels and misunderstandings began between them. This led to the fact that his wife and children became a real burden for Dickens.

The writer’s family took up a lot of his free time and did not allow him to fully engage in creative activity.

Charles Dickens and Ellen Ternan

In 1857, Charles Dickens met 18-year-old actress Ellen Ternan. Soon he began meeting with her at every opportunity, as a result of which they began a whirlwind romance.

An interesting fact is that after the death of the writer, Helen became his main heir.

Death

Shortly before his death, Charles Dickens' health began to deteriorate. However, he did not pay attention to this, continuing to actively write novels and date girls.

After the classic traveled to America, his health worsened even more. A year before his death, Dickens lost his arms and legs from time to time.

Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870, aged 58. The day before, he suffered a stroke, which became the cause of death.

The great English writer is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Dickens photo

Below you can see the most popular photos of Dickens in good quality.

English Charles John Huffam Dickens ; pseudonym Boz

the most popular English-language writer during his lifetime; classic of world literature, one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century

Charles Dickens

short biography

Charles Dickens (full name Charles John Huffam Dickens) is a famous English realist writer, a classic of world literature, and the greatest prose writer of the 19th century. - lived a rich and difficult life. His homeland was the town of Landport, located near Portsmouth, where he was born on February 7, 1812 into a poor family of a minor official. His parents did their best to nurture Charles, who was precocious and gifted, but their financial situation did not allow him to develop his abilities and give him a quality education.

In 1822, the Dickens family was transferred to London, where they lived in extreme poverty, periodically selling simple household belongings. 12-year-old Charles had to go to work part-time at a blacking factory, and although his work experience there was only four months, this was the time when he, selfish, not accustomed to physical labor and not brilliant good health, was forced to work hard for mere pennies, was a serious moral shock for him, left a huge imprint on his worldview, and determined one of his life goals - to never again be in need or find himself in such a humiliating position.

The plight of the family, in which six children grew up, was further aggravated when in 1824 the father was under arrest for several months due to debts. Charles left school and got a job in a law office as a copyist. The next point of his career was the parliament, where he worked as a stenographer, and then he managed to find himself in the field of a newspaper reporter. In November 1828, young Dickens took up the position of independent reporter working at Doctor's Commons Court. Having not received a systematic education in childhood and adolescence, 18-year-old Charles diligently educated himself, becoming a regular at the British Museum. At 20, he worked as a reporter for the Parliamentary Mirror and True Sun and stood out compared to most of his fellow writers.

At the age of 24, Dickens released his debut collection of essays entitled “The Notes of Boz” (this was his newspaper pseudonym): the ambitious young man realized that it was literary studies that would help him enter high society, and at the same time do a good deed for the sake of those who were also offended by fate and oppressed what he was like. In 1837 he made his debut as a novelist with The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. As he wrote successive works, Dickens's literary fame grew, his financial position strengthened, and his social status. When Dickens, who had married back in 1836, sailed with his wife to Boston, he was greeted in American cities as a very famous person.

From July 1844 to 1845, Dickens and his family lived in Genoa; upon returning home, he devoted all his attention to founding the Daily News newspaper. 50s became his personal triumph: Dickens achieved fame, influence, wealth, more than compensating for all previous blows of fate. Since 1858, he constantly organized public readings of his books: in this way he not so much increased his fortune as realized his outstanding acting abilities that remained unclaimed. In the personal life of the famous writer, not everything was smooth; He perceived his family with its demands, quarrels with his wife, and eight sickly children, rather as a source of constant headache than a safe haven. In 1857, a love affair with a young actress appeared in his life, which lasted until his death; in 1858 he divorced.

A stormy personal life was combined with intense writing: during this period of biography, novels also appeared that made a significant contribution to his literary fame - “Little Dorrit” (1855-1857), “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859), “Great Expectations” (1861), “Our Mutual Friend” (1864). A difficult life did not have the best effect on his health, but Dickens worked, not paying attention to numerous “bells”. A long tour of American cities aggravated the problems, but after a little rest he went to a new one. In April 1869, things got to the point where the writer’s left leg and arm were taken away when he finished his next performance. On the evening of June 8, 1870, Charles Dickens, who was at his Gadeshill estate, suffered a stroke and died the next day; buried one of the most popular English writers in Westminster Abbey.

