Dickens, Charles (John Huffam) (1812–1870)

An illustration from A Christmas Carol, by English novelist Charles Dickens, in a hand-coloured engraving by English engraver John Leech. In this, Scrooge receives his third visitor, the ghost of Christmas past, who reminds him of happier times. Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843.

English novelist. He is enduringly popular for his memorable characters and his portrayal of the social evils of Victorian England. In 1836 he published the first number of the Pickwick Papers, followed by Oliver Twist (1837), the first of his ‘reforming’ novels; Nicholas Nickleby (1838), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), Barnaby Rudge (1841); and David Copperfield (1850). Among his later books are A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1861). All his novels were written as serials.

Dickens was born in Portsea, Hampshire, and received little formal education. A short period spent working in a blacking factory in south London, while his father was imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea prison during 1824, was followed by three years in a private school. In 1827 he became a lawyer's clerk, and then after four years a reporter for the Morning Chronicle, to which he contributed the Sketches by Boz. In 1836 he married Catherine Hogarth (1815–79).

The Pickwick Papers were originally intended merely as an accompaniment to a series of sporting illustrations, but the adventures of Pickwick outgrew their setting and established Dickens's reputation. In 1842 he visited the USA, where he was welcomed as a celebrity. On his return home, he satirized US democracy in Martin Chuzzlewit (1844). In 1843 he published the first of his Christmas books, A Christmas Carol. Dombey and Son (1848) was largely written abroad. David Copperfield, his most popular novel and his own favourite, contains many autobiographical incidents and characters; Mr Micawber is usually recognized as a sketch of his father. Dickens launched the weekly magazine Household Words in 1850, reorganizing it in 1859 as All the Year Round; many of his later stories were published serially in these periodicals. In 1858 he began giving public readings from his novels, which proved such a success that he was invited to make a second US tour 1867–68.

Among his later novels are Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1857), and Our Mutual Friend (1865). Edwin Drood, a mystery story influenced by the style of his friend, English author Wilkie Collins, was left incomplete on his death.

Dickens's novels are often strongly satiric, to the point of caricature, and they often protest against injustice. Although the tone of this protest is indignant, it is softened by Dickens's use of humour and pathos, tending to sentimentality. His novels often also have well-observed characters and melodrama – all these characteristics are present in his early novel Oliver Twist. Much of his next work, Nicholas Nickleby, a picaresque story, is melodramatic, but the character of Mrs Nickleby, partly based on his own mother, is well drawn, as are the sketches of Dotheboys Hall and the travelling theatre.

Pickwick and the Wellers (from the Pickwick Papers) were again brought to life in a weekly periodical started by Dickens, Master Humphrey's Clock (1840–41). The Old Curiosity Shop first appeared in this periodical. In spite of the highly complicated plot, it is one of the richest sources of Dickensian characterization. The humorous sketches of Dick Swiveller and his bizarre surroundings are unexcelled, but the overdrawn pathos of Little Nell has been generally condemned. Barnaby Rudge appeared in the same publication, with a similarly complicated plot. This work, apart from A Tale of Two Cities, is Dickens's only historical novel. After publishing Barnaby Rudge, the periodical came to an end.

Dombey and Son was crucial in Dickens's development as a novelist in terms of its careful planning and in presentation of social, moral, and religious questions. By relating plot to theme and making greater use of symbolism, it prepared the way for the later novels: Bleak House, satirizing the courts of Chancery; Hard Times, an eloquent cry against inhuman conditions in the new industrial towns; and Little Dorrit, marking the beginning of Dickens's late period in which he produced his most profound works, growing in complexity but carefully structured with brilliant use of symbolism. Of these, A Tale of Two Cities is a tragedy with a romantic flavour; Great Expectations, judged by some his best, most rounded work, is remarkable for its improved technique in use of structure and suspense and in control of poignant emotion; and Our Mutual Friend, which has never been popular, is recognized as a deeply disturbing portrayal of a corrupt society.