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Biography of charles dickens.

With his father behind bars Charles was sent to work at Warren’s blacking factory, earning just six shillings a week. The appalling conditions of the factory, long thankless work and being separated from his family made a huge impression on the teenage Charles Dickens, later influencing his novels and essays – Little Dorrit was set around Marshalsea Prison and his experiences in the workhouses had a major bearing on David Copperfield , Great Expectations , and most notably Oliver Twist .

Once his father was released from prison Charles went back to school before starting his working life as a clerk at a law office in the Holborn area of London. During his time in the junior role Charles learnt how to write in shorthand and after 18 months left the profession to become a freelance crime reporter. In 1833 Charles published his first story, 'A Dinner at Poplar Walk', and turned his hand to political journalism, covering elections for the Morning Chronicle – leading in 1836 to the publication of his first collection of written work, Sketches by Boz , followed shortly after by his first novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club .

A month after the success of The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, and had ten children with her. During March 1837 the young family moved into 48 Doughty Street, in Camden, along with Charles’ brother Frederick and Catherine’s sister Mary. Charles became very attached to Mary and later that year had to watch her die in his arms, inspiring the death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop . While at 48 Doughty Street Charles published the novels Oliver Twist , Nicholas Nickleby and Barnaby Rudge .

In 1842 Charles Dickens made his first trip to North America, giving lectures and gaining support for copyright laws and after returning to the UK published A Christmas Carol in 1843 before briefly going to live in Italy and Switzerland.

During 1846 Charles Dickens was approached by Angela Burdett Coutts, heir to the banking fortune, about setting up a home for ‘fallen’ women. At first Dickens was not keen on the idea but eventually came round and opened Urania Cottage, in Shepherds Bush. He set the rules for Urania Cottage and interviewed prospective residents, a task which undoubtedly supplied him with more ideas for characters in his books.

Once the women graduated from Urania Cottage they were required to emigrate from the UK. It is believed around 100 women passed through Urania Cottage between 1847 and 1859. During this time Dickens completed Dombey and Son , David Copperfield , Bleak House , Hard Times and Little Dorrit – all of which proved hugely popular. With the profits from these publications Dickens bought a house in Gad’s Hill, Kent.

As an up and coming author, Dickens looked up to William Shakespeare and it is rumoured he went to Stratford-upon-Avon and inscribed his initials into the window ledge of the Bard’s house. Indeed, it is believed the reason Charles wanted to move to Gad’s Hill was because Shakespeare had set some of Henry IV, Part 1 there. While at Gad’s Hill Charles co-wrote a play called The Frozen Deep and interviewed actresses for one of the main parts himself, building a relationship with one such actress – Ellen Ternan. A year after meeting Ellen, Charles separated from wife Catherine.

He continued his charity work, this time helping Great Ormond Street Hospital which was in financial trouble – speaking at fundraising events and giving public readings of his work. He enjoyed public reading and undertook his first series of public readings for personal profit in London. After a short rest period he embarked on a gruelling three month UK tour. A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations followed before he survived a train crash in 1865 and finished Our Mutual Friend . Dickens continued to perform public readings and in 1867 set sail for America once more, where he gave a host of readings and lectures.

Back in England, Charles again went on a public reading tour which was halted when he suffered a suspected stroke in 1869. He stopped performing and started to write The Mystery of Edwin Drood , but once he had regained his health, the following year, he insisted on a farewell reading tour.

On June 8, 1870, Charles suffered a second stroke at his home in Gad’s Hill, he failed to regain consciousness and was pronounced dead the next day, aged 58. Charles Dickens’ body was laid to rest at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey.

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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

10 Facts About Charles Dickens

Peta Stamper

08 dec 2022.

Charles Dickens is one of England’s most famous authors. Remembered for capturing the worst and best of times the Victorian era had to offer, Dickens’ novels enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and are still widely read today. His best-known novels, including Great Expectations ,  A Christmas Carol and  A Tale of Two Cities , have even shaped how we speak.

Yet more than entertaining Victorian Britain and beyond, through his writing Dickens championed children’s rights and social reform, education and accessible literature, and kindness towards others.

From boot-blacking to world infamy, here are 10 facts about Charles Dickens.

1. He went to work in a factory from age 12

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in 1812 to Royal Navy clerk John Dickens and his wife Elizabeth. Life as a clerk was hard, and the Dickens moved from Portsmouth to Kent to London but they could not escape John’s ever-growing debt. In 1824, the debtors came to collect and John, Elizabeth and most of their children went to live in Marshalsea Prison.

