Charles Dickens

**Charles John Huffam Dickens** (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognized Dickens as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still widely read today.

Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of *The Pickwick Papers*. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humor, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly installments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. Cliffhanger endings in his serial publications kept readers in suspense. The installment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in *David Copperfield* seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features. His plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in ha'pennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.

His 1843 novella *A Christmas Carol* remains especially popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. *Oliver Twist* and *Great Expectations* are also frequently adapted and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel *A Tale of Two Cities* (set in London and Paris) is his best-known work of historical fiction. The most famous celebrity of his era, he undertook, in response to public demand, a series of public reading tours in the later part of his career. Dickens has been praised by many of his fellow writers – from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell, G. K. Chesterton, and Tom Wolfe – for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterizations, and social criticism. However, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of sentimentalism.

The term *Dickensian* is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.

***Cadabra Releases:***

The Signalman

A Christmas Carol (2018)

A Christmas Carol (2019)

***Bibliography:***

### Short stories

* "A Child's Dream of a Star" (1850)
* "Captain Murderer" (1850)
* "To be Read at Dusk" (1852) (a ghost story)
* "The Long Voyage" (1853)
* "Thousand and One Humbugs" (1855)
* "Hunted Down" (1859)
* "The Signal-Man" (1866) (a ghost story)
* "George Silverman's Explanation" (1868)
* "Holiday Romance" (1868)
* "The Ghosts of the Mail" (part of The Pickwick Papers; a ghost story)
* "The Baron of Grogzwig" (part of Nicholas Nickleby; a ghost story)
* "A Madman's Manuscript" (part of The Pickwick Papers; a ghost story)
* "A Ghost in the Bride's Chamber" (part of The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices; a ghost story)
* "The Goblins who Stole a Sexton" (part of The Pickwick Papers; a ghost story)

### Christmas short stories

* "What Christmas is, as We Grow Older " (1851)
* "The Poor Relation's Story " (1852)
* "The Child's Story" (1852)
* "The Schoolboy's Story" (1853)
* "Nobody's Story" (1853)
* "The Seven Poor Travellers" (1854; collaboration)
* "The Wreck of the Golden Mary" (1856; collaboration)
* "The Perils of Certain English Prisoners" (1857; collaboration)
* "Going into Society" (1858)
* "A Message from the Sea" (1860; collaboration)
* "Tom Tiddler's Ground" (1861; collaboration)
* "Somebody's Luggage" (1862)
* "Mrs Lirriper's Legacy" (1864; collaboration)
* "Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions" (1865)
* "The Trial for Murder" (1865; collaboration; a ghost story)
* "Mugby Junction" (1866; collaboration)
* "The Signal-Man" (1866; a ghost story)
* "No Thoroughfare" (1867; collaboration)

### Collaborative works

* "The Seven Poor Travellers" (1854) (with Wilkie Collins, Adelaide Procter, George Sala and Eliza Linton – about the Six Poor Travellers House)
* "The Holly-tree Inn" (1855) (with Wilkie Collins, William Howitt, Harriet Parr and Adelaide Procter)
* "The Wreck of the Golden Mary" (1856) (with Wilkie Collins, Adelaide Procter, Harriet Parr, Percy Fitzgerald and Reverend James White)
* "The Perils of Certain English Prisoners" (1857) (with Wilkie Collins)
* "The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices" (1857) (with Wilkie Collins)
* "A House to Let" (1858) (with Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Procter)
* "The Haunted House" (1859) (with Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Adelaide Procter, George Sala and Hesba Stretton; a ghost story)
* "A Message from the Sea" (1860) (with Wilkie Collins, Robert Buchanan, Charles Allston Collins, Amelia Edwards and Harriet Parr)
* "Tom Tiddler's Ground" (1861) (with Wilkie Collins, Charles Allston Collins, Amelia Edwards and John Harwood)
* "Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings (1863) & Mrs Lirriper's Legacy (1864) (with Elizabeth Gaskell, Andrew Halliday, Edmund Yates, Amelia Edwards, Charles Allston Collins, Rosa Mulholland, Henry Spicer, Hesba Stretton)
* "The Trial for Murder" (1865) (with Charles Allston Collins; a ghost story)
* "Mugby Junction" (1866) (with Andrew Halliday, Hesba Stretton, Charles Allston Collins and Amelia Edwards)
* "No Thoroughfare" (1867) (with Wilkie Collins)

### Short story collections

* *The Mudfog Papers* (1837–8) aka *Mudfog and Other Sketches*
* *Sketches of Young Gentlemen* (1838)
* *Sketches of Young Couples* (1840)
* *Master Humphrey's Clock* (1840–41)
* *Boots at the Holly-tree Inn: And Other Stories* (1858)
* *Reprinted Pieces* (1861)

### Nonfiction, poetry, and plays

1838 Poster advertisement for *Memoirs of Grimaldi*

* *The Strange Gentleman* (play, 1836)
* *The Village Coquettes* (comic opera, 1836)
* "Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi" (1838), edited by Dickens under his regular *nom de plume*, "Boz".
* *The Fine Old English Gentleman* (poetry, 1841)
* *American Notes for General Circulation* (1842)
* *Pictures from Italy* (1846)
* *A Child's History of England* (1853)
* *The Frozen Deep* (play, 1857)
* *The Uncommercial Traveller* (1860–69)
* *Speeches, Letters and Sayings* (1870)
* *Letters of Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins* (1851–70, pub. 1982)
* *The Complete Poems of Charles Dickens* (1885)