Life and Works of Charles Dickens

Project Submitted to: Project Submitted by:

Mrs. Alka Mehta Astitva Srivastava

(Faculty of English) Semester-I, B.A., LL.B(Hons)

Section: C

HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

NAYA RAIPUR, CHHATTISGARH

 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this project work titled “Life and Works of Charles Dickens” is my own

work and represents my own ideas, and where others’ ideas or words have been included, I

have adequately cited and referenced the original sources. I also declare that I have adhered

to all principles of academic honesty and integrity and have not misrepresented or fabricated

or falsified any idea/data/fact/source in my submission.

Astitva Srivastava

Roll no , Section C

B.A. LLB., 1st semester

 Acknowledgements

I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude to my teacher Mrs. Alka Mehta

Ma’am who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic “Life

and Works of Charles Dickens” .I was inspired by her for intensive research work on the

topic and I came to know about so many new things. I am really thankful to her. The practical

realization of this project has obligated the assistance of many persons. It would not have

been possible for me to frame this project of mine without their support.

I would like to thank my family and friends for their constant support and encouragement, to

make this project a reality.

I take this opportunity to also thank the University and the Vice Chancellor for providing

extensive database resources in the Library and through Internet. I express my deep regret if

any typing errors exist. I would be grateful to receive comments and suggestions to further

improve this project report.

I feel elated to be a part of this project the “Life and Works of Charles Dickens”.

Astitva Srivastava

Roll no., Section C

B.A. LLB., 1st Semester

Contents

Abstract 1

Introduction 2

Early Childhood 1812-1825 3-4

A modest beginning 5

Career As Writer Takes Off 6

Success As A Story Writer 7-8

Works of Charles Dickens 9-14

Conclusion 15

References 16

ABSTRACT
 This project is about the life and works of Charles Dickens – the Victorian author. Classic

English Literature knows him for his great contribution by his epic stories, vivid characters

and exhaustive depiction of contemporary life. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity

during his lifetime, and by 20th century critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary

genius.

INTRODUCTION
The project will analyze the life and works of Charles Dickens. His own story is one of rags

to riches. He was born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens.

The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine was short-lived because his father

was imprisoned for bad debt. The entire family, apart from Charles, was sent to Marshalsea

along with their patriarch. Charles was sent to work in Warren's blacking factory and endured

appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair. After three years he was returned to

school, but the experience was never forgotten and became fictionalized in two of his better-

known novels 'David Copperfield' and 'Great Expectations'.

Like many others, he began his literary career as a journalist. His own father became a

reporter and Charles began with the journals 'The Mirror of Parliament' and 'The True Sun'.

Then in 1833 he became parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. With new

contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym 'Boz'. In

April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth who edited 'Sketches

by Boz'. Within the same month came the publication of the highly successful 'Pickwick

Papers', and from that point on there was no looking back for Dickens.

As well as a huge list of novels he published autobiography, edited weekly periodicals

including 'Household Words' and 'All Year Round', wrote travel books and administered

charitable organisations. He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed before

Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad - for

example lecturing against slavery in the United States and touring Italy with companions

Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, a contemporary writer who inspired Dickens' final

unfinished novel 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'.

He died of a stroke in 1870. He is buried at Westminster Abbey.

EARLY CHILDHOOD - 1812-1825

 Charles John Huffam Dickens was born at 13 Mile End Terrance, Portsmouth,

Hampshire on Friday,7th February,1812. His father,John Dickens worked as a clerk in the

naval pay office of the Royal Dockyard and Charles’s early years were spent moving

whenever and wherever his father’s postings dictated. In January 1815,John was transferred

to London, and the young Dickens first encountered the city with which his later life and

fiction would become so indelibly linked.

Two years later his father was first posted to Sheerness, then to Chatham Royal

Dockyard, Kent. In Kent Charles enjoyed the happiest years of his childhood. His mother

taught him the rudiments of reading , and he received an education courtesy of a

schoolmaster named William Giles. Charles also enjoyed long walks through Kent

countryside with his father. These were pleasant formative boyhood years for Charles. His

experiences during this period inspired much of his adult work.

