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The Worlds of Gilbert and Sullivan

Charles John Huffham Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812. The second child of a clerk in the Navy Pay-Office, he was sent to work in a blacking warehouse when he was 12 years old. This painful experience inspired him to write much of his fiction. Notably the opening chapters of David Copperfield.

His childhood was not a happy one. His father could not avoid financial difficulties, and was sent to debtor's prison in the Marshalsea. His parents' failure to educate him caused a defiant streak in Charles, which stimulated him to work incredibly hard to become a clerk in a solicitor's office. Later he became a reporter of Parliamentary debates for the Morning Chronicle. He remained a Newspaper Man to the end of his life.

Dickens' love life was not at all smooth. At first he was happily married to Catherine Hogarth. They had a large family and lots of friends. However, he later fell in love with an actress, Ellen Ternan, and his deteriorating marriage ended in separation. 

In his 58 years Charles Dickens was best known for his host of well drawn characters. Some were comic, others cruel or repugnant, all were convincing. His books and characters have become household names - eg Scrooge, Oliver Twist, Uriah Heep, and many more. Many quotes from them have passed into the English language. (In fact the term Dickensian itself is taken to refer to present day squalid and impoverished social conditions - such as he prominently identified in his novels). 

He was, and still remains, the most widely read of the Victorian novelists. He is buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

His many famous publications include:

Would you like to read more about his Christmas Carol . . .?

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