Charles Dickens: His Life (just some facts).

Charles Dickens was an English Victorian era author who wrote numerous highly acclaimed novels including his most autobiographical David Copperfield (1848-1850).

In the nineteenth century everyone, from Queen Victoria to street sweepers, either read Dickens or had Dickens read to them!

Full Name:

Charles John Huffam Dickens (early alias: Boz)

Date of Birth:

Friday, February 7, 1812

Place of Birth:

No. 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, Portsmouth England

Parents:

Father-John Dickens (1785-1851); Mother-Elizabeth Dickens (1789-1863)

Education:

Approx. one year at William Giles' school in Chatham, Kent (age 9-11); nearly three years Wellington House Academy in London (age 13-15); beyond this, largely self-educated.

First Published Story:

A Dinner at Poplar Walk published in Monthly Magazine (December 1833)

Marriage:

Catherine (Hogarth) Dickens (1815-1879) : married April 2, 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea : Separated 1858

Children:

• Charles Culliford (Charley) Dickens (1837-1896)
• Mary (Mamie) Dickens (1838-1896)
• Kate Macready (Katie) Dickens (1839-1929)
• Walter Savage Landor Dickens (1841-1863)
• Francis Jeffrey (Frank) Dickens (1844-1886)
• Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens (1845-1912)
• Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens (1847-1872)
• Henry Fielding (Harry) Dickens (1849-1933)
• Dora Annie Dickens (1850-1851)
• Edward Bulwer Lytton (Plorn) Dickens (1852-1902)

Date of Death:

Thursday, June 9, 1870 (stroke)

Place of Burial:

Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, London

A Defining Episode in Dickens' Life:

Charles' father was imprisoned for debt when Charles was twelve years old. That Charles was sent to work in a factory to help support the family is absolutely essential in knowing and understanding him. This episode seemed to put a stain on the clever, sensitive boy that colored everything he accomplished, though he never told the story except obliquely through his fiction.