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Charles Dickens - Biography - an actual and creative path. Charles Dickens biography

Country: United Kingdom
Was born: February 7, 1812
Died: June 9, 1870

Charles John Huffham Dickens (Charles john huffam dickens) is one of the most famous English-speaking novelists, renowned creator of vibrant comic characters and social critic. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 at Landport near Portsmouth. In 1805, his father, John Dickens (1785 / 1786-1851), the youngest son of a butler and housekeeper at Crewe Hall (Staffordshire), was promoted to clerk in financial management maritime department. In 1809 he married Elizabeth Barrow (1789–1863) and was assigned to Portsmouth Dockyard. Charles was the second of eight children. In 1816 John Dickens was sent to Chatham (Kent). By 1821 he had five children. Charles was taught to read by his mother, for some time he visited primary school, from nine to twelve years old he went to a regular school. Developed beyond his years, he eagerly read the entire home library of cheap publications.

In 1822 John Dickens was transferred to London. Parents with six children in dire need huddled in Camden Town. Charles stopped going to school; he had to mortgage silver spoons, sell out the family library, serve as an errand boy. At twelve he began working for six shillings a week in a wax factory at Hungerford Steers on the Strand. He worked there for a little over four months, but this time seemed to him a painful, hopeless eternity and awakened the determination to break out of poverty. On February 20, 1824, his father was arrested for debts and imprisoned in Marshallsea prison. Having received a small inheritance, he paid off his debts and was released on May 28 of the same year. For about two years, Charles attended a private school called Wellington House Academy.

While working as a junior clerk in one of the law firms, Charles began to study shorthand, preparing himself for the work of a newspaper reporter. By November 1828, he had become a freelance reporter for the Doctors-Commons court. By his eighteenth birthday, Dickens received a library card for the British Museum and began to diligently supplement his education. In early 1832 he became a reporter for The Mirror of Parliament and The True Sun. The twenty-year-old boy quickly distinguished himself from among the hundreds of patrons in the House of Commons reporters' gallery.

Dickens' love for the bank manager's daughter, Maria Bidnell, strengthened his ambition. But the Bidnell family was not fond of a simple reporter, whose father happened to sit in a debt prison. After a trip to Paris "to complete her education," Maria lost interest in her admirer. During the previous year, he began writing fictional essays on the life and characteristics of London. The first of these appeared in The Monthly Magazine in December 1833. The next four came out during January-August 1834, the latter being signed by the pseudonym Bose, nicknamed Dickens' younger brother Moses. Dickens was now a regular reporter for The Morning Chronicle, a newspaper reporting on significant events throughout England. In January 1835, J. Hogarth, publisher of The Evening Chronicle, asked Dickens to write a series of essays on city life. Hogarth's literary connections - his father-in-law J. Thomson was a friend of R. Burns, and he himself - a friend of W. Scott and his legal advisor - made a deep impression on the aspiring writer. In the early spring of that year, he became engaged to Catherine Hogarth. February 7, 1836, to the twenty-fourth birthday of Dickens, all of his essays, incl. several previously unpublished works came out as a separate edition under the title Sketches by Boz. The essays, often not fully thought out and somewhat frivolous, already show the talent of the novice author; they touch on almost all further Dickensian motives: the streets of London, courts and lawyers, prisons, Christmas, parliament, politicians, snobs, sympathy for the poor and the oppressed.

This publication was followed by an offer by Chapman and Hall to write a novel in twenty issues to comic engravings by the famous cartoonist R. Seimur. Dickens argued that The Notes of Nimrod, the theme of which was the adventures of the hapless London athletes, had already become boring; instead, he offered to write about the eccentric club and insisted that he did not comment on Seymour's illustrations, but that he made engravings for his texts. The publishers agreed, and the first issue of The Pickwick Club was published on April 2. Charles and Catherine had married two days earlier and settled in Dickens' bachelor apartment. Initially, the response was cool, and the sale did not bode well. Even before the appearance of the second edition, Seymour committed suicide, and the whole undertaking was in jeopardy. Dickens himself found the young artist H.N. Brown, who became known under the pseudonym Fiz. The number of readers grew; by the end of the publication of the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (published from March 1836 to November 1837), each issue was sold in the amount of forty thousand copies.

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is an intricate comic epic. Its hero, Samuel Pickwick, is a cheerful Don Quixote, plump and ruddy, accompanied by a clever servant Sam Weller, Sancho Panza from the common people of London. Freely following episodes one after another allows Dickens to present a number of scenes from the life of England and use all kinds of humor - from crude farce to high comedy, richly seasoned with satire. If Pickwick does not have a sufficiently pronounced plot to be called a novel, then he undoubtedly surpasses many novels with the charm of gaiety and joyful mood, and the plot in it can be traced no worse than in many other works of the same indefinite genre.
Dickens turned down his job at the Chronicle and accepted R. Bentley's offer to head the new monthly, Bentley's Almanac. The first issue of the magazine came out in January 1837, a few days before the birth of Dickens' first child, Charles Jr. In the February issue appeared the first chapters of Oliver Twist (completed in March 1839), begun by the writer when Pickwick was only half written. Before he finished Oliver, Dickens set to work on Nicholas Nickleby (April 1838 - October 1839), the next series in twenty issues for Chapman and Hall. During this period, he also wrote a comic opera libretto, two farces and published a book about the life of the famous clown Grimaldi.

From Pickwick Dickens went down to dark world horror, tracing in Oliver Twist (1839) the growing up of an orphan, from the workhouse to the criminal slums of London. While burly Mr. Bumble and even Fagin's thieves' den are amusing, the novel has a sinister, satanic vibe. Nicholas Nickleby (1839) mixes Oliver's gloom and Pickwick's sunshine.

In March 1837, Dickens moved into a four-story house at 48 Doughty Street. Here his daughters Mary and Kate were born, and here his sister-in-law, sixteen-year-old Mary, to whom he was very attached, died. In this house, for the first time, he received D. Forster, the theater critic of the newspaper The Examiner, who became his lifelong friend, literary advisor, executor and first biographer. Thanks to Forster, Dickens met Browning, Tennyson and other writers. In November 1839, Dickens took a twelve-year lease at No. 1 in Devonshire Terrace. With the growth of wealth and literary fame, the position of Dickens in society was strengthened. In 1837 he was elected a member of the Garrick club, in June 1838 - a member of the famous Athenaeum club.