Dickens’s childhood idyll ended abruptly in 1822 when John Dickens was transferred

back to London and his income reduced severely. John, a man who was never able to live

within his means, plunged heavily into debt. His wife, Elizabeth, attempted to alleviate the

family’s financial predicament by opening a school for young ladies, but that failed and, in

1824, John Dickens was arrested for debt, and incarcerated in the Marshalsea Prison.

Elizabeth and the younger children went with him. However, the sensitive Charles was sent

to begin work at Warren’s Blacking Factory. The young boy, who had truly believed he was

destined to be a gentleman, now found himself sticking labels onto pots of boot blacking for

six shillings a week. He was only twelve. His misery was exacerbated by the fact that his

beloved elder sister, Fanny, had been enrolled at the Royal College of Music. Charles longed

to resume his education, but left to his own devices, he roamed the streets of the capital,

where he mixed with the low life of early 19th-century London, taking in everything he saw.

It was the most traumatic event of his life. The family’s fortunes revived- John Dickens was
released from prison after 14 weeks, as his mother-in-law had died and left him a little money

which paid off most However, in of the debts. In 1825, he took Charles away from the

blacking factory, and despite vociferous objections from Elizabeth, who wanted their son to

continue bringing in a useful weekly wage, John sent him to school at Wellington House

Academy. Charles never forgave his mother.

A MODEST BEGINNING
 Charles stayed at the Academy for about two years and his education was over at the

age of 15.His father’s debts forced him back into employment, this time with Ellis and

Blackmore, a firm of solicitors in London’s Gray’s inn. Here he made a great impression as a

lively character, a skilled mimic with an encylopaedic knowledge of London. He learned

shorthand, and after 18 months felt confident enough to establish himself as a shorthand

writer at Doctor’s Commons, near St. Paul’s Cathedra l- the court where church and nautical

cases were heard and marriage licences and divorces were granted. By 1830 he had met and

fallen madly in love with a banker’s daughter named Maria Beadnell. A year later he began

work as a parliamentary reporter for his uncle’s newspaper The Mirror of Parliament. In

1832, he applied for, and was granted an audition at the Covent Garden Theatre, but on the

day in question illness prevented him. Dicken’s love of theatre and desire to perform

remained with him for the rest of his life and resulted in his amateur theatricals and later his

public reading tour

By May 1833 his relationship with Maria ended and in an attempt to overcome

his broken heart Dickens flung himself into, his writing, and at the end of the year his

first story “ A Dinner at Poplar Walk” was published.

CAREER AS WRITER TAKES OFF

 By 1834 he was working for the Morning Chronicle newspaper and became friends

with its music critic, George Hogarth. In 1835 Hogarth became editor of The Evening

Chronicle, and he invited Dickens to contribute sketches to the paper. He began to write a

series of sketches published under the pen name “BOZ” , his youngest brother Augustus’s

nickname. He gained popularity and saved money. He was then commissioned to write The

Pickwick Papers in monthly installments. Dickens had fallen in love with Hogarth’s daughter

Catherine , and on 2nd April, 1836 the two were married at St. Luke’s Church ,Chelsea.

Following a honeymoon in Kent, they settled into chambers in Furnival’s Inn, Holborn. By

this time the first instalment of Pickwick Papers had appeared, despite the suicide of its

originator and illustrator Robert Seymour. Hablot Browne, who for the next 20 years

remained Dickens’s chief illustrator, replaced Seymour, and when Dickens introduced the

character of Sam Weller, Pickwick Papers became a publishing phenomenon. In December

1836, Dickens met John Forster, who at the time was the literary and drama editor of The

Examiner. The two became firm friends, and Forster effectively became Dickens’s agent for

the rest of his life and, following the author’s death, his primary biographer. In January 1837,

Charles and Catherine’s first child, also Charles, was born, and by April the family had

moved to a house in Doughty Street more suited to both Dickens’s growing family and

reputation. Catherine’s younger sister, Mary, moved in with them, and Dickens developed an

intense platonic relationship with her. Then, on 6th May, 1837, Mary died suddenly at their

house, leaving Dickens utterly devastated by the loss. Dicken’s idealized vision of her was to

remain in his novels as Rose Maylie(Oliver Twist),Little Nell ( The Old Curiosity) and Little

Dorritt.