Biography from Wikipedia

Charles John Huffam Dickens(English: Charles John Huffam Dickens [ˈtʃɑrlz ˈdɪkɪnz]; February 7, 1812, Portsmouth, England - June 9, 1870, Higham, England) - English writer, novelist and essayist. The most popular English-language writer during his lifetime. A classic of world literature, one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century. Dickens's work is considered to be the pinnacle of realism, but his novels reflected both sentimental and fairy-tale beginnings. Dickens's most famous novels: "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club", "Oliver Twist", "Nicholas Nickleby", "David Copperfield", "Bleak House", "A Tale of Two Cities", "Great Expectations", "Our Mutual Friend", "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the Portsmouth suburb of Landport. He was the second child of eight children of John Dickens (1785-1851) and Elizabeth Dickens née Barrow (1789-1863). His father served as an official at a Royal Navy naval base; in January 1815 he was transferred to London; in April 1817 the family moved to Chatham. Here Charles attended the school of the Baptist minister William Gilles, even when the family moved again to London. Living beyond his means in the capital led his father to debtor's prison in 1824. His older sister continued to study at the Royal Academy of Music until 1827, and Charles worked in a wax factory ( Blacking Factory) Warren, where he received six shillings a week. But on Sunday they too were in prison with their parents. A few months later, after the death of his paternal grandmother, John Dickens, thanks to the inheritance he received, was released from prison, received a pension from the Admiralty and a position as a parliamentary reporter in one of the newspapers. However, at the insistence of his mother, Charles was left at the factory, which influenced his attitude towards women in later life. Some time later he was assigned to Wellington House Academy, where he studied until March 1827. In May 1827 he was hired by Ellis and Blackmore as a junior clerk at 13 shillings a week. Here he worked until November 1828. Having studied shorthand according to the T. Garnier system, he began to work as a free reporter, together with his distant relative, Thomas Charlton. In 1830, Charles was invited to " Morning Chronicle" In the same year, Charles Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a bank director. He later left her for Ellen Ternan, whom he later included in his will. Based on this story, Ralph Fiennes made the film “The Invisible Woman” (2013).

Literary activity

Dickens found himself primarily as a reporter. As soon as Dickens completed - on trial - several reporting assignments, he was immediately noticed by the reading public.

Literature was what was most important to him now.

"Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club"

Dizzying success awaited Dickens in the same year with the publication of the chapters of his “Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”.

"The Life and Adventures of Oliver Twist" and other works of 1838-1843

Two years later Dickens performed Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby ( The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby) 1838-1839.

"The Adventures of Oliver Twist"( Oliver Twist; or ,The Parish Boy's Progress), (1838) - the story of an orphan born in a workhouse and living in the slums of London. The boy meets on his way baseness and nobility, criminals and respectable people. Cruel fate gives way to his sincere desire for an honest life.

Dickens's fame grew rapidly. Both liberals saw him as their ally, because they defended freedom, and conservatives, because they pointed out the cruelty of new social relationships.

After traveling to America, where the public greeted Dickens with no less enthusiasm than the British, Dickens wrote his “Martin Chuzzlewit” ( The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, 1843). In addition to the unforgettable images of Pecksniff and Mrs. Gump, this novel is remarkable for its parody of Americans. The novel caused violent protests from the overseas public.

In 1843 A Christmas Carol was published ( A Christmas Carol), followed by "Bells" ( The Chimes), "Cricket on the stove" ( The Cricket on the Hearth), "Battle of Life" ( The Battle of Life), "Obsessed" ( The Haunted Man).

At the same time, Dickens became editor-in-chief of the Daily News. In this newspaper he had the opportunity to express his socio-political views.

"Dombey and Son"

One of his best novels is “The Dombey and Son Trading House.” Wholesale, retail and export trade" ( Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation, 1848). The endless string of figures and life positions in this work is amazing. There are few novels in world literature that, in terms of richness of color and variety of tone, can be placed on a par with Dombey and Son, not counting some of the later works of Dickens himself. He created both petty-bourgeois characters and representatives of the London poor with great love. All these people are almost entirely eccentrics, but the eccentricity that makes you laugh makes these characters even closer and more endearing. True, this friendly, this harmless laughter makes you not notice their narrowness, limitations, difficult conditions in which they have to live; but that’s Dickens... It should be noted, however, that when he turns his thunder and lightning against the oppressors, against the arrogant merchant Dombey, against scoundrels like his senior clerk Carker, he finds such striking words of indignation that they sometimes border on revolutionary pathos.

"David Copperfield"

The humor is even more weakened in Dickens's next major work, David Copperfield ( The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account), (1849-1850).