The occasional friction with Bentley forced Dickens to give up work in the Almanac in February 1839. The following year, all of his books were concentrated in the hands of Chapman and Hall, with whose assistance he began publishing a threepenny weekly, Mr. Humphrey's Watch, in which the Antiquities Shop (April 1840-January 1841) and Barnaby Raj (February - November 1841). Then, worn out by the abundance of work, Dickens stopped producing Mr. Humphrey's Watch.

Although The Old Curiosity Shop won many hearts when published, modern readers, not accepting the sentimentality of the novel, believe that Dickens indulged in excessive pathos in describing the bleak wanderings and sadly long death of little Nell. The grotesque elements of the novel are quite successful.

In January 1842, the Dickens sailed to Boston, where a crowded enthusiastic meeting marked the beginning of the writer's triumphant journey through New England to New York, Philadelphia, Washington and beyond - up to St. Louis. But the journey was clouded by Dickens' growing resentment over American literary piracy and its inability to combat it and - in the South - openly hostile reactions to his rejection of slavery. The American Notes, which appeared in November 1842, was greeted with warm praise and friendly criticism in England, but provoked fierce irritation overseas. Regarding even more poignant satire in his next novel, Martin Chazzlewit (January 1843 - July 1844), Carlyle remarked: "The Yankees boiled like a huge bottle of soda."
The first of Dickens's Christmas novels, A Christmas Carol (1843), also exposes selfishness, in particular the desire for profit, as reflected in the concept of the "business man." But it often escapes the reader's attention that Scrooge's striving for enrichment for the sake of enrichment itself is a semi-serious, semi-comic parabola of the soulless theory of incessant competition. the main idea the story - about the need for generosity and love - permeates the subsequent "Bells" (The Chimes, 1844), "The Cricket on the Hearth" (The Cricket on the Hearth, 1845), as well as the less successful "Battle of Life" (The Battle of Life, 1846) and "Obsessed" (The Haunted Man, 1848).

In July 1844, along with the children, Catherine and her sister Georgina Hogarth, who now lived with them, Dickens went to Genoa. Returning to London in July 1845, he plunged into the worries of founding and publishing the liberal newspaper The Daily News (“ The daily News "). Publishing conflicts with its owners soon forced Dickens to give up the job. Frustrated, Dickens decided that from this time on, books would become his weapon in the struggle for reform. In Lausanne, he began Dombey and Son (October 1846 - April 1848), changing publishers to Bradbury and Evans.
In May 1846 Dickens published a second book of travel notes, Pictures from Italy. In 1847 and 1848, Dickens took part as a director and actor in charitable amateur performances - "Every One in His Way" by B. Johnson and "Windsor Ridiculous" by W. Shakespeare.

In 1849 Dickens began his novel David Copperfield (May 1849 - November 1850), which was a huge success from the outset. The most popular of all Dickens's novels, the author's favorite brainchild, "David Copperfield" is more associated with the biography of the writer. It would be wrong to believe that "David Copperfield" is just a mosaic of several altered and arranged in a different order of events in the life of the writer. The cross-cutting theme of the novel is the "rebellious heart" of young David, the cause of all his mistakes, including the most serious one - an unhappy first marriage.

In 1850 he began publishing a twopence weekly, Household Words. It contained easy reading, various information and messages, poems and stories, articles on social, political and economic reforms, published without signatures. Among the authors were Elizabeth Gaskell, Harriet Martineau, J. Meredith, W. Collins, C. Lever, C. Reed and E. Bulwer-Lytton. "Home Reading" immediately became popular, its sales reached, despite occasional downturns, forty thousand copies a week. In late 1850, Dickens and Bulwer-Lytton founded the Guild of Literature and Art to help writers in need. As a donation, Lytton wrote the comedy We're Not As Bad As We Look, which Dickens premiered with an amateur troupe at the Duke of Devonshire's London mansion in the presence of Queen Victoria. Over the next year, performances were staged throughout England and Scotland. By this time, Dickens had eight children (one died in infancy), and another, the last child, was about to be born. At the end of 1851, the Dickens family moved to a larger house in Tavistock Square, and the writer began work on Bleak House (March 1852 - September 1853).

In Bleak House, Dickens rises to the top as a satirist and social critic, the power of the writer manifested in all its dark splendor. Although he has not lost his sense of humor, his judgments become more bitter, and his vision of the world is bleak. The novel is a kind of microcosm of society: the image of a thick fog around the Chancellor's Court dominates, meaning the confusion of legitimate interests, institutions and ancient traditions; the fog behind which greed is hiding, fetters generosity and obscures vision. It was because of them, according to Dickens, that society turned into disastrous chaos. The trial "Jarndis versus Jarndis" fatally leads its victims, and this is almost all the heroes of the novel, to collapse, ruin, despair.

Hard Times (April 1 - August 12, 1854) was published in issues in Home Reading to raise the fallen circulation. The novel was not highly appreciated either by critics or by a wide range of readers. The furious denunciation of industrialism, a small number of cute and reliable heroes, and the grotesque satire of the novel threw off balance not only conservatives and people who were quite satisfied with the life of people, but also those who wanted the book to make only cry and laugh, and not think.

Government inaction, mismanagement, and corruption that became apparent during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, along with unemployment, strikes, and food riots, strengthened Dickens' conviction of the need for radical reform. He joined the Association for Administrative Reforms and continued to write critical and satirical articles in Home Reading; during a six-month stay in Paris, he observed the excitement on the stock market. These themes - bureaucratic obstacles and wild speculation - he reflected in Little Dorrit (December 1855 - June 1857).
Summer 1857 Dickens spent in Gadshill, in an old house, which he admired as a child, and now he was able to acquire. His participation in charity performances "The Frozen Abyss" by W. Collins led to a crisis in the family. The writer's years of tireless labor were clouded by the growing awareness of the failure of his marriage. During his theater studies, Dickens fell in love with the young actress Ellen Ternan. Despite her husband's vows of allegiance, Katherine left his home. In May 1858, after the divorce, Charles Jr. stayed with his mother, and the rest of the children with their father, in Georgina's care as mistress of the house. Dickens eagerly set about reading passages from his books in public in front of an enthusiastic audience. Having quarreled with Bradbury and Evans, who sided with Catherine, Dickens returned to Chapman and Hall. Having stopped publishing "Home Reading", he very successfully began publishing a new weekly "All the Year Round", printing in it "A Tale of Two Cities" (April 30 - November 26, 1859) and then "Great Expectations" (December 1, 1860 - August 3, 1861). "A Tale of Two Cities" cannot be attributed to best books Dickens. It is based more on melodramatic coincidences and violent actions than on the characters of the heroes. But readers will never cease to be captivated by the exciting plot, the brilliant caricature of the inhuman and refined Marquis d'Euremond, the meat grinder of the French Revolution and the sacrificial heroism of Sidney Carton that brought him to the guillotine.

