The Charles Dickens Page

Bringing the genius of Charles Dickens to a new generation of readers since 1997

Charles Dickens. The name conjures up visions of plum pudding and Christmas punch, quaint coaching inns and cozy firesides, but also of orphaned and starving children, misers, murderers, and abusive schoolmasters. Dickens was 19th century London personified, he survived its mean streets as a child and, largely self-educated, possessed the genius to become the greatest writer of his age.

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, the son of a clerk at the Navy Pay Office. His father, John Dickens, continually living beyond his means, was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea in 1824. 12-year-old Charles was removed from school and sent to work at a boot-blacking factory earning six shillings a week to help support the family. This dark experience cast a shadow over the clever, sensitive boy that became a defining experience in his life, he would later write "It is wonderful to me how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age" (Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 25).

This childhood poverty and feelings of abandonment, although unknown to his readers until after his death, would be a heavy influence on Dickens' later views on social reform and the world he would create through his fiction.

Dickens would go on to write 15 major novels including, Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and his personal favorite, David Copperfield. He will forever be associated with the celebration of Christmas due to his Christmas Books, the most popular being A Christmas Carol. Dickens also edited, and contributed to, weekly journals Household Words and All the Year Round. Near the end of his life he traveled throughout Britain and America giving public readings of his work.

Charles Dickens died an old man of 57, worn out with work and travel, on June 9, 1870. He wished to be buried, without fanfare, in a small cemetery in Rochester, Kent, but the Nation would not allow it. He was laid to rest in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, the flowers from thousands of mourners overflowing the open grave. Among the more beautiful bouquets were many simple clusters of wildflowers, wrapped in rags.

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Annotated A Christmas Carol

Dickens pared down A Christmas Carol for his public readings. Read an annotated version of Dickens' own reading text that can be read in a single sitting!

The Many Faces of Ebenezer Scrooge

The Internet Movie Database lists more than 100 actors who have portrayed the famous Dickensian miser. Some of the best are pictured here.

Lionel Barrymore	Reginald Owen	Alistair Sim	Mister Magoo
Albert Finney	Yosemite Sam	Scrooge McDuck	George C Scott
Bill Murray	Rowan Atkinson	Michael Caine	Fred Flintstone
Patrick Stewart	Kelsey Grammer	Jim Carrey	Christopher Plummer
Guy Pierce	Will Ferrell

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Bits of Dickens...

Short examples of Charles Dickens' work that can be read in a single sitting:

• Oliver Asks for More (Oliver Twist)
• Cratchit's Christmas (A Christmas Carol)
• Steamboat Trip (American Notes)
• Omnibuses (Sketches by Boz)
• Mrs Gamp (Martin Chuzzlewit)
• The Haves and the Have Nots (American Notes)
• Mr Pickwick Meets the Lady in Yellow Curl Papers (Pickwick Papers)
• More Bits of Dickens

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Sir Roger de Coverley

The fiddler struck up Sir Roger de Coverley. Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them.

The dance performed by Fezziwig and company was popular in the eighteenth century and was considered old-fashioned by Dickens' time. Named for a ficticious character in The Spectator (1711) the dance resembled the Virginia Reel. It was usually the last dance performed during an evening of entertainment (Hearn, 2004, pp. 70-71, n. 52).

Learn the dance

Hear the music

Railway Crash!

Charles Dickens, Henry Benge, and the Great Staplehurst Railway Crash

Read the story of how a simple mistake took the lives of ten people, ruined the life of Henry Benge, and shortened the life of Charles Dickens.

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Boz Spotlight

Charles Dickens
The Cricket on the Hearth

Read something different this Christmas season!

Boz Spotlight Archive

Cursing in Dickens

As the stricter morals of the Victorian era replaced the ribaldry of the 18th-century, Dickens felt compelled to clean up his act. Instances of cursing in the novels dropped dramatically in his mid and late career. For example, below is a count of the full-use of the word "damn" (as opposed to just a capital D or d--d for damn or damned) in Dickens' works:

7 - Sketches by Boz
29 - Pickwick Papers
12 - Nicholas Nickleby
8 - Barnaby Rudge
1 - David Copperfield
3 - Bleak House
3 - Hard Times
3 - Little Dorrit
1 - Tale of Two Cities
3 - Great Expectations
1 - Our Mutual Friend
2 - Edwin Drood

Learn more about Charles Dickens

Life

• Charles Dickens Biography
• The Mystery of Ellen Ternan
• Dickens Family Tree

Places

• The Charles Dickens Museum
• Dickens' Birthplace Museum
• Gads Hill Place
• The Cleveland Street Workhouse
• Charles Dickens Cigarette Cards

Characters

• Charles Dickens Characters
• Dickens' Character Dolls

Organizations

• The Dickens Fellowship
• The Dickens Society
• The Dickens Project

Special Guests

• Guest contributors to this site

My Favorite Places

• Gina Dalfonzo's DickensBlog
• Where was Dickens?
• Charles Dickens Info
• The Victorian Dictionary
• The Victorian Web
• Charles Dickens' Journals Online
• Charles Dickens' Letters

In the Charles Dickens tradition of helping the needy and the sick this site supports

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Finding cures. Saving children.

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