Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870), pen-name “Boz”, was a cherished English novelist, whom many regard as the most important of the Victorian era. During his lifetime Dickens is viewed as a popular entertainer of fecund imagination, while later critics championed his mastery of prose, his endless invention of memorable characters, and his powerful social sensibilities. The popularity of his novels and short stories during his lifetime and to the present is demonstrated by the fact that none of them has ever gone out of print. Dickens played a major role in popularizing the serialized novel.

Novels

Dickens' writing style is florid and poetic, with a strong comic touch. His satires of British aristocratic snobbery — he calls one character the “Noble Refrigerator” — are wickedly funny. Comparing orphans to stocks and shares, people to tug boats, or dinner party guests to furniture are just some of Dickens’ flights of fancy which sum up situations better than any simple description could.

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The characters themselves are among some of the most memorable in English literature. Certainly their names are. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Fagin, Mrs. Gamp, Micawber, Pecksniff, Miss Havisham, Wackford Squeers and many others are so well known they can easily be believed to be living a life outside the novels, but their eccentricities do not overshadow the stories. Some of these characters are grotesques; he loved the style of 18th century gothic romance, though it had already become a bit of a joke (see Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey for a parodic example). One character most vividly drawn throughout his novels is London itself. From the coaching inns on the out-skirts of the city to the lower reaches of the Thames, all aspects of the capital are described by someone who truly loved London and spent many hours walking its streets.

Related Topics:
Ebenezer Scrooge - Fagin - Micawber - Miss Havisham - 18th century - Gothic romance - Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey - London - Thames

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Most of Dickens' major novels were first written in monthly or weekly instalments in journals such as Master Humphrey's Clock and Household Words, later reprinted in book form. These instalments made the stories cheap and more accessible and the series of cliff-hangers every month made each new episode more widely anticipated. Part of Dickens’ great talent was to incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end. The monthly numbers were illustrated by, amongst others, “Phiz” (a pseudonym for Hablot Browne).

Related Topics:
Master Humphrey's Clock - Household Words - Phiz - Hablot Browne

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Among his best-known works are Great Expectations, David Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol. David Copperfield is argued by some to be his best novel — it is certainly his most autobiographical. Lesser known, Little Dorrit is a masterpiece of acerbic satire masquerading as a rags-to-riches story.

Related Topics:
Great Expectations - David Copperfield - The Pickwick Papers - Oliver Twist - Nicholas Nickleby - A Tale of Two Cities - A Christmas Carol - Little Dorrit - Satire

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Dickens' novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Throughout his works, Dickens retained an empathy for the common man and a scepticism for the fine folk.

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Dickens was fascinated by the theatre as an escape from the world, and theatres and theatrical people appear in Nicholas Nickleby. Dickens himself had a flourishing career as a performer, reading scenes from his works. He travelled widely in Britain and America on stage tours.

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Much of Dickens’ writing seems sentimental today, like the death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. Even where the leading characters are sentimental, as in Bleak House, the many other colourful characters and events, the satire and subplots, reward the reader. Another criticism of his writing is the unrealistic and unlikeliness of his plots. This is true but much of the time he was not aiming for realism but for entertainment and to recapture the picaresque and gothic novels of his youth. When he did attempt realism his novels were often unsuccessful and unpopular. The fact that his own life story of happiness, then poverty, then an unexpected inheritance, and finally international fame was unlikely shows that unlikely stories are not necessarily unrealistic.

Related Topics:
The Old Curiosity Shop - Bleak House - Satire - Picaresque - Gothic novel

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All authors incorporate autobiographical elements in their fiction, but with Dickens this is very noticeable, particularly as he took pains to cover up what he considered his shameful, lowly past. The scenes from Bleak House of interminable court cases and legal arguments could only come from a journalist who has had to report them. Dickens’ own family was sent to prison for poverty, a common theme in many of his books, in particular the Marshalsea in Little Dorrit. Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop is thought to represent Dickens’ sister-in-law, Nicholas Nickleby's father and Wilkins Micawber are certainly Dickens' own father and the snobbish nature of Pip from Great Expectations is similar to the author himself.

Related Topics:
Bleak House - Marshalsea - Little Dorrit - The Old Curiosity Shop - Nicholas Nickleby - Wilkins Micawber - Pip - Great Expectations

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