In Great Expectations, the protagonist Pip tells the story of a mysterious deed that allowed him to leave the rural smithy of his son-in-law, Joe Gargery, and receive a gentlemanly education in London. In the image of Pip, Dickens exposes not only snobbery, but also the falsity of Pip's dream of the luxurious life of an idle "gentleman". Pip's great hopes belong to the ideal of the 19th century: parasitism and abundance at the expense of inherited inheritance and a brilliant life at the expense of other people's labor.

In 1860, Dickens sold the house in Tavistock Square, and Gadshill became his permanent home. He successfully read his works publicly throughout England and in Paris. His last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, was printed in twenty issues (May 1864 - November 1865). In the last completed novel, the writer reappears and combines images that expressed his condemnation of the social system: the thick fog of Bleak House and the huge, crushing prison cell of Little Dorrit. To these, Dickens adds another, deeply ironic image of the London junkyard - the huge piles of rubbish that created Garmon's wealth. This symbolically defines the goal of human greed as filth and waste. The world of the novel is the omnipotent power of money, admiration for wealth. Fraudsters flourish: a man with a significant surname Veniring (veneer - outer gloss) buys a seat in parliament, and the pompous rich man Podsnep is the mouthpiece of public opinion.

The writer's health deteriorated. Ignoring the threatening symptoms, he undertook a series of tedious public readings, and then embarked on a major tour of America. The American trip had revenues of nearly £ 20,000, but the trip took its toll on his health. Dickens was overjoyed at the money he earned, but it wasn’t just the money that prompted him to take the trip; the writer's ambitious nature demanded admiration and admiration from the public. After a short summer vacation, he began a new tour. But in Liverpool in April 1869, after 74 performances, his condition worsened, after each reading, his left arm and leg were almost taken away.

After recovering somewhat from the peace and quiet of Gadshill, Dickens began writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, scheduling twelve monthly issues, and persuaded his physician to allow him twelve farewell appearances in London. They began on January 11, 1870; last performance took place on March 15. Edwin Drood, whose first issue appeared on March 31st, was only half written.

On June 8, 1870, after having worked all day in a chalet in Gadshill Gardens, Dickens was struck by a stroke at supper, and the next day, at about six in the evening, he died. In a closed ceremony held on June 14, his body was buried in the Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Video lovers can watch a short film about the life and work of Charles Dickens from Youtube.com:

Bibliography

Charles Dickens. Cycles of works

Charles Dickens. Stories

1838 Sketches of Young Gentlemen
1840 Sketches of Young Couples
1841 Master Humphrey's Clock
1843 A Christmas Carol [= A Christmas Carol in Prose; Anthem to Christmas; A Christmas Carol; A Christmas Carol, or A Haunted Christmas Carol; Curmudgeon Scrooge and Three Good Spirits]
1844 The Chimes [= The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In; Bells. A story about the Spirits of the Church Clock; Hourly chimes]
1845 The Cricket on the Hearth [= The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home; The cricket behind the hearth. The tale of family happiness; Cricket on a pole; Cricket in the hearth; Baby and Magic Cricket]
1846 The Battle of Life [= The Battle of Life: A Love Story; The battle of life. A story of love; Everyday struggle]
1848 The Haunted Man and the Ghost "s Bargain [= Possessed by the Spirit; Pact with the Ghost]
1854 The Seven Poor Travelers
1855 Holly / In The Holly-Tree Inn [= The Holly Tree Inn; Holly (In three branches)]
1856 The Wreck of the Golden Mary
1857 The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices // Co-author: Wilkie Collins
1857 The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
1858 A House to Let
1859 The Haunted House [= Haunted House]
1860 A Message from the Sea
1861 Tom Tiddler's Ground
1862 Somebody's Luggage
1863 Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings Furnished Rooms
1864 Mrs Lirriper's Legacy
1865 Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions [= Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions]
1866 Mugby Junction
1867 No Thoroughfare [= No Thoroughfare] // Co

