Camden Town, London, England

Charles Dickens' family was never wealthy. However, for the first ten years of his life, Charles and his siblings lived a happy life between Portsmouth and then Chatham, Kent. They were able to explore the countryside and led a simple life. However, their parents lived beyond their means, and eventually moved to Camden Town, a neighborhood in London that was quite poor.

This is where Charles Dickens' life took a very dark turn. In 1824, John Dickens, Charles' father was sent to prison for failing to pay off his debts. In order to support the family, Charles was made to leave school and work at a boot-blacking factory. His job was to label the bottles of boot-blacking liquid. He earned only six shillings a week, and worked in horrid conditions, as did many of the children in Victorian England. He was forced into this lifestyle for over a year, and these events had a profound effect on both his mental state and his future writing. Themes of children who are taken advantage of or are lost pervade many of his future works, such as A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations. His personal knowledge of this time gave great realism to the stories he eventually wrote, and allowed the many people who were exploited during this era to connect with his works.

Additionally, this time period also affected his views of women. Even after the debts had been repaid and it was possible for Charles to return to school, his mother wanted him to continue to work and provide additional income for the family. Charles understood the importance of education and enjoyed the little time that he spent in school. Luckily for him and for the literary world, his father's opinion of school won out and he was sent back, however this experience caused him to resent his mother. He believed that she did not appreciate the horrible experience that he experienced during his time at the factory, and that she cared more about her financial well-being than the safety and well-being of her child.

Works Cited:

Biography.com Editors. “Charles Dickens.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 4 Mar. 2020, www.biography.com/writer/charles-dickens.

Collins, Philip. “Charles Dickens.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 10 Sept. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Dickens-British-novelist.

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.539026100000
Longitude: -0.142551600000

Timeline of Events Associated with Camden Town, London, England

Date Event Manage
7 Feb 1812 to 9 Jun 1870

Life of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was an incredibly influential author of the nineteenth century. His works include A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations. His accurate portrayals of Victorian society garnered him popularity unheard of by most authors of his time. HIs works were both sophisticated and straightforward, allowing people of all social levels to appreciate the themes and lessons he portrayed. He confronted the issues of his time, partially because he lived through them himself, and his popularity has continued to modern times.

His most popular and lasting works mainly dealt with the class issues of his time: the poor treatment of the working class and children, the aloofness of the wealthy, and concerns of social and moral evil. Due to his own time spent as a child working in a factory, many of his works deal with children that are abandoned and abused. He used these figures many times to criticize the society around him. His novel Great Expectations comments on Victorian society's expectations, and he continued to explore these values in his final completed novel, Our Mutual Friend.

One of his most popular and long-lasting works explores these themes in a different way, and that is A Christmas Carol. Dickens created a timeless character in Ebenezer Scrooge, and the story demonstrates his fascination with Christmas and the idea of the Christmas spirit. He wanted the idea of giving and caring for your fellow man to extend past the holiday season. No other famous author has explored the holiday to his degree, and his association with Christmas is felt to this day.

Dickens toured both England and America giving public readings of his writings. He enjoyed these very much, and they greatly contributed to his fame. He was known all over the world and continued to write for his entire life. His works took on a variety of forms, but he constantly explored the same themes concerning class issues in Victorian-Era England, leaving lasting impacts on his readers. Owing to both old age and the stress placed on his body by his public readings, he passed away in June of 1870, leaving behind a legacy of great literature and social commentary.

Works Cited:

Charles Dickens Info. “Charles Dickens Biography.” Charles Dickens Info, 25 Jan. 2020, www.charlesdickensinfo.com/life/biography/.

Collins, Philip. “Charles Dickens.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 10 Sept. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Dickens-British-novelist.

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