CHARLES DICKENS

7 February 1812 9 June 1870

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social

critic who is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian
period and the creator of some of the world's most memorable fictional
characters. During his lifetime Dickens' works enjoyed
unprecedented(nemaipomenit;nemaivazuta) popularity and fame, but it
was in the twentieth century that his literary genius was fully
recognized by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue
to enjoy an enduring popularity among the general reading public.
Born in Portsmouth, England, Dickens left school to work in a
factory after his father was thrown(aruncat) into debtors'(datornic)
prison. Though he had little formal education, his early impoverishment
drove him to succeed. He edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15
novels and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured
and performed extensively(intens;pe scara larga), was an indefatigable
letter writer, and campaigned(a milita) vigorously for children's rights,
education, and other social reforms.
Also, Dickens was well known as a soft touch for persons in
need and charitable causes. In May 1846 Angela Burdett Coutts,
heir(mostenitor) to the Coutts banking fortune(avere), approached
Dickens about setting up(a institui) a home(adapost) for the
redemption(salvare) of fallen women from the working class. Coutts
envisioned(a-si imagini; a prevazut) a home that would replace the
punitive(aspre;represive) regimes of existing institutions with an
reformative environment conducive(favorabil) to education and
proficiency(experienta) in domestic household chores(treburile casnice).
After initially resisting, Dickens eventually founded the home, named
"Urania Cottage", in the Lime Grove section of Shepherds Bush, which he
was to manage for ten years, setting the house rules and reviewing the
accounts and interviewing prospective residents. Emigration and
marriage were central to Dickens' agenda for the women on leaving
Urania Cottage, from which it is estimated that about 100 women
graduated between 1847 and 1859.
Dickens was regarded as the 'literary colossus' of his age.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. His creative genius has been
praised(apreciat) by fellow writersfrom Leo Tolstoy to G. K. Chesterton
and George Orwellfor its realism, comedy, prose style, unique
characterisations, and social criticism. Others have been
dismissive(desconsiderare): Oscar Wilde generally
disparaged(dispretuiau) his character depiction(desen) though he
enjoyed Dickens's gift for caricature; Henry James denied him a premier
position, calling him, "the greatest of superficial novelists": Dickens
failed to endow(a inzenstra) his characters with psychological depth and
the novels, "loose baggy monsters" betrayed(trada) a "cavalier
organisation"; Virginia Woolf had a love-hate relationship with his
works, finding his novels "mesmerizing"(fascinant) while reproving(a se
admonesta) him for his sentimentalism and a commonplace(banal) style.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke(atac cerebral) at
his home, after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never
regained(recapatat) consciousness, and the next day, on 9 June, five
years to the day after the Staplehurst rail crash (9 June 1865), he died at
Gad's Hill Place.
Quotes:
It doesn't matter that Dicken's world is not life like; it is alive,
states Lord David Cecil.
There is a heartlessness behind his sentimentally overflowing
style, states Franz Kafka.