Charles Dickens. Stories

1833 Mr. Means and His Cousin / A Dinner at Poplar Walk [= Mr. Minns and his Cousin; Mr. Means and his cousin]
1834 Horatio Sparkins
1834 Mrs. Joseph Porter Joseph Porter, Over the Way [= Home Show]
1834 Sentiment [= Excellent Case]
1834 The Bloomsbury Christening
1834 The Boarding-House [= Life's Struggle; Bording Gause]
1834 The Steam Excursion
1835 A Passage in the life of Mr. Watkins Totl the Life of Mr. Watkins tottle
1835 Some Account of an Omnibus Cad
1836 Sunday Under Three Heads
1836 The Black Veil [= Black Veil]
1836 The Drunkard's Death
1836 Duel at Great Wimblebury / The great Winglebury Duel [= Duel at Great Winglebury; Duel at Great Winglebury; Duel]
1836 The Strange Gentleman
1836 The Tuggses at Ramsgate [= The Tuggses at Ramsgate; The Toggs Family]
1837 A Madman's Manuscript [excerpt from The Pickwick Papers]
1837 First Meeting of The Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything [= Full Report of the First Meeting of the Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything]
1837 Is She His Wife?
1837 Some Particulars Concerning a Lion
1837 Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton [= A Good-Humored Christmas]
1837 The Bagman's Story [= The Queer Chair] [excerpt from The Pickwick Papers]
1837 The Lamplighter's Story [excerpt from The Pickwick Papers]
1837 The Lawyer and the Ghost [excerpt from The Pickwick Papers]
1837 The Pantomime of Life
1837 Public life Mr. Talrumble, the former Mayor of Madfog / The Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble [= The Public Life of Mr. Tulrumble - Once Mayor of Mudfog]
1837 The Story of the Bagman "s Uncle [= The Ghosts of the Mail] [excerpt from The Pickwick Papers]
1837 The Stroller's Tale [excerpt from The Pickwick Papers]
1837 The True Legend of Prince Bladud [excerpt from The Pickwick Papers]
1838 Mr. Robert Boulton, Press Gentleman Robert Bolton [= Mr. Robert Bolton: The "Gentleman Connected with the Press"]
1838 Second Meeting of The Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything [= Full Report of the Second Meeting of the Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything]
1838 Sikes and Nancy [excerpt from The Adventures of Oliver Twist]
1839 Familiar Epistle from a Parent to a Child [= Familiar Epistle from a Parent to a Child Aged Two Years and Two Months]
1839 The Baron of Grogzwig [= Baron Koeldwethout’s Apparation] [excerpt from The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby]
1841 A Confession Found in a Prison in the Time of Charles the Second [= The Mother's Eyes] [excerpt from Mr. Humphrey's Watch]
1844 Mrs. Gamp [excerpt from The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit]
1850 A Child "s Dream of a Star
1850 The Detective Police
1850 Three Detective Anecdotes
1851 What Christmas Is as We Grow Older
1852 The Child's Story
1852 The Poor Relation's Story
1852 To Be Read at Dusk
1853 Nobody's Story
1853 The Schoolboy's Story
1854 Loaded Dice
1854 The Road
1854 The Serf of Pobereze
1854 The Story Of Richard Doubledick [= The First Poor Traveler]
1855 Account / The Bill [= Third branch. Check]
1855 The Boots [= The Boots at the Holly Tree Inn; The Runaway Couple; The gardener's story; Runaways; Second branch. Corridor]
1855 First branch. Me / The Guest [= Introductory Matter]
1856 The Wreck
1857 The Ghost Chamber
1857 The Hanged Man "s Bride [= The Ghost in the Bridal Chamber; A Ghost in the Bride" s Chamber]
1857 The Island of Silver-Store
1857 The Rafts on the River
1858 Over the Way // Co-author: Wilkie Collins
1858 Going into Society
1858 Let At Last // Co-authored by Wilkie Collins
1859 Hunted Down
1859 The Ghost in Master B.’s Room
1859 The Ghost in the Corner Room
1859 The Mortals In The House
1860 Captain Murderer and the Devil’s Bargain [= Captain Murderer; Captain Soul Separator]
1860 Mr. Tester's guest / Mr. Testator "s Visitation
1860 Nurse's Stories [chapter XV of the novel "The Traveler Not on Trade Business"]
1860 The Club Night
1860 The Devil and Mr. Chips [= The Rat that Could Speak]
1860 The Great Tasmania's Cargo [Chapter VIII of The Non-Commercial Traveler]
1860 Italian Prisoner / The Italian Prisoner [chapter XVII of the novel "Traveler not on business"]
1860 The Money // Co-authored by Wilkie Collins
1860 The Restitution // Co-author: Wilkie Collins
1860 The Ruffian [chapter XXX of the novel "The Traveler Not on Trade"]
1860 The village
1861 Four Stories [= Four Ghost Stories]
1861 Chapter Six, In Which We Find Miss Kimmeens / Picking Up Miss Kimmeens
1861 Chapter One, In Which We Find Soot and Ash / Picking Up Soot and Cinders
1861 Chapter Seven In Which We Find The Tinker / Picking Up The Tinker
1861 Portrait / The Portrait-Painter "s Story [= Portrait Painter; Portraitist]
1862 His Boots
1862 His Brown-Paper Parcel
1862 His Leaving it till Called for
1862 His amazing end/ His Wonderful End
1862 The Goodwood Ghost Story
1863 How Mrs Lirriper Carried on the Business
1863 How the Parlours Added a Few Words
1864 Mrs Lirriper Relates How Jemmy Topped Up
1864 Mrs Lirriper Relates How She Went On and Went Over
1865 To Be Taken Immediately [= Doctor Marigold; Dr. Merigold]
1865 To Be Taken With a Grain of Salt [= The Trial for Murder; The murderer's trial; Murder trial]
1865 To Be Taken for Life
1866 Barbox Brothers
1866 Barbox Brothers and Co.
1866 Main Line. The boy at mugby
1866 Signalman / No. 1 Branch Line - The Signal-man [= Switchman; Signal operator; The Signalman]
1867 The Four-Fifteen Express [= The 4:15 Express] // Co-author: Amelia Edwards
1868 A Holiday Romance, for children
1868 George Silverman's Explanation

Charles Dickens. Fairy tales

1855 Prince Bull: A Fairy Tale
1868 Novel. Writing by Lieutenant Colonel Robin Redfort / Romance from the Pen of Lieut. Col. Robin Redforth (Aged Nine) [= Captain Boldheart & the Latin-Grammar Master]
1868 Romance from the Pen of Miss Alice Rainbird (Aged Seven) [= The Magic Fish-Bone; A Holiday Romance from the Pen of Miss Alice Rainbird, Aged 7; The Magic Bone (A novel written during the holidays); Composition by Miss Alice Rainbird], for children

Charles Dickens (full name Charles John Huffam Dickens) is a famous English realist writer, a classic of world literature, the greatest prose writer of the 19th century. - lived a busy and difficult life. His homeland was the town of Landport, located near Portsmouth, where he was born on February 7, 1812 into a poor family of a minor official. Parents fostered Charles as best they could, who was precocious and gifted, but their financial situation did not allow them to develop abilities and give him a quality education.

In 1822, the Dickens family was transferred to London, where they lived in dire need, periodically selling simple household belongings. 12-year-old Charles had to go to work at a wax factory, and although his work experience at it was calculated only four months, this is the time when he, selfish, not accustomed to physical labor and not shining with good health, was forced to work hard for mere pennies , was for him a serious moral shock, left a huge imprint on his worldview, determined one of his life goals - never to be in need and not to be in such a humiliating position again.

The plight of the family, which had six children, was further aggravated when in 1824 the father was arrested for several months due to debts. Charles left school and got a job in a law office as a copyist. The next point of his career was parliament, where he worked as a stenographer, and then he managed to find himself in the field of a newspaper reporter. In November 1828, young Dickens took over as a freelance reporter for the Doctors Commons. Having not received a formal education in childhood and adolescence, 18-year-old Charles diligently engaged in self-education, becoming a frequenter of the British museum. At 20, he worked as a reporter for Parliamentary Mirror and Tru Sun, and stood out against most of his fellow writers.

At the age of 24, Dickens released his debut collection of essays entitled "Notes of Bose" (this was his newspaper pseudonym): an ambitious young man realized that it was his literary studies that would help him enter high society, and at the same time do a good deed for the sake of those who were offended by fate and oppressed as he was. In 1837 he made his debut as a novelist with the Death Papers of the Pickwick Club. Dickens's literary fame grew as he wrote new works, his financial situation was strengthened, and his social status increased. When Dickens, who had married in 1836, sailed with his wife to Boston, he was greeted in American cities as a very famous person.

