Charles Dickens was born to John and Elizabeth Dickens in 1812 at Portsea. He was the first son, but second child among the eight children born in the Dickens family. Due to the transfer of John Dickens the family moved to London when Charles was nine year old and this was his home for the rest of his life.
Charles was a delicate child and was thrown back at an early age on the companionship of books such as Roderick Random, Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, and Robinson Crusoe to name a few.
Charles suffered a serious setback in his life when his father was thrown into the poor debtor’s prison for not being able to pay his debts.At the age of eleven young Charles was taken out of school and sent to work in the cellar of Warren’s blacking factory, sitting in the front window of the factory, pasting labels from sunrise to sunset.
At twenty he became a parliamentary reporter and a writer of fictitious sketches of London life by night. These writings were published as Sketches by Boz (1836). This debut work of Dickens attracted the attention of some publishers of his day and they commissioned him to write for them. The result was that he wrote about 15 major novels and many short stories.
Short Stories
- A Child’s Dream of a Star
- A Christmas Carol
- The Boots at the Holly Tree Inn
- The Cratchits’ Christmas Dinner
- The Ghost in Master B’s Room
- The Mortals in the House
- The Signal-Man
- The Trial for Murder