Aged 12, Dickens was taken in by a friend of the family who worked at Warren’s shoe polish factory. Dickens began working there too, earning 6 shillings a week putting labels onto pots of black shoe polish – a grim experience that characterised a great deal of his writing but was never shared with anyone until after his death in 1870.

Illustration by Fred Bernard of Dickens at work in a shoe-blacking factory after his father had been sent to the Marshalsea, published in the 1892 edition of Forster’s ‘Life of Charles Dickens’

Image Credit: Fred Barnard, died 1896., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

2. He started publishing under the pseudonym ‘Boz’

Dickens took up a job in a law office trying to impress a young middle class woman he fancied. While the job was not enough to win over her family, Dickens began cultivating his skill for writing. Equipped to take on additional work as a parliamentary reporter, he honed his talent for description and built a reputation for writing impressive short stories.

His first short story  The Boarding House was published in 1934 in the Monthly Magazine under the pseudonym ‘Boz’. Boz was his brother Augustus’s nickname. The mysterious Boz became so popular Dickens even published some essays in a collection called Sketches by Boz in 1839.

3. Dickens wrote his first novel aged 24

In 1836, Dickens began his first novel: The Pickwick Papers. Published in monthly instalments, The Pickwick Papers had a circulation of 400 copies a month. By the novel’s end, it was selling 40,000 copies a month.

4. He wrote  A Christmas Carol  in 6 weeks

Dickens’ warming winter tale, although it would become his most famous work, was not what he originally set out to write. After reading a parliamentary report published in 1842 detailing the conditions of children working in mines, a horrified Dickens wanted to raise awareness with his public response.

The most effective way to do this? Writing an entertaining story that asked people to consider those around them and change their ways. He wrote  A Christmas Carol in just 6 weeks, paying half the publication costs himself because his publishers did not think a Christmas story would pay off. On the contrary, A Christmas Carol has come to be considered Dickens’ greatest literary achievement.

5. Dickens championed women’s access to opportunity

Financially backed by millionaire heiress Angela Coutts, Dickens founded Urania Cottage – a rehabilitation home for society’s ‘fallen women’ including ex-convicts, sex workers and the homeless.

Dickens was also the editor of two weekly magazines, Household Words and All The Year Round , featuring articles and short stories by a range of writers. He welcomed contributions from female writers, including the first salaried female journalist, Eliza Lynn Linton.

Charles Dickens in New York c. 1867–1868

Image Credit: Jeremiah Gurney, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

6. He contributed his fair share of words to the English language

Like William Shakespeare , Dickens was another infamous British writer known to come up with his own words. It was Dickens who gave us butter-fingers, flummox, the creeps, dustbin and more.

7. Dickens’ fictional cliffhangers caused an international sensation

As most of Dickens’ novels were written and published as periodicals in magazines, he often used cliffhangers from the end of one chapter to another. In 1841, American readers were so desperate to know what happened in the next chapter of  The Old Curiosity Shop that they mobbed the docks of New York harbour to ask passengers arriving from Europe what happened to the character Nell (she died).

Dickens was perhaps one of the world’s first global celebrities. His books were read in countries across the world, merchandise inspired by his stories, which were adapted for the stage and even plagiarised.

8. He was a member of The Ghost Club

Although he remained a skeptic, Dickens was no stranger to the Victorian craze for seances and spiritualism. The Ghost Club was a collection of likeminded men, boasting other notable authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle and William Butler Yeats, dedicated to investigating supernatural occurrences.

It should come as no surprise Dickens found fascination with what lies beyond the veil. One of his most popular and adapted novels, A Christmas Carol , is a ghost story.

9. He kept pet ravens

Dickens had a pet raven called Grip who inspired the character in  Barnaby Rudge who keeps a raven. Sadly, Grip died after eating lead chips and was replaced by another raven, also named Grip. This second Grip allegedly inspired Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, ‘The Raven’ , and Dickens had him stuffed and preserved when he died.

10. Dickens did not want to be buried at Westminster Abbey

But he was…

Dickens died from a stroke aged 58 on 8 June 1870. Before his death, the great author had expressed his wish to be buried next to his wife Catherine’s sister, Mary Hogarth, who had died in 1837 and was buried in London’s Kensal Green Cemetery. Dickens then changed his mind and requested he be buried in a simple grave at Rochester Cathedral .

Instead, his body was hastily installed in at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey at the request of Dean Arthur Stanley, who thought a famous author might draw in some much needed foot traffic. He was right. Despite his will saying that “no public announcement be made of the time or place of my burial,” hundreds of thousands of people queued to walk past his body in Westminster Abbey.