From July 1844 to 1845, Dickens lived with his family in Genoa, and upon returning to his homeland, he devoted all his attention to founding the Daily News. 50s became his personal triumph: Dickens achieved fame, influence, wealth, more than compensating for all the previous blows of fate. Since 1858, he constantly arranged public readings of his books: in this way he did not so much increase his fortune as he realized the outstanding acting abilities that remained unclaimed. In the personal life of the famous writer, not everything was smooth; the family with her demands, quarrels with his wife, eight sickly children, he perceived, rather, as a source of constant headache, rather than a safe haven. In 1857, a love affair with a young actress appeared in his life, which lasted until his death, in 1858 he divorced.

A stormy personal life was combined with intensive writing work: during this period of his biography, novels also appeared that made a significant contribution to his literary glory, - "Little Dorrit" (1855-1857), "A Tale of Two Cities" (1859), "Great Expectations" (1861), Our Mutual Friend (1864). The difficult life did not reflect in the best way on the state of health, but Dickens worked, not paying attention to the numerous "bells and whistles". A lengthy tour of American cities exacerbated the problems, but after a little rest he set off for a new one. In April 1869, it got to the point that the left leg and arm were taken away from the writer when he was finishing his next speech. On June 8, 1870, in the evening, Charles Dickens, who was at his Gadeshill estate, suffered a stroke and died the next day; buried one of the most popular English writers in Westminster Abbey.

One of the most famous English-speaking novelists, renowned comic writer and social critic.

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 at Landport, near Portsmouth. In 1805, his father, John Dickens (1785 / 1786-1851), the youngest son of a butler and housekeeper at Crewe Hall (Staffordshire), was promoted to clerk in the financial department of the naval department. In 1809 he married Elizabeth Barrow (1789-1863) and was assigned to Portsmouth Dockyard. Charles was the second of eight children. In 1816 John Dickens was sent to Chatham (Kent). By 1821 he had five children. Charles was taught by his mother, for some time he attended elementary school, from nine to twelve years old he went to a regular school. Developed beyond his years, he eagerly read the entire home library of cheap publications.

Dickens' love for the bank manager's daughter, Maria Bidnell, strengthened his ambition. But the Bidnell family was not fond of a simple reporter, whose father happened to sit in a debt prison. After a trip to Paris "to complete her education," Maria lost interest in her admirer. During the previous year, he began writing fictional essays on the life and characteristics of London. The first of these appeared in The Monthly Magazine in December 1832. The next four came out during January-August 1833, the latter being signed by the pseudonym Bose, nicknamed Dickens' younger brother Moses. Dickens was now a regular reporter for The Morning Chronicle, a newspaper reporting on significant events throughout England. In January 1835, J. Hogarth, publisher of The Evening Chronicle, asked Dickens to write a series of essays on city life. Hogarth's literary connections - his father-in-law J. Thomson was a friend of R. Burns, and he himself - a friend of W. Scott and his legal advisor - made a deep impression on the aspiring writer. In the early spring of that year, he became engaged to Catherine Hogarth. February 7, 1836, to the twenty-fourth birthday of Dickens, all of his essays, incl. several previously unpublished works came out as a separate edition under the title Sketches by Boz. The essays, often not fully thought out and somewhat frivolous, already show the talent of the novice author; they touch on almost all further Dickensian motives: the streets of London, courts and lawyers, prisons, Christmas, parliament, politicians, snobs, sympathy for the poor and the oppressed.

This publication was followed by an offer by Chapman and Hall to write a novel in twenty issues to comic engravings by the famous cartoonist R. Seimur. Dickens objected that Nimrod's Papers, which featured the adventures of London's hapless athletes, were already boring; instead, he offered to write about the eccentric club and insisted that he did not comment on Seymour's illustrations, but that he made engravings for his texts. The publishers agreed, and the first issue of The Pickwick Club was published on April 2. Charles and Catherine had married two days earlier and settled in Dickens' bachelor apartment. Initially, the response was cool, and the sale did not bode well. Even before the appearance of the second edition, Seymour committed suicide, and the whole undertaking was in jeopardy. Dickens himself found the young artist H.N. Brown, who became known under the pseudonym Fiz. The number of readers grew; by the end of the publication of the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (published from March 1836 to November 1837), each issue was sold in the amount of forty thousand copies.

Dickens turned down his job at the Chronicle and accepted R. Bentley's offer to head the new monthly, Bentley's Almanac. The first issue of the magazine came out in January 1837, a few days before the birth of Dickens' first child, Charles Jr. In the February issue appeared the first chapters of Oliver Twist (completed in March 1839), begun by the writer when Pickwick was only half written. Before he finished Oliver, Dickens set to work on Nicholas Nickleby (April 1838 - October 1839), another series in twenty issues for Chapman and Hall. During this period, he also wrote a comic opera libretto, two farces and published a book about the life of the famous clown Grimaldi.

From Pickwick, Dickens descended into a dark world of horror, tracing in Oliver Twist (1838) the growing up of an orphan, from the workhouse to the criminal slums of London. While burly Mr. Bumble and even Fagin's thieves' den are amusing, the novel has a sinister, satanic vibe. Nicholas Nickleby (1839) mixes Oliver's gloom and Pickwick's sunshine.

The occasional friction with Bentley forced Dickens to give up work in the Almanac in February 1839. The following year, all his books were concentrated in the hands of Chapman and Hall, with the assistance of which he began to publish a threepenny weekly "Mr. Humphrey's Watch", in which the Antiquities Shop (April 1840 - January 1841) and Barnaby Raj (February - November 1841) were printed. ... Then, worn out by the abundance of work, Dickens stopped producing Mr. Humphrey's Watch.

Although The Old Curiosity Shop won many hearts when it was published, modern readers, not accepting the sentimentality of the novel, believe that Dickens allowed himself excessive pathos in describing the bleak wanderings and sadly long death of little Nell. The grotesque elements of the novel are quite successful.

The first of Dickens's Christmas tales, A Christmas Carol (1843), also exposes selfishness, in particular the desire for profit, as reflected in the concept of the "business man." But it often escapes the reader's attention that Scrooge's striving for enrichment for the sake of enrichment itself is a semi-serious, semi-comic parabola of the soulless theory of incessant competition. The main idea of the story - about the need for generosity and love - permeates the Bells that followed it (The Chimes, 1844), The Cricket on the Hearth, 1845), as well as the less successful Battle of Life (The Battle of Life, 1846) and Obsessed (The Haunted Man, 1848).

