His Life His Works Charles John Huffan Dickens

His Life – His Works Charles John Huffan Dickens early alias: Boz

Born: February 7, 1812 Portsmouth England

Charles Dickens Married: Catherine (Hogarth) Dickens April 2, 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea 10 Children

Victorian London was the largest, most spectacular city in the world. Britain was experiencing the Industrial Revolution, its capital was reaping the benefits and suffering the consequences. In 1800 London’s population was around a million, by 1880 4. 5 million.

City streets—people & places A time of contradictions.

Imagine yourself in the London of the early 19 th century. Homes of the upper and middle class exist in close proximity to areas of unbelievable poverty and filth.

Street sweepers attempt to keep the streets clean of manure, the result of thousands of horse-drawn vehicles.

Children as young as 5 were often set to work begging or sweeping chimneys in London, England the nineteenth century. You would most likely be working a 12 to 16 hour shift for a very low salary, maybe one pence. Child Labor

The city's thousands of chimney pots are belching coal smoke, resulting in soot which seems to settle everywhere. In many parts of the city raw sewage flows in gutters that empty into the Thames (tɛmz).

Dickens– His Works

Dickens major novels were published serially-monthly or weekly. A full length novel cost 31 shillings. In 1836, 6 to 20 shillings were earned per week. A monthly installment (32 pages with 2 illustrations and advertisements) could be sold for a shilling.

“Dickens’ greatest friendship was, from the beginning, with his audience. ”

“In all of English literature, his creativity is rivaled only by Shakespeare's. ”

Dickens' cherished little Christmas story, the best loved and most read of all of his books, began life as the result of the author's desperate need of money, expecting their fifth child. Published (5 shillings - affordable to nearly everyone) during the week before Christmas 1843 it was an instant sensation. Dickens work was instantly the victim of pirated editions. Copyright laws in England were often loosely enforced.

“. . it was the Christmas stories of Dickens that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America. ”

“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book….

to raise the Ghost of an Idea…

May it haunt their houses pleasantly,

And no one wish to lay it down. ” Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

Literary Quotes

Bah Humbug!

“I wear the chains I forged in life. ”

Date of Death: Thursday, June 9, 1870 (stroke) Burial: Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, London

Works Cited • Charles Dickens http: //www. clovisusd. k 12. ca. us/learn/curriculum/language/dickens/Dickens%20 In tro. ppt • David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page http: //www. fidnet. com/~dap 1955/dickens • TNT’s A Christmas Carol http: //tnt. turner. com/movies/tntoriginals/xmascarol/ • Charles Dickens Gad’s Hill Place http: //www. perryweb. com/Dickens/ • Charles Dickens Victorian Web Site http: //landow. stg. brown. edu/victorian/dickensov. html • Victoriana http: //www. victoriana. com/welcome/ • The World of Charles Dickens http: //www. geocities. com/pdubelbeis/