This novel is largely autobiographical. Its theme is serious and carefully thought out. The spirit of praising the old foundations of morality and family, the spirit of protest against the new capitalist England resounds loudly here too. Many connoisseurs of Dickens's work, including such literary authorities as: L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, Charlotte Bronte, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, considered this novel his greatest work.

Personal life

In the 1850s, Dickens reached the zenith of his fame. He was the darling of fate - a famous writer, a master of thoughts and a wealthy man - in a word, a person for whom fate did not skimp on gifts.

Chesterton's portrait of Dickens at that time was quite successfully drawn:

Dickens was of average height. His natural liveliness and unpretentious appearance were the reason that he gave those around him the impression of a man of short stature or, in any case, of a very miniature build. In his youth, he had a cap of brown hair that was too extravagant, even for that era, and later he wore a dark mustache and a thick, fluffy, dark goatee of such an original shape that it made him look like a foreigner.

The former transparent pallor of his face, the sparkle and expressiveness of his eyes remained; “I’ll also note the actor’s moving mouth and his extravagant manner of dressing.” Chesterton writes about this:

He wore a velvet jacket, some incredible vests, their color reminiscent of completely implausible sunsets, white hats, unprecedented at that time, of a completely unusual, eye-catching whiteness. He willingly dressed up in stunning robes; they even say that he posed for a portrait in such attire.

Behind this appearance, in which there was so much posing and nervousness, lay a great tragedy.

The needs of Dickens' family members exceeded his income. His disorderly, purely bohemian nature did not allow him to bring any kind of order into his affairs. Not only did he overwork his rich and fertile brain by over-working his creative mind, but, being an extraordinarily brilliant reader, he endeavored to earn handsome fees by lecturing and reading excerpts from his novels. The impression from this is pure acting reading was always colossal. Apparently, Dickens was one of the greatest reading virtuosos. But on his trips he fell into the hands of some dubious entrepreneurs and, while earning money, at the same time brought himself to exhaustion.

On 2 April 1836, Charles married Catherine Thomson Hogarth (19 May 1815 – 22 November 1879), eldest daughter his friend, journalist George Hogarth. Catherine was a faithful wife and bore him 10 children: 7 sons - Charles Culliford Boz Dickens Jr. (January 6, 1837 - July 20, 1896), Walter Savage Landor (February 8, 1841 - December 31, 1863), Francis Jeffrey (January 15, 1844 - 11 June 1886), Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson (28 October 1845 - 2 January 1912), Sidney Smith Galdimand (18 April 1847 - 2 May 1872), Henry Fielding (16 January 1849 - 21 December 1933) and Edward Bulwer-Lytton (13 March 1852 - 23 January 1902), - three daughters - Mary (6 March 1838 - 23 July 1896), Catherine Elizabeth Macready (29 October 1839 - 9 May 1929) and Dora Annie (16 August 1850 - 14 April 1851). But family life Dickens's life was not entirely successful. Disagreements with his wife, some complex and dark relationships with her family, fear for sick children made Dickens’s family a source of constant worries and torment. In 1857, Charles met 18-year-old actress Ellen Ternan and immediately fell in love. He rented an apartment for her and visited his love for many years. Their romance lasted until the writer's death. She never went on stage again. The feature film “The Invisible Woman” (UK, 2013, directed by Ralph Fiennes) is dedicated to this close relationship.

But all this is not as important as the melancholy thought that overwhelmed Dickens that, in essence, what is most serious in his works - his teachings, his appeals to the conscience of those in power - remains in vain, that, in reality, there is no hope for improving that the terrible situation created in the country, from which he saw no way out, even looking at life through humorous glasses that softened the sharp contours of reality in the eyes of the author and his readers. He writes at this time:

Personal oddities

Dickens often spontaneously fell into a trance, was subject to visions and from time to time experienced states of déjà vu. When this happened, the writer nervously fiddled with the hat in his hands, which is why the headdress quickly lost its presentable appearance and became unusable. For this reason, Dickens eventually stopped wearing hats.

Another oddity of the writer was told by George Henry Lewis, editor-in-chief of the Fortnightly Review magazine (and close friend of the writer George Eliot). Dickens once told him that every word, before going on paper, is first clearly heard by him, and his characters are constantly nearby and communicate with him.

