The complete works of Charles Dickens

[Sarah]

Famed British author Charles Dickens was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England. He was the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk who dreamed of striking it rich. Charles Dickens’ mother, Elizabeth Barrow, aspired to be a teacher and school director. Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor. Nevertheless, they were happy in the early days. In 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent, where young Charles and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore the old castle at Rochester.

In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighbourhood in London. By then the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as John Dickens had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means. Eventually, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old.

Following his father’s imprisonment, Charles Dickens was forced to leave school to work at a boot-blacking factory alongside the River Thames. At the run-down, rodent-ridden factory, Dickens earned six shillings a week labelling pots of “blacking,” a substance used to clean fireplaces. It was the best he could do to help support his family. Looking back on the experience, Dickens saw it as the moment he said goodbye to his youthful innocence, stating that he wondered “how [he] could be so easily cast away at such a young age.” He felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take care of him. These sentiments would later become a recurring theme in his writing.

Much to his relief, Dickens was permitted to go back to school when his father received a family inheritance and used it to pay off his debts. But when Dickens was 15, his education was pulled out from under him once again. In 1827, he had to drop out of school and work as an office boy to contribute to his family’s income. As it turned out, the job became an early launching point for his writing career.

Within a year of being hired, Dickens began freelance reporting at the law courts of London. Just a few years later, he was reporting for two major London newspapers. In 1833, he began submitting sketches to various magazines and newspapers under the pseudonym “Boz.” In 1836, his clippings were published in his first book, Sketches by Boz. Dickens’ first success caught the eye of Catherine Hogarth, whom he soon married. Catherine would grace Charles with a brood of 10 children before the couple separated in 1858.

[Sarah]

01. The Pickwick Papers

02. Oliver Twist

03. Nicholas Nickelby

04. Barnaby Rudge

05. Master Humphrey's Clock

06. The Old Curiosity Shop

07. The Christmas Books Volume 1: A Christmas Carol / The Chimes

08. Martin Chuzzlewit

09. The Cricket on the Hearth

10. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

11. Dombey & Son

12. David Copperfield

13. Bleak House

14. Hard Times

15. Little Dorrit

16. A Tale of Two Cities

17. The Uncommercial Traveller

18. Great Expectations

19. Our Mutual Friend

20. No Thoroughfare

21. The Mystery of Edwin Drood

22. The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices.

[Sarah]

I have never been able to get on with Charles Dickens but one day I am determined to get through a whole book...Would love to know which one people liked the best...?

[Sarah]

I think I have only read Great Expectations, but that was many years ago, however I got a copy of A Christmas carol looking forward to reading this.

[chaaron]

I know a few of these books, but I only have a copy of Great Expectations at home. Maybe I'll read it over the holiday :)