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Learn more about Charles Dickens:

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Gads Hill Place

Learn about Charles Dickens' home, Gads Hill Place

As a child Charles Dickens would walk with his father by Gads Hill Place, a large impressive mansion outside Rochester. His father told him that with perseverance and hard work he could live in such a house ( Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 6 ) .

Thirty-six years later, in 1856, Dickens bought it ( Ackroyd, 1990, p. 760 ) .

A Defining Episode in Charles Dickens' Life

When Charles Dickens was 12 years old his father, John Dickens , was imprisoned for debt. Young Charles was sent to work in a boot-blacking factory to help support the family.

This fact is essential to knowing and understanding Dickens. The experience seemed to put a stain on the clever, sensitive boy and colored everything he would later accomplish. He revealed the story of the blacking factory to no one, other than obliquely through his fiction, except his friend and future biographer John Forster , who shared it with the world after Dickens' death ( Forster, 1899, v. 1, p. 22-39 ) .

Charles Dickens Fast Facts

Overview of charles dickens’ life, work, and family.

Charles Dickens' Parents: Father-John Dickens (1785-1851) Mother-Elizabeth Dickens (1789-1863)

Education: Approx. one year at William Giles' school in Chatham, Kent (age 9-11); nearly three years Wellington House Academy in London (age 13-15); beyond this, largely self-educated.

First Published Story: A Dinner at Poplar Walk published in Monthly Magazine (December 1833)

Marriage: Catherine (Hogarth) Dickens (1815-1879) Married April 2, 1836 in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea. Separated 1858.

Date of Death: Thursday, June 9, 1870 (stroke) Place of Burial: Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, London

Affiliate Links Disclosure The Charles Dickens Page is a member of affiliate programs at Amazon and Zazzle. This means that there are links that take users to sites where products that we recommend are offered for sale. If purchases are made on these sites The Charles Dickens Page receives a small commission.

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Introduction

(1812–70). No English author of the 19th century was more popular than the novelist Charles Dickens. With a reporter’s eye for the details of daily life, a fine ear for the subtleties of common speech, and unmatched powers of character creation, Dickens created a body of work that brought him worldwide fame. He was a remarkably entertaining comic writer, but he was also much more. His perceptive and compassionate depiction of society and its shortcomings made him an influential advocate for social reform.

Dickens was praised in his lifetime, and his critical reputation has only grown since his death. He is generally considered the greatest writer of the Victorian era, and some critics place him second only to William Shakespeare in all of English literature.

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on Feb. 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. He was the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was a clerk in a navy office, a job that required him to move his family frequently. In 1817 the family settled in the town of Chatham, southeast of London, where Charles attended school and developed an interest in English novels of the 18th century. These years in Chatham, which lasted until the family moved to London in 1822, were the happiest of Dickens’ childhood. The area would appear often in his novels.

John Dickens earned enough to provide a middle-class lifestyle for his family, but he was a habitually poor manager of money. In 1824 he was sent with his family to the Marshalsea Prison for debt. Charles, the eldest son, did not go to prison, but he was pulled from school and put to work in a factory. Feeling lonely and abandoned, he lived alone in a garret and visited his family in prison on Sundays. Then a timely inheritance restored the family to something like comfortable means, and Charles had a few quiet years at a private school in London.

This period had a lasting impact on Dickens’ character and his art. His family’s financial troubles and his unpleasant experience with factory life gave Charles a sympathetic knowledge of the lives and trials of the working class that would inform his writings. Images of prisons and of lost, oppressed children also would recur in his novels. Dickens dramatized some of the liveliness and failings of his father, for whom he always had a great love, as the character Mr. Micawber in the partly autobiographical novel David Copperfield . Dickens’ mother, unsympathetic and unconscious of his potential, meant less to him; she begrudged his leaving work to return to school. She would become the model for the character Mrs. Nickleby in Nicholas Nickleby .

Dickens finished his schooling at age 15 and went to work. He became a clerk in a law office and then, after learning shorthand, a reporter in the law courts and in the House of Commons. In 1834 he joined the staff of the Morning Chronicle , for which he traveled to other cities and towns to report election speeches. These jobs gave Dickens a lasting affection for journalism and also an enduring dislike of both law and politics that would be reflected in his novels.

Another influential event of this period was his rejection as suitor to Maria Beadnell, a banker’s daughter, because his family and prospects were unsatisfactory. The pain he felt upon losing her sharpened his determination to succeed.

Start of a Literary Career

Dickens’ first attempt at creative writing grew out of his experience as a journalist. In 1833 he began contributing stories and descriptive essays to magazines and newspapers under the name of Boz, the family nickname of a younger brother. These were collected and in February 1836 reprinted as Sketches by “Boz” , which was well received.

