Biography of Charles Dickens

Literary chronicler of the 19th century

7 February 1812
9 June 1870
The most popular English novelist of the history of literature of all times, Monster talent capable of creating stories Immortals with a Scripture clever and understandable to all, Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 at Portsmouth, the second of eight children. Father John was employed at the Office of the Navy and his mother Elizabeth Barrow was the daughter of a civil servant. The little Charles John Huffman Dickens (his full name) spent the first four years in different places according to the family and the various transfers of his father and developing already in early adolescence a deep passion for reading.
Favorite operas range from Elizabethan to the novels of Defoe, Fielding and Smollett, from "the Arabian Nights" to "Don Quixote" by Cervantes. In 1824 his father is arrested for debt: locked in a prison, you just need a few months until a small inheritance family can finally appianarne debts. In those dark months on 12-year-old Charles will know the hard work of the contractor, the exploitation of minors (real scandal of England at the time) and the brutality of some representatives of the lower classes. Working conditions were appalling: thrown in a factory like a dirty hovel infested by rats, along with some peers of slums he glued labels on bottles of shoe Polish. These are experiences that will remain forever in my soul like a wound never healed and that will be fruitful "humus" for his inexhaustible literary invention.
Once released from prison his father was opposed to that Charles left the job, until thankfully after about a year the mother's will was needed. Starting from 1825 Charles can resume his studies; This time is no longer on an occasional but at the Wellington Academy in Hampstead Road; the leaves however two years later because his father can no longer afford the tuition fees. In may begins to work as a bellboy at a law firm to spend the following year in the business of parliamentary reporter, until in 1829 appointed editor at the Law Courts of Doctors in society with his cousin Thomas Charlton. The following year the 19-year-old Charles falls in love with a young, daughter of a bank officer, but also for reasons of social disparity and to the opposition of the parents, the engagement melts three years later with a break that will leave more of a mark in the mind of Charles. In 1835 he meets Catherine Hogarth, married in haste the next year; significant is the relationship that is established between the writer and the two sisters-in-law, Mary (whose death at only 16 years in 1837 unleashes in infinite pain and psychological crisis Charles) and Georgina, 12 years younger than Catherine, which came later in the writer's family gradually replacing the older sister in the administration of the House and who did not leave even when the couple were granted legal separation later, tolerating the new love and new report by Charles with Ellen Ternan.
Those who read the novels of Dickens found hidden in some female characters the same features of these unusual cognate. On 6 January 1837 was born the oldest of eight children, but is also the year 1837 the first great success with both installments in installments of "Oliver Twist" that with the "Pickwick Papers" (later to become the famous "Pickwick Papers"): two absolute masterpieces that will remain forever in the history of world literature. This is an amazing creative period for Dickens: in these years begins a fifteen years during which the writer raises his major works, which culminated with the publication of the sublime "David Copperfield". His fame finally spreads in both Europe and America so that in 1842 making a long trip to the United States, where among other things it will affect the prison system. In July 1844 arrives in Italy, eventually settling in Genoa with the whole family until April 1845. In 1846 visit Switzerland and France and also in such cases confirms its focus on prison facilities, their organization and purpose, a sign of great social sensitivity undoubtedly gained as a result of childhood experiences.
In may 1855 her life undergoes a sudden change because of an encounter with Ellen Ternan, a love that will push it to abandon the conjugal roof to start a new life with her. Despite the even younger age Charles Dickens is almost a national glory: responsible for a real mass fever, always engaged in public readings of his works both at home and abroad. She is docile and follows him with deference although hides a maternal, able to guide him in character meticulously by the most difficult predicaments. At the end of 1867 Dickens embarks on a new journey to America for a tour of readings but in December will become ill seriously, much to bounce back with great difficulty.
In 1869 he started writing his last work, "the mystery of Edwin Drood", sadly unfinished. Your physical condition have become critical. Reduced at death's door from pulmonary complications continued, suffers a brain hemorrhage that leads him to death the next day: it is the 9 June 1870. June 14 will be buried with full honors in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. The novels of Dickens, albeit with different results, represent one of the high points of the social novel of the nineteenth century a mixture of classical journalistic prose narration with a marked sensitive eye toward the social reality and the requirements of the player which creates a communication always of a high standard. His descriptions of characters, situations and environments represent a fresco critical to understanding English society of the nineteenth century.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.