SUCCESS AS A STORY WRITER

 Over the next few years while living at Doughty Street, Dickens cemented

his reputation with Oliver Twist (1837–38), Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), and began work

on Barnaby Rudge (1841). His family also increased with two daughters, Mary and Kate,

born in 1838 and 1839. By 1839 Dickens’s growing fame enabled them to move to a grander

house at 1, Devonshire Terrace, Marylebone. Their fourth child, Walter, was born in 1841,

and in January 1842, Charles and Catherine set off on a six-month tour of America. Such was

his fame now that Dickens found himself mobbed on several occasions. Back in London he

wrote Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44) and, a year later, what is perhaps one of his best known

works, A Christmas Carol (1843).

By 1855, with his family swollen to ten children, one of which, Dora, had died

in infancy, Dickens was becoming restless. In February, he received a letter from Maria

Beadnell, now Mrs Winter. He replied enthusiastically, pouring scorn on her assertion that

she was now toothless, fat and middle aged. ‘You are always the same in my remembrance’

he wrote. They planned to meet at his house when his wife was ‘not at home’, but Dickens

was shattered to find that Maria was exactly as she had described herself. His passion cooled

and he, rather cruelly, portrayed her in Little Dorrit (1855– 57) as Flora Finching, once pretty

and enchanting, but now fat, diffuse and silly.

In 1856, he purchased Gad’s Hill Place in Kent, a house he had first seen whilst walking with

his father in the idyllic years of his childhood. In January 1857, he directed and acted in

Wilkie Collins’s play The Frozen Deep and as he researched professional actresses to play

the female parts, he met the young actress Ellen Lawless Ternan who became his intimate

friend and probably his lover. The following year Dickens formally separated from his wife,

and viciously attacked her in an article published in several newspapers. His daughter Kate
later recalled, ‘My father was like a madman… He did not care a damn what happened to any

of us. Nothing could surpass the misery and unhappiness of our house.’ His younger sister-in-

law, Georgina Hogarth, became his housekeeper, and rumours began to circulate that it was

his affair with her that had caused his marital break.

During the long years spent with Catherine (1836-1858)of his ,Dickens achieved the status

of the greatest living writer of his day. Despite being plagued with ill health his creative

energy was boundless. In addition to 10 major novels and short stories he edited a popular

weekly Household Words.

In August 1858, Dickens began the first of a series of reading tours that would, over the next

12 years, prove extremely profitable. By 1860 Gad’s Hill became his permanent residence.

Over the next ten years, as he and Ellen Ternan became more involved with each other, his

personal life became more and more enigmatic. It is possible that he took a house in France

for Ellen and her mother, where he visited them frequently. However, Dickens’s secret life

came close to exposure in 1865 when he, Ellen and her mother, were travelling back from

France and their train was involved in a serious accident at Staplehurst in Kent. Although

Dickens tended to the injured and dying, he refused to attend the subsequent inquest probably

for fear it would make public the fact he was travelling with Ellen Ternan.

Over the next few years, Dickens undertook several private reading tours in England and

America. But his health was failing and by 1870 he looked considerably older than his 58

years. Then on the 8th June, 1870, having spent the day working on what was to be his last

unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, he collapsed at the dinner table and died the

next evening.

WORKS OF CHARLES DICKENS

Dickens completed 14 novels and started another. None of them has so far vanished into

obscurity. One or two are considered to be among the greatest novels of all time. Dickens

wrote numerous shorter works of fiction, including five Christmas books, among which A

Christmas Carol stands out as a masterpiece, regularly read and interpreted to this day. Below

are some short introductions to the novels and to A Christmas Carol, in the order in which

they were written.

