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Charles Dickens 
(1812 - 1870)
Charles Dickens, the first novelist of the trend of Critical Realism, was born in 1812 near 
Portsmouth on the southern coast of England. His father was a clerk and the family lived on his 
small salary. They belonged to the lower middle class. The father 
was often transferred from place to place. First they moved to the 
ancient town of Rochester, then, in 1822 to London. In Rochester 
Charles began to attend school. He continued his studies in London 
as well. But soon his father lost his job and was imprisoned for 
debt. Charles had to begin to work in a factory. In about a year the 
Dickenses received a small sum of money after the death of a 
relative, so all the debts were paid. Charles got a chance to go to 
school again. Dickens left school when he was twelve. He had to 
continue his education by himself. His father sent him to a lawyer’s 
office to study law. He did not stay there long, but he learned the 
ways and manners of lawyers, as many of his books show. In 1832 
Dickens became a parliamentary reporter. Dickens’s first efforts at writing were little stories about 
the ordinary Londoners he saw. He signed them Boz (the nickname given to him by his youngest 
brother. At the age of 24 Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. Later he discovered his ability as a 
novelist and devoted himself to literary work. Twice he visited the USA. Besides Dickens was a 

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master of reading. He had invented the theatre for one actor. From 1858 to 1868 he had given 
dramatic readings of his novels in England and America. An audience to Dickens was like a potent 
wine, he delighted in the applause. Dickens knew more than he revealed. His own nature was 
involved in a high emotionalism, which prevented him from reaching the sense of tragedy of 
Dostoyevsky, or that full vision of life, which makes Tolstoy supreme among novelists of the 
world. Short of this he had everything. In 1867-1868 Dickens made a triumphant reading tour in 
the United States during his second visit, which was a great strain on him and undermined his 
health. He died suddenly on June 9, 1870. Dickens was buried in Westminster Abbey. When 
Dickens died something had gone out of English life that was irreplaceable, a bright light that had 
shone upon the drab commercialism of the century, calling men back to laughter and kindliness, 
and the disruption of the cruelties in which they were entangling themselves. Like all great artists 
he saw the world as if it was an entirely fresh experience seen for the first time, and he had an 
extraordinary range of language, from comic invention to great eloquence. He invented character 
and situation with a range that had been unequalled since Shakespeare. So deeply had he affect his 
audiences that the view of life behind his novels has entered into the English tradition. Reason and 
theory he distrusted, but compassion and cheerfulness of heart he elevated into the supreme virtues.
He knew in his more reflective moments that cheerfulness alone will not destroy the Coketowns of 
the world. This reflection he kept mainly to himself, and his intense emotionalism helped him to 
obscure it.