That same month the publishers Chapman and Hall asked Dickens to write stories to accompany a monthly series of comic illustrations by a noted artist. Originally the stories and illustrations were to deal with a group of Londoners in a hunting and fishing club, but Dickens, knowing little of the subject, suggested changing the focus to travel. The publishers agreed, and Dickens went on to create Mr. Pickwick, one of the greatest characters in humorous literature. Within a few months the Pickwick Papers had made Dickens the most popular author of the day.

The success of Pickwick led to new projects that kept Dickens occupied for the next several years. In 1836 he resigned from his newspaper job and became editor of a new monthly magazine, Bentley’s Miscellany , in which he serialized the novel Oliver Twist (1837–39). His other serialized novels of this period were Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–41), and Barnaby Rudge (1841). Apart from writing, his growing family was another commitment. In April 1836, in the week that the first installment of the Pickwick Papers appeared, Dickens had married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of a newspaper associate. The first of their 10 children was born in 1837.

Dickens’ novels following the comic Pickwick Papers introduced a more serious element that would remain prominent throughout his fiction—attacks on social evils and inadequate institutions. Though still containing much comedy, Oliver Twist focused more on exposing the evils of the workhouse and the criminal world through the dramatic story of an orphan. Nicholas Nickleby continued in this vein with its criticism of the brutal Yorkshire school system. The Old Curiosity Shop is best known for the death of the saintly but suffering Little Nell, a scene considered overwhelmingly powerful at the time but later scorned for its sentimentality. Barnaby Rudge was a historical novel set in the late 18th century that dealt with the spectacle of large-scale mob violence.

Dickens in the United States

Exhausted by his intense work schedule, Dickens set out for a five-month vacation in the United States in early 1842. The United States had welcomed his books from the start, in part because the lack of international copyright permitted American publishers to print them without paying him. Dickens, at that stage of his life a radical who hated Toryism and aristocracy, wished to study the United States and its democratic ideals firsthand.

Dickens and his wife sailed to Boston in January 1842, leaving their four children at home. Treated as a literary celebrity, he received an enthusiastic welcome from the New England elite. From Boston he went to New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va. Dickens reveled in his adoring audience and wrote home of the freedom of the United States and the comforts of the workers. He traveled westward as far as Missouri before returning to England in June 1842.

Dickens spoke everywhere of the need for an international copyright agreement that would protect the rights of both American and British writers. He felt that it was unfair and unjust that American publishers could print and sell his books without permission from him and without paying him any royalties. Dickens did not speak of himself as the sole victim of this practice. He pointed out that all British authors were equally victimized; he also acknowledged that American authors, such as Edgar Allan Poe, suffered from the pirating of their works in England.

American newspapers attacked these statements and accused Dickens of bad taste and of abusing American hospitality. In time Dickens’ rosy view of the United States faded. He was disgusted by slavery, government corruption, and what he saw as the materialism and vulgarity of American life. His disillusionment with the United States is revealed in his nonfiction book American Notes (1842) and in the novel Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44).

Master Novelist

A shortcoming of Dickens’ early novels, as popular as they were, was a lack of narrative unity. Creating a coherent story while writing in monthly, or even weekly, serial installments was a difficult task. In the preface to Martin Chuzzlewit , Dickens wrote of his intention “to keep a steadier eye upon the general purpose and design.”

Dickens practiced his narrative concentration in a new, shorter type of story that was not serialized—his Christmas books. The first of these, A Christmas Carol , was conceived and written in a few weeks in 1843. It became the most enduring Christmas myth of modern literature. Further Christmas books, essays, and stories followed annually (except in 1847) through 1867, but none equaled the Carol in quality.

Dickens’ first novel to display his new maturity as a writer was Dombey and Son (1846–48). Although serialized, this novel was clearly a product of more thorough planning. It also presented a broader criticism of modern society than had his earlier books, which had focused on particular evils. It explored the corruption of money, finding virtue and human decency most often among the poor and humble.

Social concerns are minimal in Dickens’ next novel, David Copperfield (1849–50), which shows the author at the height of his powers. Written in the first person, it is perhaps most notable for its childhood chapters, which are partly based on Dickens’ own experiences. Largely for these reasons, it has always been among his most popular novels. Dickens himself described it as his “favourite child.”

