Charles Dickens was a popular British Novelist who lived in the 1800’s. Charles was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England to John and Elizabeth Dickens (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). At age six, Dickens and his sister, Fanny, attended a Dames school where he began his love for books (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). At age nine, Dickens left Dames school for a more formal education (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). At age twelve, Dickens’s father couldn’t keep up with debts and goes to a debtor’s prison (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). At this time, Dickens was sent to work at a blacking warehouse living alone placing labels on shoe polish for three years (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). Later on, when Dickens was fifteen, his father got out of prison and rescued his son (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). John sent Charles to school for three more years until Charles left school for good (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). In April 1836, Charles married a girl named Kate (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). From there, Dickens wrote novels for the rest of his life (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). Charles died on June 18, 1870 (Authors and Artists for Young Adults).

Dickens usually wrote humor and fiction novels (Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography). One of his biggest successes was “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” (Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography). Another one of his successes was “Oliver Twist” although it wasn’t really a novel but a libretto (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). After writing so many novels, he started a new genre and wrote “A Christmas Carol” where he added to it yearly (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). One of the most important books he wrote were “Bleak House” and “Hard Times” based on the times when Dickens was growing up (Authors and Artists for Young Adults).

Dickens earned about eleven thousand euros for each novel Dickens wrote at a rate of 600 euros a year (Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography). Dickens’s pen name was Boz (Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography). One of Dickens’s books, “American Log,” were the notes he took at America (Authors and Artists for Young Adults). When Dickens died, he wanted to be buried near his sister-in-law but the government thought he needed a more worshipped place (Authors and Artists for Young Adults).