Charles John
Huffam Dickens was born on the 7th of February 1812 to John and Elizabeth
Dickens. Charles was the second child of eight siblings in
all, six of whom survived to adulthood. John, a
naval clerk, always spent beyond his means.
One day, he pointed out a house to Charles,remarking that
he could live in such a house, if he worked hard.
The family
moved to London in 1822. At twelve, as the family finances worsened,
Charles had to start work in a blacking factory, labelling bottles
for eleven hours a day. John Dickens was eventually sent to a debtors'
prison; Charles visited him there every Sunday.
His youth left
him with an ambitious drive. In 1827 he began work as a solicitor's
clerk. From the surroundings of his unremarkable office he
began to collect names and characteristics of the people he saw.
Charles
began a journalistic career in 1831; writing became his passion. Working for
the paper by day, and on his own work by night. He was beginning
to taste success. His first piece of fiction was published in 1835.
That same year, Charles met Catherine Hogarth. They fell in love and got
married. The next few years of fervent activity resulted in much
writing and many children.
As his
writing became more popular and his fame more widespread, rumours
began to abound of his drunkenness and
admission to an asylum. Stories were easy to concoct about
the writer who kept a pet raven and whose writing dwelt in
the extreme of the sentimental and the grotesque.
In 1842,
Charles and Catherine set sail for America. On landing in Boston,
they were mobbed by crowds. Dickens's interest lay in visiting the
unusual which inspired his writing.
He took his
whole family on his next big trip to Italy, in the summer of 1844. Upon his
return, Dickens began to look for new diversions. He helped to
start and edit a radical newspaper,founded a refuge for homeless women
and performed his works at public readings.
Aged 44, Charles bought Gads Hill, the house his father had pointed
out to him all those years before. It symbolized the pinnacle of achievement.Whilst Dickens
was organizing a theatrical project, "The
frozen deep", He met and was spell-bound by a
young actress, Ellen Ternan; there is much speculation about this relationship
that caused the end of his marriage to Catherine.
One fateful night
in 1865, whilst Charles and Ellen were returning from Paris, their train
crashed at Staplehurst. Dickens administered brandy and
water to the injured and dying. Only at the last minute
did he remember to retrieve the final part of "Our mutual friend"
from the wrecked carriage.
The incident
left Charles very shaken. For a while he maintained his busy itinerary,
then his health began to fail. At home on Wednesday, the night of June,
1870, at the age of 58, Charles suffered a stroke and died. He
is buried in Westminster Abbey.