Journalist and Reformer

Despite his great success as a novelist, Dickens did not wish to limit himself to book writing. His journalism background, his political beliefs, and his desire to secure a steady income independent of his creative writing made him attempt or plan several periodical ventures in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1846 he became editor of the newly founded liberal newspaper the Daily News , but within weeks he decided that he was not suited for the job and resigned. In 1850 he finally achieved journalistic success with Household Words , a weekly journal that he founded and edited. This publication and its successor, All the Year Round , were popular collections of fiction, poetry, and essays on a wide range of topics. Dickens contributed several serials of his own, including novels.

Dickens’ other activities often reflected the benevolent spirit apparent in his writings. For more than a decade beginning in 1847 he directed a reformatory home for young female delinquents, financed by his wealthy friend Angela Burdett-Coutts. He also gave public speeches on such issues as water pollution and juvenile illiteracy and participated in fund-raising activities.

A Darker Outlook

Dickens’ novels of the 1850s were much darker than their predecessors. Lacking the basic optimism that tempered the social criticism of the earlier works, they present an increasingly somber picture of contemporary society. Bleak House (1852–53) and Little Dorrit (1855–57) attack the injustices of the English legal system, and Hard Times (1854) explores the dehumanizing effects of industrialization on workers and communities. The humor in these novels takes the form of harsh satire. Technically, these novels are more coherent than the earlier fiction, with plots that are more fully related to themes.

The dark tone of these novels reflected a decline in Dickens’ spirits. He had lost all faith in government and its willingness to deal with social problems such as poverty and hunger, but he also had no alternative to suggest. At the same time his marriage began to unravel. In 1858 he separated from his wife and began a long affair with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. Fearing the effect of a scandal on his career, Dickens managed to keep the relationship from the public.

Theatricals and Public Readings

Dickens sought relief from the difficulties of his personal life in his work. In the mid-1850s he acted in a number of amateur theatricals to earn money for charity. This carried on his long attraction to the stage, which had almost led him to become a professional actor in the early 1830s. It was on the set of one of these productions, The Frozen Deep , that Dickens met Ellen Ternan in August 1857.

Around the time of his separation from his wife, Dickens began devoting much of his time to public readings from his novels. His emotional involvement in these readings was intense. He felt a close relationship with the public and greatly valued its affection, which served as a substitute for the love he could not find at home.

Dickens began his reading tour in April 1858. The early readings consisted entirely of Christmas books, but he soon added episodes from the novels and magazine Christmas stories. The performances drew on his talent for acting, his love of theatricals and of seeing and delighting an audience, and the dramatic nature of his fiction. He made a number of successful tours in England, Scotland, and Ireland—from 1858 to 1859, 1861 to 1863, 1866 to 1867, and 1869 to 1870. A triumphant American tour in 1867–68 wiped out the bad memories of his earlier trip to the United States.

Final Novels

Dickens greatly enjoyed his readings until, near the end, he was becoming ill and exhausted. He wrote much less in the 1860s, but he remained inventive. A Tale of Two Cities (1859), set during the French Revolution, was his first historical novel since Barnaby Rudge . It relied less on characterization, dialogue, and humor, but nevertheless it continues to be one of his most popular novels. Great Expectations (1860–61) resembles David Copperfield in being a first-person narration and in drawing on parts of Dickens’ personality and experience. A great critical and popular success, it is perhaps his finest novel. Our Mutual Friend (1864–65) continued his ongoing critique of wealth and class values.

Dickens gave his final public reading in London in March 1870. Thereafter he worked on his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood , at Gad’s Hill, his country house near his boyhood home in Chatham. Dickens died at home on June 9, 1870, leaving the book unfinished. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Additional Reading

Barlow, George. The Genius of Dickens (Haskell, 1975; orig. pub. 1909). Bloom, Harold. Charles Dickens (Chelsea House, 2000). Champion, Neil. Charles Dickens (Heinemann Library, 2002). Chesterton, G.K., and Kitton, F.G. Charles Dickens (Folcroft, 1974; orig. pub. 1903). Crotch, W.W. The Soul of Dickens (Haskell, 1974; orig. pub. 1916). Gissing, George. Charles Dickens (Scholarly, 1976; orig. pub. 1898). Hardy, B.N. Charles Dickens, the Writer and His Work (Profile, 1983). Johnson, Edgar. Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph (Penguin, 1986; orig. pub. 1952). Kaplan, Fred. Dickens: A Biography (Johns Hopkins, 1998). Quiller-Couch, A.T. Charles Dickens and Other Victorians (Kraus Reprint, 1980; orig. pub. 1925). Schlicke, Paul. Dickens and Popular Entertainment (Unwin Hyman, 1988). Yancey, Diane. Life in Charles Dickens’s England (Lucent, 1999).

