Charles Dickens |
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Often considered to be the quintessential Victorian author, Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812. He began his literary career as a journalist and with his contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym Boz. In 1836 his highly successful first novel, The Pickwick Papers, was published in 20 monthly instalments. He also edited weekly periodicals, wrote travel books and plays and gave public readings of his works to great acclaim. Some of his most famous works, including David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist, have been adapted countless times for both stage and screen.
In 1836 Dickens married Catherine Hogarth and they had 10 children. He was estranged from Catherine in 1858 but maintained relations with his mistress Ellen Ternan until his death. In 1851 Dickens met Wilkie Collins and they became close personal friends and collaborators. The two authors are also linked through marriage as Dickens’s youngest daughter Kate married Wilkie’s brother Charles Collins in 1860.
Dickens’s fifteenth novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was left unfinished when he suffered a stroke on June 8 1870 and died at Gads Hill, Kent. He is buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. |
