BIOGRAPHY:
He was a british writer who was born in 1812 and he died in 1870. Charles Dickens was the second of eight children in a poor family. When he was 12 years old his father was in a prison. Because of this, Charles was forced to work in a warehouse to help support the family. This experience left profound efffects on him.
At 15, his normal education ended and he found employment as an office boy, while he studied shorthand at night. In 1833 Dickens began to contribute short stories and essays to periodicals.
A Dinner at Popular Walk was his first published story. Dickens's first book, a collection of stories titled Sketches by Boz(it was his pseudonym),was published in 1836.
He married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of an important editor. Together they had 10 children before they separated in 1858.
Although Dickens's main profession was as a novelist, he continued his journalistic work until the end of his life. The Posthumans Papers of the Pickwick Club became one of the most popular works of the time. After it, Charles embarked on a full-time career as a novelist publishing other novels like Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, The Chimes...
In the closing years of his life Dickens worsened his health. He retreated to Gad's Hill and began to work in a proyect, which was never completed.
Charles Dickens died at home, in 1870, after suffering a stroke.
SOCIETY:
The society of England was getting industrialized and machinery occupied the top priority in national life. Industralization gave rise to conflict between the capital and the labor. These aspects are described in Hard Times, a Dickens novel. It shows a period of economic depression with food shortage, low wage and unemployment. The lives of the people were restricted.
His priority was to relay a message, but as writer he was also interested in create beautiful prose. His writing style was detailed. He used exaggeration in description and metaphor, simile and frequently repeated words. This made it easier for people to read and understand his work and also made it mor memorable. Charles Dickens experimented with different genres, but most of them were all critical of the industrial revolution. He lived a golden time of peace but was quite aware of poverty within the country. Much of his work is a heavily descriptive view into what life was like in 19th century in England.
OTHER NOVELS WRITTEN BY DICKENS:
A Christmas Carol (1843)
Grandes esperanzas (1860)
David Copperfield (1850)
Hard Times (1854)
Nicholas Nickleby (1839)
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