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Charles Dickens Facts

Written by Selina

Modified & Updated: 31 May 2024

Reviewed by Sherman Smith

• Childhood Facts
• Literature Facts
• London Facts
• Social Commentary Facts
• Victorian Era Facts

Charles Dickens, born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England, is one of the most celebrated and influential authors in literary history. His novels, such as “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Great Expectations,” have left an indelible mark on literature and continue to resonate with readers today. In this article, we will explore 11 fascinating facts about the life and works of Charles Dickens, revealing the brilliance behind his enduring legacy.

Early Life and Childhood Struggles

Charles Dickens experienced a challenging childhood due to his father’s financial troubles. At the age of 12, he was forced to work in a blacking factory to support his family. This difficult period deeply influenced his later writings, which often highlighted social injustices and the plight of the working class.

Pseudonyms and Collaborative Writing

In addition to writing under his own name, Charles Dickens used pseudonyms such as Boz and Thomas Merton for some of his early works. He also collaborated with other writers, such as Wilkie Collins, to create stories that showcased his versatility as a writer.

Serialized Novels

Many of Dickens’ novels were initially published in serialized form. These episodic releases allowed readers to eagerly anticipate the next installment and created a sense of excitement and engagement. Works like “The Pickwick Papers” and “ Oliver Twist ” gained immense popularity through this format.

Social Commentary and Reform

Charles Dickens was deeply concerned about social issues and used his writings as a platform for commentary and reform. His novels exposed the harsh realities of Victorian society, addressing themes such as poverty, child labor , and inequality. Dickens’ works played a significant role in raising awareness and inspiring societal change.

Character Development and Memorable Names

One of Dickens’ notable strengths was his ability to create vivid and memorable characters. From the eccentric Miss Havisham in “ Great Expectations ” to the kind-hearted Mr. Micawber in “ David Copperfield ,” Dickens’ characters have become literary icons. He often gave his characters distinctive and evocative names, further enhancing their depth and impact.

Literary Feuds and Criticism

Despite his immense popularity, Dickens was not immune to criticism and literary feuds . He engaged in public disputes with other writers, including William Thackeray, and faced scrutiny for his portrayal of certain social groups. However, these controversies did not overshadow his lasting influence on the literary world.

International Success and Reading Tours

Charles Dickens achieved international acclaim during his lifetime. He embarked on several reading tours, captivating audiences with dramatic readings of his works. His performances were highly anticipated events , showcasing his incredible storytelling abilities and charismatic stage presence.

Philanthropy and Social Initiatives

Dickens was actively involved in philanthropic endeavors. He championed charitable causes and worked to improve the lives of the less fortunate. He played a crucial role in establishing a home for “fallen women” and supported institutions that provided aid and education to those in need.

Inspiration from Personal Experiences

Many elements in Dickens’ novels were drawn from his personal experiences. Characters and settings often reflected people and places he encountered in his own life. For example, the fictional town of Cloisterham in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” was inspired by Dickens’ childhood home of Rochester.

Christmas Traditions and “A Christmas Carol”

Dickens’ novella, “A Christmas Carol,” remains one of his most beloved works. The story’s themes of redemption and the spirit of Christmas helped shape modern Christmas traditions. Dickens’ portrayal of the iconic character Ebenezer Scrooge has become synonymous with the transformation of a miserly heart.

Literary Legacy and Enduring Influence

Charles Dickens’ literary legacy is immeasurable. His works continue to be studied, adapted, and celebrated worldwide. Dickens’ vivid storytelling, memorable characters, and social commentary have inspired countless authors and left an indelible mark on the literary landscape.

Charles Dickens, with his captivating narratives and social conscience, remains an iconic figure in the literary world. His ability to transport readers into the depths of Victorian society and create enduring characters has solidified his place in literary history. Dickens’ works continue to resonate with audiences, reminding us of the power of storytelling and the enduring influence of a literary genius.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are charles dickens’ most famous novels.

Charles Dickens’ most famous novels include “A Tale of Two Cities,” “Great Expectations,” “Oliver Twist,” and “David Copperfield.”

Did Charles Dickens write any non-fiction works?

Yes, Charles Dickens wrote non-fiction works as well. One notable example is “American Notes,” in which he recounts his travels in America.

Did Charles Dickens have a happy personal life?

While Dickens enjoyed professional success , his personal life was fraught with difficulties. He experienced marital problems and separation from his wife, Catherine Dickens.

What was Charles Dickens’ writing routine?

Charles Dickens was known for his disciplined writing routine. He would write for several hours each day, often taking long walks to gather inspiration.

