161 Facts About Charles Dickens' Life That You Should Know!

Charles John Huffam Dickens is the man commonly known by the name Charles Dickens.

Because of his contributions, Dickens is considered the greatest novelist of the Victorian Age by many. Dickens largely combined fact and fiction in his work.

In America and England alike, his works were widely known and cherished. Instead of complaining about his dire situation, Dickens accepted his fate and tried to make the best out of it.

With his proactiveness, he was involved in many different things. Because of all this, Dickens is thought to have had obsessive-compulsive disorder. On top of that, since various characters in his stories suffer from fits, some also surmise he may have had epilepsy since childhood.

In his later life, he appears to have suffered from an anal fistula, followed by gonorrhea. He is also believed to have suffered from depression caused somewhat by his past trauma as a child.

The short stories writer was immortalized not only through his works but also through the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum in Portsmouth. The house where he lived as a little boy is now preserved as a slice of history. The place occasionally receives memorabilia items as kind donations and holds many different activities.

You can never know too much. To quench that thirst, you can also check out Eli Whitney facts and Shakespeare facts to add to your wisdom.

Facts About Charles Dickens Life

The life story of Charles Dickens was one of the rags-to-riches tale, where he made a name for himself simply with determination and ingenuity.

When out on a walk with his father, young Dickens came across the Gad's Hill Place, a mansion which his father said could be earned with hard work. Later in his life, he went on to buy this house where Dickens spent his last days.

After touring in America in the year 1869, his doctor advised him against any more public readings since it was straining him.

He began his unfinished novel 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood', but passed away at the age of 58 because of a stroke. His daughter, Mary Dickens, never married and stayed with him till the end. She used to edit his letters and even published two books based on her father.

Dickens was acquainted with many prominent people from various walks of life. Many of his friends are people we read about even now, like Thomas Carlyle.

For some time, Dickens published his sketches under the pseudonym of Boz. Many of these sketches were illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne. Browne took up the pseudonym of Phiz to go with Dicken's Boz. He worked for Dickens for a long time until the illustrations of 'A Tale of Two Cities', which the writer felt was disappointing.

Two of Catherine's (his wife) sisters stayed with the Dickens at different times. The first one to move with them in 1836 was Mary Scott Hogarth.

When she was only 17, she fell ill. Even though she was well attended to, she could not survive and died all of a sudden in Dickens' arms. This shocked Dickens deeply so that he took a ring from her finger, which he kept on himself for the rest of his life.

While Dickens wrote 'The Old Curiosity Shop', he was deeply pained by those memories. The character Nell is inspired by her.

When nearing her death, Dickens' wife gave their daughter a stack of his love letters and instructed her to furnish the British Museum with them so the world could know the love he had for her in the old days.

Charles Dickens' Career

Charles Dickens was a journalist, a novelist, as well as a performer.

Dickens's career began at the young age of fifteen as a clerk boy at the firm of Ellis and Blackmore. Soon, he shifted to become a court stenographer.

In two years, he was appointed as a shorthand reporter at the 'Mirror of Parliament'. His writing career began in 1833 with the sketch 'A Dinner At Poplar', which was followed by many similar sketches.

Charles Dickens' very first novel was 'The Pickwick Papers' which came out in monthly installments and skyrocketed his fame and prosperity. In his career, he wrote 15 major novels, and five novellas, and a bunch of other articles, essays, and short stories.

Some notable mentions include 'Oliver Twist', which was also serialized, and the Christmas stories, including the infamous character Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge. Among his Christmas stories, 'A Christmas Carol' was the first-ever written and published.

Dickens was deeply displeased by the issue of the international copyright agreement and spoke about it publicly since his works got published in the U.S. without his permission and with no royalties. He also founded his weekly journal by the title 'All Year Round', where Dickens published many of his novels in serial form for the first time.

Fun fact about Dickens - he only missed a deadline once in his entire career!

His work dealt with various social issues; for instance, 'A Tale Of Two Cities' was a historical fiction on the French Revolution, and 'David Copperfield' was autobiographical to a large extent.

Though his popularity began with 'The Pickwick Papers', 'A Tale of Two Cities' over time became his best-selling novel with over 200 million copies sold counting to this day.

Dickens almost brushed against death in a train accident while he was writing his last completed novel 'Our Mutual Friend'. After helping people in distress, for one last time, Dickens went inside the wrecked train to get the latest installment to be published of this novel.

