Charles Dickens was one of the most famous English writers of the Victorian era. He created memorable characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of that period. Although he had little formal education, he went on to edit a weekly journal for 20 years and write 15 novels and hundreds of short stories. Some of his most famous works include A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. Dickens also incorporated his own experiences, such as a rail crash he survived, into his writing. He ultimately suffered a fatal stroke at his home in 1870 at the age of 58.

1. Charles Dickens
Good morning/ afternoon,
My name is Karla Araujo, and today I have the pleasure to speak about one of the
best known English writers. I will talk about Charles Dickens.
I chose this topic, because I believe that his literature is the most beautiful part of
british culture. Literature shows the writer’s creativity, thoughts, ideas and
insights through their books.
He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is
generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. His literary
style based on what he loved: picaresque novels which he found in abundance on
his father's shelves.
His complete name was Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7th
1812, at Portsmouth, England, the second of eight children to John Dickens and
Elizabeth Dickens.
He left the school to work in a factory after his father was thrown into debtors'
prison.
Although he had little formal education, his early impoverishment drove him to
succeed. Over his career he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, 5
novellas and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles.
Dickens sprang to fame 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 instalments, pioneered the serial publication of
narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.
On April 2nd, 1836, he married to Catherine Thomson Hogarth.
His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, is one of the most influential works ever
written, and it remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every
artistic genre.
In 1857, Dickens hired professional actresses for the play The Frozen Deep, which
he and his protégé Wilkie Collins had written. Dickens fell deeply in love with one
of the actresses, Ellen Ternan, which was to last the rest of his life. Dickens was 45
and Ternan 18 when he made the decision, which went strongly against Victorian
convention, to separate from his wife, Catherine, in 1858—divorce was still
unthinkable for someone as famous as he was.

2. Major works, A Tale of Two Cities (1859); and Great Expectations (1861) soon
followed and were resounding successes. During this time he was also the
publisher and editor of, and a major contributor to, the journals Household Words
(1850–1859) and All the Year Round (1858–1870).
On June 9th 1865, he was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash. He saved a couple
of lives, and when he was going to left, he remembered the manuscript of Our
Mutual Friend, so he returned to the train for it, using this experience for the book,
and included other rail crashes in the story.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's
work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day, on 9
June, five years to the day after the Staplehurst rail crash, he died at Gad's Hill
Place.