Was Charles Dickens involved in the theater?

Yes, Charles Dickens had a strong connection to the theater. He not only performed readings of his works but also wrote and collaborated on plays.

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Charles Dickens: A Novelist for Our Times

Charles Dickens, photographed in 1867, three years before his death on June 9, 1870. Photo by Jeremiah Gurney

150 years after his death, author’s themes of poverty and social inequity resonate

John o’rourke.

When English novelist Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870—150 years ago today—he was mourned as a national hero and buried in the Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. During a career that spanned nearly 40 years, Dickens created some of the most indelible characters in fiction—Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and Jacob Marley (A Christmas Carol) , Pip and Miss Havisham (Great Expectations) , David Copperfield, Uriah Heep, and Mr. Micawber (David Copperfield) , and Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger (Oliver Twist) .  

Renowned for his ability to mix comedy and pathos and to move readers, Dickens was also a pioneering social reformer who fought throughout his life to improve the living and working conditions for the poor. 

At the time of his death, he was a literary superstar, celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. His two speaking tours of America, in 1842 and in 1867 and 1868, drew standing-room-only crowds from Boston to New York, Richmond to St. Louis. 

His books have never gone out of print and have been translated into 150 languages. Today, there are more than 400 film and television adaptations of his novels, with more on the way, including a new take on David Copperfield, with Dev Patel as the eponymous lead character. 

What accounts for the Victorian novelist’s enduring popularity? We reached out to Dickens scholar Natalie McKnight , dean of the College of General Studies and a professor of humanities. The author of Idiots, Madmen and Other Prisoners in Dickens, she is coeditor of Dickens Studies Annual and president of the Dickens Society , which conducts and supports research into the author’s life and work.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

BU Today: When did you first discover Charles Dickens?

Natalie McKnight: My first taste of Dickens came with the Mister Magoo animated A Christmas Carol when I was four years old. I am happy to say that I had the pleasure of giving a talk on that version at a symposium in Iceland several years ago (not something I ever envisioned when I was working on my PhD).

BU Today: What led you to become a Dickens scholar?

Natalie McKnight: When I was a graduate student at the University of Delaware, I was lucky enough to have Elliot Gilbert as a professor in a Dickens seminar. He occasionally read to us in class, and we’d laugh out loud, cry, shake our heads in amazement. I figured that any writer who could evoke such powerful responses was worth spending a lifetime studying. And I was right.

BU Today: What accounts for Dickens’ ongoing popularity?

Natalie McKnight: Dickens continues to move people—and people want to be moved and need to be moved by characters and situations that are beyond themselves. We need emotional exercise as much as we need physical exercise; the trouble is, we’re proud of the latter, but embarrassed by being moved by others (real or fictional others). But Dickens also makes us think: he has many really illuminating passages when he captures the distorted perceptions of people in altered states of mind, or ones where he dissects how goodness in one person unintentionally brings out cruelty in another. People who really don’t know Dickens well think that his characters are caricatures—and some are, but most are not—and there is as much psychological realism in his works as in those of Victorian novelists who get more credit for that kind of thing because they are more obvious about it. People continue to be moved by his characters, as their tragedies, losses, and heartbreaks are human and universal. He repeatedly warned of the dangers of sharp divides between the rich and the poor. It’s there in A Tale of Two Cities most obviously, and it’s there in A Christmas Carol, but it’s subtly there in almost all his writings. Nothing good comes from the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, and sometimes a crisis—like the spread of a disease—collapses this dichotomy in ways that highlight the cluelessness of those who think their money can protect them from sickness or death or that they can hoard all the wealth with no negative repercussions. 

BU Today: Dickens wrote a lot about disease. What do you think he would have made of our current pandemic?

Natalie McKnight: He would have been all over this—he would probably have written a series of essays with some coauthors for All the Year Round or Household Worlds, two of the journals he edited. He probably would have given speeches about inadequate access to public health services, and the pandemic would have definitely made it into his fiction. And actually, anachronistically, it is in his fiction: there’s a smallpox epidemic in Bleak House , and Little Dorrit starts out with characters in quarantine in Marseilles due to the threat of a plague. He also wrote powerfully about the spread of hysteria being like a disease (something I’m writing about now), and that’s certainly something we’ve seen with reactions to COVID-19, with shoppers madly dashing for toilet paper in supermarkets and mobs of livid protesters pushing for an end to stay-at-home orders.

BU Today: It’s hard to underestimate the kind of celebrity Dickens achieved in his lifetime.