In May 1846, Dickens published a second book of travel notes, Pictures from Italy. In 1847 and 1848, Dickens took part as a director and actor in charitable amateur performances - Everyone in His Way B. Johnson and Windsor Mockers of W. Shakespeare.

In 1849, Dickens began his novel David Copperfield (May 1849 - November 1850), which was a huge success from the outset. The most popular of all Dickens's novels, the author's favorite brainchild, David Copperfield is most associated with the biography of the writer. It would be wrong to think that David Copperfield is just a mosaic of several altered and arranged in a different order the events of the writer's life. The cross-cutting theme of the novel is the "rebellious heart" of young David, the cause of all his mistakes, including the most serious one - an unhappy first marriage.

In 1850 he began publishing a twopence weekly, Home Reading. It contained easy reading, various information and messages, poems and stories, articles on social, political and economic reforms, published without signatures. Among the authors were Elizabeth Gaskell, Harriet Martineau, J. Meredith, W. Collins, C. Lever, C. Reed and E. Bulwer-Lytton. "Home Reading" immediately became popular, its sales reached, despite occasional downturns, forty thousand copies a week. In late 1850, Dickens and Bulwer-Lytton founded the Guild of Literature and Art to help writers in need. As a donation, Lytton wrote the comedy We're Not As Bad As We Look, which Dickens premiered with an amateur troupe at the Duke of Devonshire's London mansion in the presence of Queen Victoria. Over the next year, performances were staged throughout England and Scotland. By this time, Dickens had eight children (one died in infancy), and another, the last child, was about to be born. At the end of 1851, the Dickens family moved to a larger house in Tavistock Square, and the writer began work on Bleak House (March 1852 - September 1853).

Difficult Times (Hard Times, April 1 - August 12, 1854) were published in issues in Home Reading to raise the fallen circulation. The novel was not highly appreciated either by critics or by a wide range of readers. The furious denunciation of industrialism, a small number of cute and reliable heroes, and the grotesque satire of the novel threw off balance not only conservatives and people who were quite satisfied with the life of people, but also those who wanted the book to make only cry and laugh, and not think.

Government inaction, mismanagement, and corruption that became apparent during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, along with unemployment, strikes, and food riots, reinforced Dickens' conviction of the need for radical reform. He joined the Association for Administrative Reforms and continued to write critical and satirical articles in Home Reading; during a six-month stay in Paris, he observed the excitement on the stock market. These themes - bureaucratic obstacles and wild speculation - he reflected in Little Dorrit (December 1855 - June 1857).

Summer 1857 Dickens spent in Gadshill, in an old house, which he admired as a child, and now he was able to acquire. His participation in charity performances of the Frozen Abyss of W. Collins led to a crisis in the family. The writer's years of tireless labor were clouded by the growing awareness of the failure of his marriage. During his theater studies, Dickens fell in love with the young actress Ellen Ternan. Despite her husband's vows of allegiance, Katherine left his home. In May 1858, after the divorce, Charles Jr. stayed with his mother, and the rest of the children with their father, in Georgina's care as mistress of the house. Dickens eagerly set about reading passages from his books in public in front of an enthusiastic audience. Having quarreled with Bradbury and Evans, who sided with Catherine, Dickens returned to Chapman and Hall. Having stopped publishing Domashnee Reading, he very successfully began publishing a new weekly, Kruplyi Goda, publishing in it a Tale of Two Cities (April 30 - November 26, 1859), and then Great Expectations (1 December 1860 - August 3, 1861). The Tale of Two Cities is not one of Dickens's finest books. It is based more on melodramatic coincidences and violent actions than on the characters of the heroes. But readers will never cease to be captivated by the exciting plot, the brilliant caricature of the inhuman and refined Marquis d'Euremond, the meat grinder of the French Revolution and the sacrificial heroism of Sidney Carton that brought him to the guillotine.

In 1860, Dickens sold the house in Tavistock Square, and Gadshill became his permanent home. He successfully read his works publicly throughout England and in Paris. His last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, was printed in twenty issues (May 1864 - November 1865). In the last completed novel, the writer reappears and combines images that express his condemnation of the social system: the thick fog of the Bleak House and the huge, crushing prison cell of Little Dorrit. To these, Dickens adds another, deeply ironic image of the London junkyard - the huge piles of rubbish that created Garmon's wealth. This symbolically defines the goal of human greed as filth and waste. The world of the novel is the omnipotent power of money, admiration for wealth. Fraudsters flourish: a man with a significant surname Veniring (veneer - outer gloss) buys a seat in parliament, and the pompous rich man Podsnep is the mouthpiece of public opinion.

After recovering somewhat from the peace and quiet of Gadshill, Dickens began writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, scheduling twelve monthly issues, and convinced his physician to allow him twelve farewell appearances in London. They began on January 11, 1870; the last performance took place on March 15th. Edwin Drood, whose first issue appeared on March 31st, was only half written.

The consummate classic of English literature, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is renowned, for the most part, as a social critic of 19th century morality. This was the time of the most intensive development. productive forces in Britain as it became a leading power in the global economy.

Of course, all this could not but affect industrial relations, which were subjected to a rather harsh assessment of Charles John Huffam Dickens.(this is the full name of this master of the artistic pen). However, the maestro is also known as the creator of comic characters.

The birthplace of the future classic - Landport, he was born into a large (8 children) family on February 7. Little Charlie's mother taught his first reading lessons, and he quickly re-read all the cheap publications in the house.

His father had to constantly change jobs, so the family moved frequently, and eventually took root in London, where it vegetated. Having started to go to school, Charles abandoned it and, like many of his peers, went to work at the age of 12.

The first place of work of the future writer was a wax factory. Four months of exhausting work prompted him to have a keen desire to make his way up the social ladder in any way.

A visit to a private school was a big help in this, two years of study at Wellington House Academy contributed to the fact that by the age of 18, Dickens managed to work in a law office, studied stenography and prepared himself for the field of reporting.

The reporter's path, the beginning of writing

His first steps here were the posts of an independent court reporter and a reporter for the newspapers Parliamentary Mirror and True Sun. Already at the age of 20, he stood out among the writing fraternity accredited in the House of Commons.

At the same time, his first love visited him, and since Dickens chose Maria Bidnell from the family of the bank manager as the subject of his adoration, this circumstance contributed to the strengthening of his ambitious aspirations.

