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"He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed;

and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."

This is the inscription in Charles Dickens tombstone as he laid to rest in


his grave at the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. Charles John Huffam
Dickens, simply known as Charles
Dickens, was born in Portsmouth on
February 7, 1812. He was the second of
eight children to John Dickens (1786-
1851), a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, and
his wife Elizabeth Dickens (1789-1863). The Dickens family moved to London in
1814 and has moved to Chatham, Kent two years later due to financial
difficulties. In 1822, they moved back to London and settled in Camden Town, a
poor neighborhood in London (Charles Dickens online, 2007).

Charles was a famed writer of his time. He wrote several essays, articles
and short stories dealing most especially on the harsh and grotesque society he
was in. In 1824, his father was imprisoned for six months for debt, along with his
wife and children. Excluding Charles, he was forced to quit school and work in a
Blacking factory, beside the River Thames, putting labels on pots for 11 hours a
day (BBC, 2011). Working in the factory haunted him all of his life [which he
spoke of only to his wife and his closest friend, John Forster] but this experience
became a source of creative energy which he incorporated on his later works
with themes of alienation and betrayal (Cody, 2004).

At age 15, Charles formal education ended and he worked as an office


boy at an Attorneys (BBC, 2011). From then on, he became a reporter in the
courts, parliamentary and the newspaper. He contributed short stories, essays
and articles on periodicals, and magazines. In 1834, still a newspaper reporter,
he adopted the soon to be famous pseudonym Boz and was able to publish his
first book in 1836 entitled Sketches by Boz (Cody, 2004).

Charles Dickens was fond of walking. He would restlessly cover 5


to 30 miles a day in and around London (Bakewell, 2012). London was a big and
crowded city. In his time, societal problems ran rampant on the streets people
lived in the slums; homeless children lived on the streets; children are sent to
workhouses; people died from diseases; young children were sent to prison
(BBC, 2011). Keeping up a steady fast pace of four-and-a-half miles an hour, he
would sometimes walk all night, observing the people and the situation theyre in.
His constant watching and eavesdropping fed all his articles and novels. Judith
Flanders, the author of The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens London,
says that: Dickens appealed to contemporaries because he gave them a voyage
into the unknown: into parts of London they did not know and where they would
not venture. (Bakewell, 2012).

Most of Dickens works deals with societal injustices led by the autocratic
to the poor and powerless. Themes incorporated in his works are not the sole
contributor of his fame. During the Victorian times, novels can only be bought by
the well-adjusted, thus, Dickens published his in a monthly basis. This became
more accessible to the masses (Biography.com Editors, 2017). Some of his work
with monthly installments would include The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick
Club (1836-37), Oliver Twist (1837-39), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), The Old
Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge as part of the Master Humphreys Clock
series (1840-41). (Charles Dickens online, 2007)

A Christmas Carol, one of Dickens series of five Christmas Books,


became one of the most famed and adored books of his time. Dickens began his
work in October of 1843 and was published the holiday season of the same year
(n.d, 2004). It deals, indirectly, with the inequality between the rich and ignorant
and the poor and hopeless, which is timely for the holiday season.

The book is composed of five Staves Stave I: Marleys Ghost, Stave II:
The First of the Three Spirits, Stave III: The Second of the Three Spirits,
Stave IV: The Last of the Spirits, Stave V: The End of It.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bakewell, S. (2012). The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens London, By Judith
Flanders. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/books/reviews/the-victorian-city-everyday-life-in-dickenss-london-
by-judith-flanders-8197955.html
Biography.com Editors. (2017, April). Charles Dickens: The Installment Plan [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/people/charles-dickens-9274087
BBC (2011). Charles Dickens. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/charles_dickens/
Charles Dickens online (2007). Charles Dickens Biography. Retrieved from
http://www.dickens-online.info/charles-dickens-biography.htm
Cody, D. (2004). Dickens: A Brief Biography. Retrieved from
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/dickensbio1.html
n.d. (2004). Learn About A Christmas Carol. Retrieved from
www.charlesdickensinfo.com/christmas-carol/

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