Dickens was also passionate about theater, where he not only wrote and staged things, but he also acted in them and had many actor friends. He even performed in front of Queen Victoria once.

Dickens' work is now part of the classic novels canon, surviving the test of time, often taught in schools at different ages. His work is considered typical of Victorian-era authors.

His works provide an insight into the effects of the Industrial Revolution in the age, as well as Victorian society in general, dealing with various socio-economic issues, including social injustice and the rights of the underprivileged.

At the same time, these issues are universal, making him relevant to this day, as his works strike a chord of sympathy with his readers. It makes sense why Dickens is influential even now.

Charles Dickens' Family

Charles Dickens based many of his characters on friends or family.

Charles Dickens was born to John Dickens and Elizabeth Barrow. He was the second of their five boys and three girls.

Life for young Charles Dickens did not remain sweet for long as his family ran into debt. Therefore, Charles was sent to work in the Warrens' Blacking Factory at the young age of twelve to keep the family fed, where he worked for more than a year.

His parents both preferred a life of merriment. Combined with the cost of running a large family, this came at a price.

They had to shift to a much smaller home when Charles was only a few months old. It is popularly believed he had seven siblings, four brothers and three sisters.

Even when his father was released from prison, the old habits of bad credit remained. When Charles became popular, his father even brought much embarrassment by borrowing money from his friends and publishers without informing him.

Even then, Charles held his father's image with affection. He inspired the character of Wilkins Micawber in the novel 'David Copperfield'. His mother is the model for the famous Mrs. Nickleby in 'Nicholas Nickleby'.

In early life, Charles was close to his sister Fanny the most. Her son was envisioned as Paul Dombey and Tiny Tim in his fiction. He also financially supported not only many of his brothers but also their families.

When Dickens was a young journalist working for 'The Evening Chronicle', he met his future wife Catherine Hogarth, who was the editor for the publication. He went on to father ten children with her.

Dickens married her in 1836. Although, their marriage was not a fulfilling one, as he felt both of them made each other unhappy.

After the largely publicized separation with her, they went on to live in separate homes, where only her eldest son went with her, while all the other children and her sister followed Dickens. During this time, he was maintaining a clandestine relationship with the actress Ellen Ternan, who would be his partner till death, but in secrecy.

For a brief time before his marriage, he was also passionately in love with a lady by the name of Maria Beadnell, after whom Dora Spenlow of 'David Copperfield' and Flora Finching of 'Little Dorrit' was based.

Dickens named many of his children after artists, poets, or authors. Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, for example, was named after both a French artist Count Alfred D'Orsay as well as the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Among all his children, Henry Fielding Dickens, his eighth child, was the most successful. He was a judge and a lawyer and even got knighted in the year 1922.

Charles Dickens' Education

Dickens aspired to be a well-educated gentleman.

Dickens was born before the Victorian era, where the quality of education depended largely on the finances of a family. His parents had money set aside to pin their hopes on only one child, and that was his sister, Fanny. Dickens became more an icon of informal education.

This informal education began with his mother and Mary Weller, their caretaker who influenced him deeply. At the age of nine, Dickens attended the Rome Dame School at Chatham, followed by the Clover Lane Academy.

This happiness was short-lived as his father was soon arrested, putting their life in turmoil. Dickens had to work in the Warrens' Blacking Factory, the impact of which stayed with him for his entire life, and materialized in the famous novels 'David Copperfield' and 'Great Expectations'.

After his father's release, he was sent to the Wellington House Academy. This formal education did not last long either, as Dickens entered the workforce by the age of fifteen.

It cannot be said he held only a positive outlook for institutional education, however. His novel 'Nicholas Nickleby' records the terrible system of boarding schools, while a single visit to Field Lane School prompted him to write 'A Christmas Carol'.

Dickens was well aware of the subject of education in Victorian England and even advocated reforms in his speeches. However, his outlook was not all bleak towards the issue. He mentions fondly Mr. Taylor, an English teacher, and Mr. Mell, a Latin master. By the time Dickens had to leave, he had won the Latin prize.

Dickens strongly opposed the National Society's agenda of church involvement in education. He hoped for a national school system where religious education would not be a hindrance. Since he believed only education could save working-class children from the effects of industrialization, he supported a non-sectarian form of education where equal opportunities would to provided to the poor and deprived.

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