Alas, a relationship with a commoner did not attract a girl from a wealthy family.... Apparently, in vain, because at this time the writer's biography of young Charles begins its countdown. He started with fictional sketches depicting the life and customs of the then London.

Dickens began to publish in the journal "Montly Magazine" (December, 1832) under the pseudonym Bose (this was the nickname of his younger brother)... By this time he had already become a brilliant reporter for the Morning Chronicle, a reputable and respected publication. George Hogarth, who released it, had very extensive connections in literary circles, and had a friendship with Walter Scott himself.

It so happened that his daughter Katherine liked the talented reporter and aspiring writer. Apparently, old Hogarth liked the marriage to her, and as a gift for his 24th birthday, Charles received his first book from his wife's dad. They were Essays Written by Bose.

Already here, despite the ill-considered and frivolousness understandable for youth, the undoubted talent that Charles Dickens possessed is noticeable.

These sketches of London life began the countdown of most of the directions that Dickens then developed throughout his life: the reality of courts and prisons, parliament and the politicians inhabiting it, as well as the fate of lawyers, snobs, the poor and the oppressed.

Features of national humor and "Oliver Twist"

Oddly enough, but the next significant step of the writer was his legendary issues of "The Pickwick Club". Their popularity was initially low, but later the reader appreciated the author, which was an outlandish cocktail of all its shades, including crude farce and high comedy, and conscientiously flavored with satire.

This could not yet be called a novel as such.... However, the indescribable charm of joy and gaiety, developing according to a completely distinguishable plot, distinguish this work from the abundance of opuses by Dickens's contemporaries.

With the end of the Pickwick Club editions, Charles accepted Richard Bentley's offer and became the head of Bentley's Almanac... The choice turned out to be accurate (I must say that the reporter's path brought good luck to the fate of the writer), and when little Charles Jr. appeared in the Dickens family, the Almanac began publishing the first chapters of The Adventures of Oliver Twist.

It was such a striking contrast that, reading both books, you feel doubt that they were written by the same author.

From that time on, Charles's literary biography began to literally choke on the events that overwhelmed her. Oliver Twist was started when Pickwick was just unrolling its plot. But he did not manage to fully form, as Dickens grabbed the "Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby", which was published over 20 issues of Chapman and Hall magazine.

And at the same time, Charles managed to publish a book about the clown Grimaldi, write farces and librettos.

While working on Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens traded his now-unusable bachelor den for a large house. Here Katherine gave birth to Mary and Kate, and Dickens himself got acquainted with John Forster, who became his best friend.

This theater critic from "Examiner" later acted as an adviser to the writer and his executor, he also owns the laurels of the first biographer.

From that moment on, Dickens became his own in the writing society and at the same time tried himself as a businessman, successfully investing the money earned in the field of the novelist. He left Bentley, and now all his new items came out under the Chapman and Hall publishing brand.... The Antiquities Shop and Barnaby Raj saw the light here, and their author became a member of such prestigious clubs as Garrick and Athenaeum.

"Shop of Antiquities", "Dombey and Son" and other books

In the "Shop of Antiquities", according to critics, Charles turned out to be too sentimental, although the grotesque of the novel is impeccable. After his writing, the biography of the writer turned out to be associated with America, where Charles resented slavery and literary piracy.

The "American Notes" written by him during this period garnered accolades in the writer's homeland, but in the States themselves caused outrage. As well as "Martin Chuzzlewit" written after them. And no wonder: Dickens remains true to himself here, and his satire becomes even sharper and more sophisticated.

The image of the Scrooge duck, now known all over the world from Disney cartoons, was first captured in Dickens's Christmas stories.

Unfortunately, a brief biography of the writer's work does not make it possible to list all the merits of this brilliant author. However, it is this "economic man" named Scrooge who most clearly embodies the image of the American businessman. And Charles, true to himself, castigates his selfishness and greed. In subsequent Christmas stories, Dickens encourages the reader to be generous and loving.

Tired of publishing and politics, he travels around Europe and focuses on writing novels. Lausanne was where he started Dombey and Son, and in 1849-1850, Dickens wrote one of his best works - "David Copperfield".

This is the most autobiographical of the works that Charles created, here many events are consonant with those that fell to his lot, and especially his first love.

On the eve of the birth of his ninth child in the Dickensian family, the writer moves again and begins Bleak House (1852-1853). This work can be considered the pinnacle of his work, and in both the qualities traditional for Dickens - satirist and social critic.

But the "Hard Times" that followed it turned out to be far from perfect... Dickens unleashes his satire on the industrialization process - and, alas, misses the mark. However, he does not despair, but, on the contrary, rolling up his sleeves, writes "Little Dorrit" (1855-1857).

Oddly enough, but considered successful, the writer's marriage collapsed as soon as he fell in love - this time the actress Ellen Ternan became his love stumbling block.

The divorce did not prevent Charles from continuing his literary pursuits. He writes Great Expectations and his last novel Our Mutual Friend (1864-1965). Alas, such activity affected his health, and on June 8, 1870, Dickens died. The Poets' Corner became his last refuge.

CHARLES DICKENS
(1812-1870)

Charles Dickens is a Victorian era writer who not only reflected it in his own works and raised the difficulties that worried English society, but also tried to solve them. His active literary and social activities contributed to enormous changes - the elimination of debt prisons, reforms in the field of education and justice, an increase in the number of charitable organizations and the revival of patronage. His love for the poor and the offended was true, not phony, for him they were just as full members of society as the rich, he gave them all the power of his own talent, all his love, revealing to them the poetry of their everyday life, and became the emblem of Great Britain everyday.

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the family of a small bureaucrat of the naval treasury John Dickens. At first, Charles' ancestors lived relatively well, but after a while obstacles began to appear. The prerequisite for the troubles was that the writer's father was very frivolous about family well-being, was very fond of theater and wine, often borrowed funds without having the ability to return them recently. In addition, he treated the upbringing of his offspring, who remembered this forever. Charles also lacked maternal affection and attention. Mom simply did not have time for him, as she tried to give advice to all her children (and there were eight of them).

So, books and life itself were his most important educators, Charles received his initial education at Chatham School, where then Oxford graduate William Giles taught; he instilled in the boy a love of British literature and reading in general.

