- Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in England and experienced a difficult childhood, working in a factory after his father was imprisoned for debt. He later became a successful novelist and is best known for his stories that shed light on social problems and criticized poor living conditions in London. Some of his most famous novels include Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and A Tale of Two Cities. Oliver Twist grows up in a workhouse and runs away to London where he joins a gang of child thieves before being taken in by a kind man named Mr. Brownlow.