2. What Charles Dickens Knew
A Tale of Two Cities
British Literature II
Ms. Campbell
3. Charles Dickens: On Writing
“You know my life..., and my character, and what
has had its part in making them successful; and
the more you see of me, the better perhaps you
may understand that the intense pursuit of any
idea that takes complete possession of me, is one
of the qualities that makes me different —
sometimes for good; sometimes I dare say for evil
— from other men.”
— Letter from Charles Dickens to his wife,
December 5, 1853
4. Biography Brief
in
• Charles Dickens was born 7 February 1812
– Parents, John and Elizabeth
– Siblings were Fanny, Alfred, Letitia, Harriet, Frederick, Alfred, and Augustus
• Charles, “…may be said to have educated himself.” (John Dickens)
• From 1817-1822, the family lived in Chatham, where John was
employed as a pay clerk.
– Charles received basic instruction in English and Latin from his mother and, for
a time, attended a dame school similar to the school portrayed in Great
Expectations For a brief time, he worked with an excellent master, William
Giles. Young Charles read fiction from his father’s library.
• Everything changed when John Dickens was transferred to London.
With the move, his debts mounted and the family moved to
Camden Town, the poorest of the London suburbs. Soon, it was
necessary to sell off all the family goods.
5. • When John was unable to meet his financial obligations, he went to
Marshalsea Prison under the provisions of the Insolvent Debtor’s Act.
– His wife and younger children chose to live in prison with him.
• Charles, the oldest son, went to work in Warren’s Blacking Warehouse in
Strand
– He worked pasting labels on bottles for six shillings a week. Although the
work was not hard labor, Charles felt demeaned and shamed as a laborer.
Scenes from David Copperieldreflect this time in Charles’ life.
• After his father was released, Charles went back to school for two years at
Wellington House Academy, although his mother would have left him to
continue working
– several of Dickens’ characters are based on his parents. In Fact, a theme of
paternal neglect is present in virtually all of his novels. Most protagonists are
orphans or near-orphans, harbored in the homes of surrogate parents.
• When Charles was 15, he left school to become an office boy in a
law firm, and at age 17 became a legal reporter.
• At age 22, Dickens began his literary career as a journalist (1833) for
The Morning Chronicle. Also famous for his sketches of the
emerging middle class, and drew under the name “Boz”
6. • Three years later, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of the
editor of the Evening Chronicle.
– They had 10 children:
Charley, Mamie, Katie, Walter, Francis, Alfred, Sydney, Henry, Dora, and
Edward
• Dickens was also a theater enthusiast, wrote plays and performed
for Queen Victoria in 1851.
• His rising popularity drove him to overextend himself and he
committed to many writing, editorial, illustration, and managerial
projects.
• He was deeply committed to social issues and spent time traveling
abroad:
– He lectured against slavery in the United States
– toured Italy
• He was estranged from his wife in 1858, but continued his affair
with actress Nelly Turnin, which began in 1857 when he was 45 and
she was 18.
• He died of a stroke in 1870, and is buried at Westminster Abbey.
7. DISCUSSION: The Victorian Era
What did you learn
in your research
about mid 19th
Century England?
Queen Victoria with her eldest
daughter Victoria, the Princess
Royal (ca. 1844-45). This is the first
photograph ever taken of Queen
Victoria. It is a calotype, made by
photographer Henry Collen .
8. SerializedNovels
• The publication of fiction in parts grew dramatically in the 1830s, as
a direct result of the wild success of Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers.
• Many 19th century authors established themselves by first
publishing original fiction in serial format: WilkieCollins, George
Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, George Meredith, Robert
Louis Stevenson
• Serial publication had several advantages:
– For the reader, it substantially reduced the cash outlay required to pay
for fiction: for a novel in monthly installments like Pickwick, one had to
pay only one shilling a month, instead of a guinea (21 shillings) or
more for an entire novel.
– For the publisher, it expanded the market for fiction, as more people
could afford to buy on the installment plan
– For advertisers, ads could easily be incorporated into the little
booklets in which a typical Dickens novel was issued.
9. The Novel Charles Dickens
• Timeline of novels:
- The Pickwick Papers (1836-37)
- Oliver Twist (1837-38)
- Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39)
- The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41)
- Barnaby Rudge (1840-41)
- Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44)
- Dombey and Son (1846-48)
- David Copperfield (1849-50)
- Bleak House (1852-53)
- Hard Time (1854)
- Little Dorrit (1855-57)
- A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
- Great Expectations (1860)
- Our Mutual Friend (1864-65)
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870 *unfinished)
10. Charles Dickens Themes
• Many of Dickens’ themes were rooted in his own life experience
and the changing world he saw around him:
– Parental abandonment; orphan or near orphan as main character
– Turbulent love relationships
• Marital mismatch
• Abuse
• Older man/younger woman pairings
• Unrequited or lost love
– Hypocrisy: characters who do not practice what they preach
– Society as a cruel, hard place
• Ineffective government and bureaucracy
• Child labor
• Debt as a sign of social inequity
– Hidden or secret identities
11. Bibliography
• Charles Dickens Life and Work
– BBC History:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/dicken
s_charles.shtml
– Victorian Web:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/edh/1.
html
– David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page:
http://charlesdickenspage.com/family_friends.html
– Smithsonian Magazine:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-
culture/Dickens-Secret-Affair.html
12. Bibliography
• Serialized Novels of the Victorian Era
– PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dickens/life_publication.ht
ml
– University of Victoria Libraries:
http://library.uvic.ca/dig/VictorianSerialNovels.html
• Themes of Dickens
– 101: http://suite101.com/article/recurring-themes-in-
the-works-of-charles-dickens-a124708
