| There is something about Charles Dickens' imaginative | | | | John Forster, long afterward, that he felt a deep sense |
| power that defies explanation in purely biographical | | | | of abandonment at this time; the major themes of his |
| terms. Nevertheless, his biography shows the source | | | | novels can be traced to this period. His sympathy for |
| of that power and is the best place to begin to define | | | | the victimized, his fascination with prisons and money, |
| it.The second child of John and Elizabeth Dickens, | | | | the desire to vindicate his heroes' status as gentlemen, |
| Charles was born on February 7, 1812, near | | | | and the idea of London as an awesome, lively, and |
| Portsmouth on England's south coast. At that time | | | | rather threatening environment all reflect these |
| John Dickens was stationed in Portsmouth as a clerk | | | | experiences. No doubt this temporary collapse of his |
| in the Navy Pay Office. The family was of | | | | parents' ability to protect him made a vivid expression |
| lower-middle-class origins, John having come from | | | | on him. Out on his own for a time at twelve years of |
| servants and Elizabeth from minor bureaucrats. | | | | age, Dickens acquired a lasting self-reliance, a driving |
| Dickens' father was vivacious and generous but had | | | | ambition, and a boundless energy that went into |
| an unfortunate tendency to live beyond his means. his | | | | everything he did.At thirteen Dickens went back to |
| mother was affectionate and rather inept in practical | | | | school for two years and then took a job in a lawyers |
| matters. Dickens later used his father as the basis for | | | | office. Dissatisfied with the work, he learned shorthand |
| Mr. Micawber and portrayed is mother as Mrs. | | | | and became a freelance court reporter in 1828. The |
| Nickleby in A Tale of Two Cities.After a transfer to | | | | job was seasonal and allowed him to do a good deal |
| London in 1814, the family moved to Chatham, near | | | | of reading in the British Museum. At the age of twenty |
| Rochester, three years later. Dickens was about five | | | | he became a full-fledged journalist, working for three |
| at the time, and for the next five years his life was | | | | papers in succession. In the next four or five years he |
| pleasant. Taught to read by his mother, he devoured | | | | acquired the reputation of being the fastest and most |
| his fathers' small collection of classics, which included | | | | accurate parliamentary reporter in London. The value |
| Shakespeare, Cervantes, Defoe, Smollet, Fielding, and | | | | of this period was that Dickens gained a sound, |
| Goldsmith. These left a permanent mark on his | | | | firsthand knowledge of London and the |
| imagination; their effect on his art was quite important. | | | | provinces.Dickens was very active physically. He loved |
| dickens also went to some performances of | | | | taking long walks, riding horses, making journeys, |
| Shakespeare and formed a lifelong attachment to the | | | | entertaining friends, dining well, playing practical jokes. |
| theater. He attended school during this period and | | | | He enjoyed games of charades with his family, was |
| showed himself to be a rather solitary, observant, | | | | an excellent amateur magician, and practiced |
| good-natured child with some talent for comic routines, | | | | hypnotism. One tends to share Shaw's opinion that |
| which his father encouraged. In retrospect Dickens | | | | Dickens, in his social life, was always on stage. He was |
| looked upon these years as a kind of golden age. His | | | | like an eternal Master of Ceremonies, for the most |
| first novel, The Pickwick Papers, is in part an attempt | | | | part: flamboyant, observant, quick, dynamic, full of zest. |
| to recreate their idyllic nature: it rejoices in innocence | | | | Yet he was also restless, subject to fits of depression, |
| and the youthful spirit, and its happiest scenes take | | | | and hot tempered, so that at times he must have been |
| place in that precise geographical area.In the light of the | | | | nearly intolerable to live with, however agreeable he |
| family's move back to London, where financial | | | | was as a companion.In view of his very strenuous life |
| difficulties overtook the Dickens's, the time in Chatham | | | | it was not surprising that he died at fifty-eight from a |
| must have seemed glorious indeed. The family moved | | | | stroke. At his death on June 9, 1870, Dickens was |
| into the shabby suburb of Camden Town, and Dickens | | | | wealthy, immensely popular, and the best novelist the |
| was taken out of school and set to menial jobs about | | | | Victorian age produced. He was buried in the Poet's |
| the household. In time, to help augment the family | | | | Corner of Westminster Abbey, and people mourned |
| income, Dickens was given a job in a blacking factory | | | | his death the world over.You may visit and for instant |
| among rough companions. At the time his father was | | | | access to thousands of term papers. Several |
| imprisoned for debt, but was released three months | | | | thousand free papers are also offered. |
| later by a small legacy. Dickens related to his friend, | | | | |