Later works

The end of Dickens's literary activity was marked by a number of other significant works. For the novel "Little Dorrit" ( Little Dorrit, 1855-1857) was followed by Dickens's historical novel A Tale of Two Cities ( A Tale of Two Cities, 1859), dedicated to the French Revolution. Recognizing the necessity of revolutionary violence, Dickens turns away from it as if it were madness. This was quite in the spirit of his worldview, and, nevertheless, he managed to create an immortal book in his own way.

Dickens photographed by Jeremiah Gurney during a New York trip in 1867-1868.

"Great Expectations" dates back to the same time. Great Expectations) (1861) - a novel with biographical features. His hero - Pip - rushes between the desire to preserve the petty bourgeois comfort, to remain faithful to his middle peasant position and the upward desire for splendor, luxury and wealth. Dickens put a lot of his own tossing, his own melancholy into this novel. According to the original plan, the novel was supposed to end in tears for the main character, although Dickens always avoided catastrophic endings in his works and, out of his own good nature, tried not to upset particularly impressionable readers. For the same reasons, he did not dare to lead the hero’s “great hopes” to their complete collapse. But the whole concept of the novel suggests the regularity of such an outcome.

Dickens reaches new artistic heights in his swan song - in a large multi-faceted canvas, the novel Our Mutual Friend (English: Our Mutual Friend, 1864). In this work, Dickens's desire to take a break from intense social topics is discernible. Fascinatingly conceived, filled with the most unexpected types, all sparkling with wit - from irony to touching, gentle humor - this novel, according to the author's plan, was probably supposed to turn out to be light, sweet, and funny. His tragic characters are drawn as if in halftones and are largely present in the background, and the negative characters turn out to be either ordinary people who have put on a villainous mask, or such petty and funny personalities that we are ready to forgive them for their treachery; and sometimes such unhappy people that they can arouse in us, instead of indignation, only a feeling of bitter pity. In this novel, Dickens is noticeably turning to a new style of writing: instead of ironic verbosity, parodying the literary style of the Victorian era, there is a laconic style reminiscent of cursive writing. The novel conveys the idea of the poisonous effect of money - its symbol is the garbage heap - on social relations and the meaninglessness of the vain aspirations of members society.

In this last completed work, Dickens demonstrated all the powers of his humor, shielding the wonderful, cheerful, pretty images of this idyll from the gloomy thoughts that took possession of him.

Apparently, gloomy thoughts were supposed to find a way out again in Dickens’s detective novel “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood).

On June 9, 1870, fifty-eight-year-old Dickens, exhausted by colossal work, a rather chaotic life and many troubles, died of a stroke in his home Gadshill Place, located in the village of Higham (Kent).

After death

Dickens's fame continued to grow after his death. He was turned into a real idol of English literature. His name began to be mentioned next to that of Shakespeare, his popularity in England in the 1880s and 1890s. eclipsed Byron's fame. But critics and readers tried not to notice his angry protests, his peculiar martyrdom, his tossing and turning among the contradictions of life.

Memory

A crater on Mercury is named after Dickens.
A USSR postage stamp was issued for the 150th anniversary of the writer’s birth (1962).
Dickens' portrait was featured on the English 10 pound note issued 1993-2000.
To mark the 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth, the UK's Royal Mint is issuing a commemorative £2 coin featuring Dickens's portrait of his works, from Oliver Twist to David Copperfield to Great Expectations.
In London there is a house-museum of Charles Dickens “Charles Dickens Museum”.
There are monuments in the USA, Russia and Australia.
Despite the fact that in his will the writer asked not to erect monuments to him, in 2012 it was decided to erect a monument in the main square of Portsmouth. The monument was unveiled on June 9, 2013, by Martin Jeggins.

Translations of Dickens's works into Russian

Translations of Dickens's works appeared in Russian in the late 1830s. In 1838, excerpts from the “Posthumous Notes of the Pickwick Club” appeared in print, and later stories from the series “Sketches of Boz” were translated. All his major novels have been translated several times, and all his small works have also been translated, even those that did not belong to him, but were edited by him as an editor.

