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.

Works

Major novels

• The Pickwick Papers (1836)
• Oliver Twist (1837–1839)
• Nicholas Nickleby (1838–1839)
• The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–1841)
• Barnaby Rudge (1841)
• The Christmas Books:
• A Christmas Carol (1843)
• The Chimes (1844)
• The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)
• The Battle of Life (1846)
• Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844)
• Dombey and Son (1846–1848)
• David Copperfield (1849–1850)
• Bleak House (1852–1853)
• Hard Times (1854)
• Little Dorrit (1855–1857)
• A Tale of Two Cities (July 11, 1859)
• Great Expectations (1860–1861)
• Our Mutual Friend (1864–1865)
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished) (1870)

Selected other books

• Sketches by Boz (1836)
• American Notes (1842)
• Pictures from Italy (1846)
• A Child’s History of England (1851–1853)

Short stories

• “A Christmas Tree”
• “A Message from the Sea”
• “Doctor Marigold”
• “George Silverman’s Explanation”
• “Going into Society”
• “Holiday Romance”
• “Hunted Down”
• “Mrs. Lirriper’s Legacy”
• “Mrs. Lirriper’s Lodgings”
• “Mugby Junction”
• “Perils of Certain English Prisoners”
• “Somebody’s Luggage”
• “Sunday Under Three Heads”
• “The Child’s Story”
• “The Haunted House”
• “The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain”
• “The Holly-Tree”
• “The Lamplighter”
• “The Seven Poor Travellers”
• “The Trial for Murder”
• “Tom Tiddler’s Ground”
• “What Christmas Is As We Grow Older”
• “Wreck of the Golden Mary”