Adam Roerts, "Dickens Reputation", p. 505. Charles Dickens was born on February 7th in 1812 and died in 1870. [166], His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life of their own outside his books. [1] His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. [74] The seeds for the story became planted in Dickens's mind during a trip to Manchester to witness the conditions of the manufacturing workers there. Slater detects also Ellen Ternan in the portrayal of Lucie Manette. [68][69] He persuaded a group of 25 writers, headed by Washington Irving, to sign a petition for him to take to Congress, but the press were generally hostile to this, saying that he should be grateful for his popularity and that it was mercenary to complain about his work being pirated. "[181] Dickens's talent was to incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end. A BIOGRPAHY OF CHARLES DICKENS. Dickens, Charles John Huffam (1812-1870), probably the best-known and, to many people, the greatest English novelist of the 19th century. These include the Charles Dickens Museum in London, the historic home where he wrote Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby; and the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum in Portsmouth, the house in which he was born. In the same period, Dickens furthered his interest in the paranormal, becoming one of the early members of The Ghost Club. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". "[84] Professor Gary Colledge has written that he "never strayed from his attachment to popular lay Anglicanism". Dickens prepared meticulously and decided to imitate the comedian Charles Mathews, but ultimately he missed the audition because of a cold. [94] During his visit to Paris, Dickens met the French literati Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Eugène Scribe, Théophile Gautier, François-René de Chateaubriand and Eugène Sue. Not that there has ever been much chance of that before. In a New York address, he expressed his belief that "Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen". The family moved to London in 1822 because the family finances worsened. I wonder if there ever was a captain yet that lost a ship with his log-book up to date? [51] The first of their ten children, Charles, was born in January 1837 and a few months later the family set up home in Bloomsbury at 48 Doughty Street, London (on which Charles had a three-year lease at £80 a year) from 25 March 1837 until December 1839. I-III, Complete Language: English: LoC Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature: Subject: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 Subject: Novelists, English -- … "[183], Dickens's novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. [203] All the same, despite these "increasing reservations amongst reviewers and the chattering classes, 'the public never deserted its favourite'". Comedy is also an aspect of the British picaresque novel tradition of Laurence Sterne, Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett. Sometimes people ask how I came to make a site devoted to the life of Charles Dickens. However, both Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were admirers. 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