Among the pre-revolutionary translators of Dickens:

Vladimir Solonitsyn (“The Life and Adventures of the English Gentleman Mr. Nicholas Nickleby, with a truthful and reliable Description of successes and failures, ups and downs, in a word, the full career of his wife, children, relatives and the entire family of the said gentleman”, “Reading Library”, 1840 ),
Osip Senkovsky (“Library for Reading”),
Andrei Kroneberg (“Dickens’ Christmas Stories”, “Contemporary”, 1847 No. 3 - retelling with translation of excerpts; story “The Battle of Life”, there),
Irinarch Vvedensky (“Dombey and Son”, “The Pact with the Ghost”, “The Grave Papers of the Pickwick Club”, “David Copperfield”);
later - Zinaida Zhuravskaya (“The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit”, 1895; “No Exit”, 1897),
V. L. Rantsov, M. A. Shishmareva (“Hard Times” and others),
Elizaveta Beketova (abridged translation of “David Copperfield” and others).

In the 1930s new translations of Dickens were made by Alexandra Krivtsova and Evgeniy Lann. These translations were later criticized - for example by Nora Gal - as "dry, formalistic, unreadable." Some of Dickens's key works were in the 1950s and 60s. re-translated by Olga Kholmskaya, Natalya Volzhina, Vera Toper, Evgenia Kalashnikova, Maria Laurie.

Major works

Novels

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, published monthly, April 1836 - November 1837
The Adventures of Oliver Twist, February 1837 - April 1839
Nicholas Nickleby (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby), April 1838 - October 1839
The Old Curiosity Shop, weekly issues, April 1840 - February 1841
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of "Eighty", February-November 1841
The Christmas stories:
- A Christmas Carol, 1843
- The Chimes, 1844
- The Cricket on the Hearth, 1845
- The Battle of Life, 1846
- The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, 1848
Martin Chuzzlewit (The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit), January 1843 - July 1844
Trading house of Dombey and Son, wholesale, retail and export trade (Dombey and Son), October 1846 - April 1848
David Copperfield, May 1849 - November 1850
Bleak House, March 1852 - September 1853
Hard Times: For These Times, April-August 1854
Little Dorrit, December 1855 - June 1857
A Tale of Two Cities, April-November 1859
Great Expectations, December 1860 - August 1861
Our Mutual Friend, May 1864 - November 1865
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, April 1870 - September 1870. Only 6 of 12 issues published, the novel is not finished.

Collections of stories

Sketches by Boz, 1836
The Mudfog Papers, 1837
"The Uncommercial Traveler", 1860-1869

Bibliography of Dickens editions

Charles Dickens. Dombey and son. - Moscow: “State Publishing House”, 1929.
Charles Dickens. Collected works in 30 volumes.. - Moscow: “ Fiction"., 1957-60
Charles Dickens. Collected works in ten volumes.. - Moscow.: “Fiction”., 1982-87.
Charles Dickens. Collected works in 20 volumes.. - Moscow.: “Terra-Book Club”, 2000.
Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.. - "Ensign", 1986
Charles Dickens. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. - Moscow: “Kostik”, 1994 - 286 p.
Charles Dickens. Bleak House.. - "Wordsworth Editions Limited", 2001.
Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.. - Penguin Books Ltd., 1994.