The idyll of his young years did not last long: his father was completely entangled in debt, and the family went to London. The situation was getting worse. When Charles's father ended up in Marshallsea's debt jail, the family moved to him (according to English law, this was allowed). To somehow contribute to the failure, Charles is arranged in a factory. 6 months spent in a dirty ancient room were almost the most terrible for an impressionable little boy: the same work lasted from morning to evening. It was also a moral trauma for Charles, who was eager to learn.

At this time, the guy had another hobby - London. Dickens could wander the streets for hours. Specifically here, in the English slums, he, without even suspecting, took out his true upbringing. So little Charles did in his own imagination the future Dickensian London. He paved the way for his heroes: in whatever corner of this town they would not hide, he had been there earlier.

Mom's legacy, inherited by John and William Dickens, was enough to pay off creditors and provide the family with a more or less decent life. Charles happily left the factory and continued his studies at a private school, after graduating from which he began working as a junior clerk for a lawyer for Blackmore. But, having a lively disposition, he attends performances and, dreaming of a theatrical future, takes lessons in stage skills. In addition, Charles was attracted by the work of a reporter. Therefore, he stubbornly learns stenography at night, and studies laws by day.

Since 1832, Charles worked in a local newspaper, then was an employee of the magazine "Parliament Mirror", which belonged to his relative. Dickens very quickly managed to stand out among other employees of the editorial office: his reports were fascinating and even clearer than those of his colleagues, although all journalists were forbidden to take notes. The solution is extraordinary and original: Charles put on long and hard cuffs, and later copied them in a small letter.

Personal cares were added to the professional - the family sought funds, and the father again went into debt. This decided the next steps - Dickens took up the pen. The new work did not achieve much effort: so many were changed their minds, experienced, seen that it was only necessary to take up the paper, and then it was a matter of reporter's experience and time.

At the end of 1833, the Mansley Magazine magazine published the story Dinner at Poplar Wok, albeit without the name of the creator. Readers began to eagerly await the stories of the creator, who decided to hide his name under the pseudonym "Boz" (a joking nickname for his younger brother Charles Dickens, which later became clear to hundreds of thousands of readers). So the writer continued to be called when he became famous. The essays, of which Bop was the creator, saw the lights of various magazines, sometimes against the wishes of Dickens, as evidenced by letters to friends. The writer turned to the genre of the essay not by chance: even in childhood, for the sake of joy, he loved to write something about the people with whom fate brought him together, about noteworthy places where he had been. With age, such records became more - it was invaluable material, waiting for its own time.

Convinced that the essays were a sensation among readers, Dickens ventured to publish them in a separate book. So, in 1836 appeared on the shelves "Essays by Bose" in 2 volumes. Critics, for the most part, underestimate the first book of Dickens, write about it condescendingly and condescendingly: some believed that the creator was characterized by verbosity, caused by uncertainty and apprehension, as well as a desire to attract the reader's attention.

So, in the essays, you can find a lot of unfinished and imperfect, but this is explained by the lack of literary experience, but not talent. And apprenticeship is a period through which almost every writer passes, but for the first he is small, and the other remains a student until the end of his life.
From the pages of the series "Drawings from Life", the stormy life of the capital comes to the reader, which is depicted brightly and vividly.

Dickens is a real master of the cityscape. London is not only for him locality and part of his life. Dickens's descriptions are, in fact, impressionistic sketches, where visual, auditory and even taste memories play a huge role ("Streets. Evening"). Dickens pays his attention to the burning difficulties of our time: the miserable existence of the lower classes leads to the degradation of the personality, which begins to find solace in wine (essay "Home for Life").

The theme of human loneliness in the bourgeois world was brought up in the essay “Thoughts about People”. In his essay "Christmas Dinner", Dickens addressed the theme of the Christmas holiday for the first time as a sign of home well-being and comfort. The creator's sympathies belong to the ordinary people, who are close and understandable to him, while the representative of the "middle class" - the bourgeois - becomes a target for satirical arrows. Snobbery and vanity, stinginess and narrow-mindedness - these are the main features of the rich people, which could be funny if they did not constitute a danger to the usual equilibrium of society. A gallery of very specific and individualized characters passes before the reader (essays "Horatio Sparkins", "Sightseeing trip by boat" and others).

The significance of the works included in the “Stories” cycle should not be underestimated; Charles Dickens used the future experience in subsequent works.

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is a work that made Dickens famous, but it seems incomprehensible to the modern reader. It's about the writer's day, the literary situation.

The life of that time gave rise to literature, perhaps in almost all cases primitive, but not devoid of what the British will then revered Dickens for and healthy optimism, sincerity and gaiety. After the publication of "Sketches of Bose", one of the friends of the Chapman company was granted to Charles Dickens and offered a role in a publication that would partially resemble modern comics. This should be a joyous story about a sports club.
A great sensation of notes forced the creator to believe in his own strength, and without completing this work, he signed a contract for a new novel "The Adventures of Oliver Twist".

The novel "Notes of the Club" was completed in 1837. The name of the creator was clear to every Briton. This novel showed the growth of the skill of the writer, who with his heroes went through a difficult path: from a conventional hero of a funny story to an unusual person, from a humorist writer to a brave fighter against evil. This is not only the most optimistic and cloudless work of Dickens, he turned out to be the prototype of all novels, their plot structure.

On January 6, 1842, Dickens sailed to the United States with his wife. The intention to go overseas has appeared in the writer for a long time. At first, it was an eagerness to go to America to see for oneself the advantages of American democracy, about which the Americans shouted to the whole world. He also wanted to completely resolve the issue of copyright, since English writers and first himself were tormented for his absence.

South American memoirs were the material for the novel by Charles Dickens - "The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit" (1844). He immediately worked on the story "A Christmas Carol", founded the recognizable cycle of Christmas stories and stories.

After breaking up with the publishing house in 1844, he traveled to Italy, France, Switzerland. Memories from the trip are reproduced in the cycle "Pictures of Italy".

The beginning of the 50s is a new step in the work of Dickens. In 1850 he began work on A Story of Great Britain for the Little Children, which was to be interesting and romantic. During this period, Dickens worked intensively in various genres, but gave preference to the novel and its genre forms: the historical novel ("A Tale of Two Towns" 1859), the social novel ("Little Dorrin" 1855-1857), the socially adventurous (" Huge Hopes "1861), detective stories (" Edwin Drood's Secret "1870), a utopian novel (" languid times "1854).

Charles Dickens was unable to finish his own latest novel, Edwin Drood's Secret. On June 8, 1870, he became ill; The news of the death of the beloved writer practically shook the UK. It was a state catastrophe. He was buried in the poets' corner at Westminster Abbey.

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