Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in England and had a difficult childhood. He showed an early interest in reading and writing plays. However, his family was poor and his father was imprisoned for debts, forcing the young Dickens to work in a factory. Later he educated himself by reading in libraries and became a newspaper reporter. He went on to publish several famous novels like Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities, which brought him great success and fame as one of the most popular writers of his time. Dickens worked to highlight the struggles of ordinary people through his writing.

1. Charles Dickens

2. Charles Dickens was born on February, 7 th in 1812 in the town of Portsmouth in England. He was a weak child and did not like playing active games, but he was clever.

3. He learnt to read at an early age and read many books in his childhood. When he was about six he was taken to the theatre for the first time.

4. He saw the play by Shakespeare and liked it so much that he decided to write a play himself. He wrote the play and showed it with his friends. When Charles was nine, his family went to London.

5. The life of family was hard, because there were many children in it and his parents were poor. His father was taken into prison for debts and Charles couldn’t go to school.

7. Match the opposites. active hard rich early friend poor many strong city easy clever few late passive weak town stupid enemy

8. Those were the unhappy days in all Charles’ life. At the age of ten he had to start working. The boy worked all day from the early morning till night to help his family.

9. He went to school later when his father was free again. At the age of 15 he began to work as a clerk. He spent all his free time reading in the British Museum and in this way he ha got education himself.

10. Some years later he became a newspaper reporter, in 1863 Dickens published his first book; in the same year he began publishing his “Pickwick papers” that brought him universal fame and after that Charles became the most popular writer on that time.

11. He wrote such well-known works as “Oliver Twist”, “David Copperfield”, ”Hard Times” and others. His work showed his love and sympathies for ordinary people. The great English writer died in 1870 at the age of 58.