The Pickwick Papers (1836-1837)

A rambling tale about the adventures of the naive good-natured Mr Pickwick and his

travelling companions. The streetwise Sam Weller, recruited along the way by Pickwick,

helps them to survive. Full of fun, capturing the exuberant spirit of the young Dickens, this

work built on his earlier Sketches by Boz to catapult him to fame and is still one of the best

loved books in English Literature.

Oliver Twist (1837-1839)

With a serious theme, to expose the abuse and corruption suffered by children, this second

major work is nevertheless full of humour, but of a satirical kind. The orphan Oliver Twist

manages to survive the worst that the authorities and criminal fraternity put him through. The

scene of Oliver's plea in the workhouse for more to eat is familiar to countless millions, even

to those who have never read the book.

Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839)

A tale of how the young Nicholas Nickleby and his sister make good after they and their

mother are left penniless. Following a bad start working under Wackford Squeers, the cruel

schoolmaster of a Yorkshire boarding school, Nicholas comes eventually to thrive, thanks in

great measure to the help of Newman Noggs, clerk to his hateful uncle, and to the goodwill of

the Cheeryble brothers, benevolent businessmen.

The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841)

This story, written for the shortlived magazine Master Humphrey's Clock, has a young girl,

Little Nell, fleeing with her grandfather from the clutches of the repulsive Quilp, a malicious

moneylender. Their flight exposes them to a variety of experiences and characters, many

having to do with the vagabonds and itinerant entertainers of the time. The death of Little

Nell is among the best known scenes in the works of Dickens.

Barnaby Rudge (1841)

The first of Dickens's two historical novels, set in the period that led up to the Gordon Riots

of 1780 against Roman Catholicism. Barnaby is a half-witted young man who becomes

caught up in the mayhem, but escapes the gallows through the intervention of Gabriel

Varden, a locksmith. Dolly Varden, the coquettish daughter of Gabriel, is a creation whose

name was subsequently used for a style of dress and hat.

Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844)

Selfishness, as typified by the young Martin Chuzzlewit, and hypocrisy, as typified by Mr

Seth Pecksniff, who purports to be an architect, are among the themes of this work. Martin is

chastened and humbled by his experiences in the USA, which Dickens portrays as a country

full of vulgar, brash and boastful people. This work contains one of Dickens's great creations:

the often intoxicated Mrs Sairey Gamp, a midwife, sick nurse and layer-out of the dead.

A Christmas Carol (1843)

The first of five Christmas books written by Dickens in the 1840s, this is one of the best

known and best loved of all his works. It tells of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge

from a tight-fisted curmudgeon to a generous and genial man. This is brought about by a

haunting and visions at Christmas that remind him of happier days, demonstrate the generous

spirit of others in adversity, and terrify him with dire prospects should he not change his

ways.

Dombey and Son (1846-1848)

Pervading this work are the pride and cold-hearted obduracy of Mr Paul Dombey Senior, a

businessman. Following the death of his first wife, he invests all of his hopes in Paul, their

only son, neglecting their daughter, Florence. But the fragile boy dies. Dombey marries

again, but his will is thwarted by stubborn resistance and treachery, and he loses his fortune.

A broken man, he is eventually reconciled to his daughter who has remained true throughout.

David Copperfield (1848-1850)

This story, narrated in the first person, of a man who becomes a successful author, is partially

autobiographical. It is generally considered to be a masterpiece. Leo Tolstoy, who was

greatly influenced by it in his early writing, accorded it the highest of rankings. The quality of

writing is especially evident in the description of a storm. Among a number of memorable

characters is that of Mr Wilkins Micawber, who resembles in some respects Dickens's father.

Bleak House (1851-1853)

A prolonged law case concerning the distribution of an estate, which brings misery and ruin

to the suitors but great profit to the lawyers, is the foundation for this story. Told in part

through the eyes of the principal character, Esther Summerson, it is a complex one involving

a good many secrets, a murder and a number of investigators. Among these is a professional

detective, Inspector Bucket. Bleak House is the home of John Jarndyce, principal member of

the family involved in the law case.