Film adaptations

Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost, directed by Walter Boof. USA, Great Britain, 1901
The Cricket Behind the Hearth, directed by David Wark Griffith. USA, 1909
A Christmas Carol, directed by Searle Dawley. USA, 1910
Great Expectations, directed by Robert Vignola. USA, 1917
Oliver Twist, directed by Frank Lloyd. USA, 1922
A Tale of Two Cities, directed by Jack Conway, Robert Z. Leonard. USA, 1935
David Copperfield, directed by George Cukor. USA. 1935
Mister Scrooge, directed by John Brahm, Henry Edwards. Great Britain, 1935
A Christmas Carol, directed by Edwin L. Marin. USA, 1938
Great Expectations, directed by David Lean. Great Britain, 1946
Oliver Twist, directed by David Lean. Great Britain, 1948
Scrooge, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. Great Britain, 1951
A Tale of Two Cities, directed by Ralph Thomas. UK, 1958
Oliver! Directed by Carol Reed. UK, 1968
David Copperfield, directed by Delbert Mann. UK, 1969
Scrooge, directed by Ronald Neame. UK, 1970
Notes from the Pickwick Club, directed by Alexander Proshkin. USSR, 1972
Dombey and Son, teleplay, directors Galina Volchek, Valery Fokin. USSR, 1974
Our mutual friend, director Peter Hammond. UK, 1976
Nicholas Nickleby (TV series), directed by Christopher Barry. UK, 1977
The Curiosity Shop (TV series), directed by Julian Amis. UK, 1979
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, directed by Alexander Orlov. USSR, 1980
A Tale of Two Cities, directed by Jim Goddard. USA, 1980
A Tale of Two Cities (TV series), directed by Michael E. Bryant. UK, 1980
Dombey and Son (TV series), directed by Rodney Bennett. UK, 1983
A Christmas Carol, directed by Clive Donner. USA, UK, 1984
Oliver Twist (TV series), directed by Gareth Davies. UK, 1985
The Pickwick Papers, directed by Brian Lighthill. UK, 1985
Bleak House (TV series), directed by Arthur Hopcraft. UK, 1985
Little Dorrit, directed by Christine Edzard. UK, 1988
Martin Chuzzlewit, directed by David Lodge. UK, 1994
Hard Times, directed by Peter Barnes. UK, 1994
The Curiosity Shop, directed by Kevin Connor. USA, 1995
Oliver Twist, directed by Tony Bill. USA, 1997
Great Expectations, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. USA, 1998 (based on the action moved to our time)
Our mutual friend, director. Julian Farino. UK, 1998
David Copperfield, directed by Simon Curtis. UK, USA, 1999. The role of young Copperfield is played by Daniel Radcliffe
Great Expectations, directed by Julian Jarrold. UK, 1999
The Spirits of Christmas Directed by David Hugh Jones. USA, 1999
David Copperfield, directed by Peter Medak. USA, Ireland, 2000
Cricket behind the hearth, director Leonid Nechaev. Russia, 2001
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, directed by Stephen Whittaker. UK, 2001
Nicholas Nickleby, directed by Douglas McGrath. UK, USA 2002
The Ghosts of Christmas Directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman. USA, Hungary, 2004
Oliver Twist, directed by Roman Polanski. Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Italy, 2005
Bleak House (TV series), directed by Justin Chadwick, Suzanne White. UK, 2005
Oliver Twist, directed by Coky Giedroyc. BBC, UK, 2007
Little Dorrit, directed by Adam Smith, Darbhla Walsh, Diarmuid Lawrence. UK, 2008
David Copperfield, directed by Ambrogio Lo Giudice. Italy, 2009
In 2007, French director Laurent Jaoui directed the film Dombais et fils, based on the novel Dombey and Son, starring Christophe Malavois, Deborah Francois and Denn Martinet.
Cold Store of Sundries, directed by Ben Fuller, 2011 (based on the works of Dickens)
Great Expectations (TV series), directed by Brian Kirk. UK, 2011
Great Expectations, directed by Mike Newell. UK, USA, 2012
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (miniseries), directed by Diarmuid Lawrence. UK, 2012
Invisible woman. Director R. Fiennes Great Britain, 2013

Animated films.

English writer, novelist and essayist. The most popular English-language writer during his lifetime. A classic of world literature, one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century. Dickens's work is considered to be the pinnacle of realism, but his novels reflected both sentimental and fairy-tale beginnings. Dickens's most famous novels (published in separate editions with continuations): “Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, “Oliver Twist”, “David Copperfield”, “Great Expectations”, “A Tale of Two Cities”.

Biography:

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the Portsmouth suburb of Landport. He was the second child of eight children of John Dickens (1785-1851) and Elizabeth Dickens, née Barrow (1789-1863). His father served as an official at a Royal Navy naval base; in January 1815 he was transferred to London; in April 1817 the family moved to Chatham. Here Charles attended the school of the Baptist minister William Gilles, even when the family moved again to London. Living beyond his means in the capital led his father to debtor's prison in 1824. His elder sister continued to study at the Royal Academy of Music until 1827, and Charles worked in Warren's Blacking Factory, where he received six shillings a week. But on Sunday they too were in prison with their parents. A few months later, after the death of his paternal grandmother, John Dickens, thanks to the inheritance he received, was released from prison, received a pension from the Admiralty and a position as a parliamentary reporter in one of the newspapers. However, at the insistence of his mother, Charles was left at the factory, which influenced his attitude towards women in later life. After some time, he was assigned to Wellington House Academy, where he studied until March 1827. In May 1827 he was hired by Ellis and Blackmore as a junior clerk at 13 shillings a week. Here he worked until November 1828. Having studied shorthand according to Thomas Gurney, he began working as a freelance reporter, along with his distant relative, Thomas Charlton. In 1830, Charles was invited to the Morning Chronicle. In the same year, Charles Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a bank director.

Personal oddities:

Dickens often spontaneously fell into a trance, was subject to visions and from time to time experienced states of déjà vu.

After death:

When and where were Dickens's novels set? Dickens, Charles - short biography