Hard Times (1854)

The shortest of Dickens's novels, set in a northern industrial town, this champions

imagination, fun and experience against the fact-based, stern and bookish philosophies of the

time, as epitomised in the outlook of Thomas Gradgrind, one of the principal characters.

Faced with the effects of his rigid attitudes on the lives of his son and daughter, he comes to

accept the emptiness of his pet precepts.

Little Dorrit (1855-1857)

Here Dickens plays on the theme of imprisonment, drawing on his own experience as a boy of

visiting his father in a debtors' prison. William Dorrit is locked up for years in that prison,

attended daily by his daughter, Little Dorrit. Her unappreciated self-sacrifice comes to the

attention of Arthur Clennam, recently returned from China, who helps bring about her father's

release but is himself incarcerated for a time when his business speculation fails. Little Dorrit,

unable to adjust to a world of plenty, eventually finds contentment caring for Clennam and,

following the loss of her father and the family fortune, they marry.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

This, the second of Dickens's two historical novels, relates to the French Revolution, the two

cities being London and Paris. French-born Charles Darnay, settled in London, returns to

Paris to help save the life of his agent, but is eventually himself condemned to death. He is

saved by the self-sacrifice of Sydney Carton, who takes his place, having previously led a

debauched and wasteful life. Carton's words at the very end of the novel are widely familiar:

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to

than I have ever known.

Great Expectations (1860-1861)

Like David Copperfield, this story is narrated in the first person. The narrator, Philip Pirrip,

known as Pip, looks back over his life, from his rural boyhood, under the care of a ferocious

sister and her mild husband, a blacksmith, to living the life of a gentleman in London, funded

by a mysterious benefactor. The mystery solved, his pretentiousness was destroyed, and he

then had to cope with some harsh realities, remorseful of the way he had treated those who
loved him most. Central to the story is the strange recluse, Miss Havisham, deranged by

having been jilted on her wedding day.

Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865)

The basis of this carefully plotted story is the desire of John Harmon, an heir to the fortune of

a refuse contractor, to disguise his identity till he has formed an opinion of Bella Wilfer, the

woman he is supposed to marry under the terms of his father's will. From the time he finds

himself assumed dead, complications abound, but all turns out well in the end. Opinions

differ widely as to the ranking of this novel, the last which Dickens completed, but it is

undoubtedly a model of his outstanding craftmanship.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)

Dickens had completed nearly half of this story when he died. Speculation about how it

would have ended has since tended to attract greater interest than any assessment of the work

as it stands. The central mystery of the story arises from the disappearance of Edwin Drood.

It seems likely that he has been murdered. There is evidence to suppose that this is what

Dickens had had in mind, but the identity of the murderer, if there was such, has been a cause

of much dispute. The episodes published were very popular and some passages are

considered to be among the most sublime that Dickens wrote.

 CONCLUSION
Dickens’s inventiveness is prodigious. He could weave plots of huge complexity to

ensure a sense of mystery and uncertainty. Always a very visual writer, he took delight in

describing sights and sounds and the feel of things in detail. He lived the characters he

created. He several times used his art as a lens to focus attention on the plight of poor. His

greatest achievement lies in the creation of his characters which are vividly drawn. Personal

experience of childhood injustice ,and compassion for the plight of London’s poor were the

mainsprings of Dickens’s art. He was able to affect individuals and institutions alike. A third

fact was his gift of humour,his comic scenes and witty dialogue. He has a considerable

reputation as a satirist and critic of society. He takes institutions respected by the

Victorians(Parliament, Church, Marriage,Family) and exposes their inadequacies and

failings. Sometimes he uses first person to narrate a story, as in David Copperfield and Great

Expectations, therefore these are directly autobiographical of all major novels. A serial

publication of his novels made for a close relationship with his public.
 REFERENCES

1. BBC History-
www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/dickens_charles
2. Charles Dickens Biography –
www.biography.com/people/charles-dickens
3. Wikipedia –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens
4. Dickens Fellowship –
www.dickensfellowship.org/life-charles-dickens
5. Life of Charles Dickens-Frank Marzials