Natalie McKnight: He was the first huge pop-culture celebrity, and he maintained that celebrity for decades. He earned it because he created characters and stories that people cared deeply about, and he wrote serially, so people would be caring about the characters and plot lines over the course of many months. The characters would become part of their lives, and readers couldn’t wait to get the next installment. There’s the famous (and true) story of people standing on the docks in New York City waiting for ships coming in with the next installment of The Old Curiosity Shop, desperate to find out whether Little Nell would live.

BU Today: The Dickens Society had planned to host an international conference in London in July to mark the 150th anniversary of Dickens’ death, but, as president, you had to cancel it because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s going to be a virtual conference instead. Can you talk about that?

Natalie McKnight: I’m not organizing this one, but I am participating. It’s called #Dickens150 and it is being held via Zoom on the anniversary of Dickens’ death, June 9, and the proceeds will go to help the Dickens Museum , where we were to have had a reception. Like all museums in this pandemic, the Dickens Museum is really hurting because it’s lost all its revenue for months. So the virtual meeting will help.

BU Today: Finally, perhaps an unfair question to ask of someone who has devoted her research to studying Dickens’ work, but do you have a favorite novel?

Natalie McKnight: It’s not an unfair question at all. I get asked it all the time. My favorite novel is probably the one that’s read the least: Barnaby Rudge. It’s a historical fiction whose main character is a “holy idiot” type (the eponymous Barnaby). He’s fascinating, as is his talking crow, Grip (who inspired Edgar Allen Poe’s raven). It was very daring to place a “holy idiot” and a talking bird at the center of a novel, and I don’t think it works for a lot of readers, but I love it, and I love the crazed mob descriptions in the Gordon Riots scenes. They were an excellent warm-up for the French Revolution mob scenes he wrote in Tale of Two Cities, and they include some of the most bloodcurdling images of mob-mania I’ve read anywhere.

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Editor, BU Today

John O’Rourke began his career as a reporter at  The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour . He has worked as a producer at  World Monitor , a coproduction of the  Christian Science Monitor  and the Discovery Channel, and NBC News, where he was a producer for several shows, including  Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric ,  NBC Nightly News , and  The Today Show . John has won many awards, including four Emmys, a George Foster Peabody Award, and five Edward R. Murrow Awards. Profile

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There are 5 comments on Charles Dickens: A Novelist for Our Times

“Natalie McKnight: My first taste of Dickens came with the Mister Magoo animated A Christmas Carol when I was four years old.”

OMG! That was my first exposure to Dickens when I was about that age, maybe a couple years older.

Natalie, thank you for sharing your enthusiasm about Charles Dickens. I read ‘A Tales of Two Cities’ in a German translation 40 years ago, and just recently read it for the first time in its original English. This is indeed a novel for our times, I have been struck by so many parallels to our COVID crisis. Poverty and hunger. Injustice in the court system. The dying becoming numbers. The book moved me deeply — humor, fabulous storytelling, and so much humanity!

I read Dickens in my younger years and he had an impact on my ideas of justice, prejudice and equality. You have inspired me to read him again. Thanks. And I did love Barnaby Rudge!

I do wish the wealthy and government would read passages and points made about the wealthy and poor as I know greed money and status corrupts . A special person we will never forget and I was inspired even at 12 years old after reading his novels .

My favorite Dickens novel would be either *Nicholas Nickleby* or * Tale of Two Cities* ; though my favorite novel is not a Dickens novel. I have long loved *The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris). But I really love *Nicholas Nickleby* The friendship between Nicholas and Smike is so touching. Okay, Dickens was sentimental. But he was also sometimes very humorous, and could write really entertaining comedy, and it appears certainly in *Nicholas Nickelby*

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Charles Dickens - His Life, His Writings and His Times

Life of the author, criticism and interpretation, in the time of dickens..., websites dedicated to charles dickens, “to conceal anything from those to whom i am attached, is not in my nature. i can never close my lips where i have opened my heart.”.

“The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.”

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.”

“Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who, with their soul, encourages another person to be brave and true.”

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Top 20 Facts about Charles Dickens

By Antoine Claudet - Wikimedia

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Young Charles Dickens By Daniel Maclise – Wikimedia

1. Charles Dickens had a secret door in his house

By Robert William Buss – Wikimedia

2. His last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, remains a mystery

3. dickens’ wife, catherine, was also a published author.

By Daniel Maclise – Wikimedia

4. Dickens had a pet raven

Photo by Clark Gu on Unsplash

5. Charles Dickens resented the large family

6. his best-seller was a tale of two cities, 7. his name might have been about the devil.

Photo by Alessio Zaccaria on Unsplash

8. Charles Dickens always had items and furniture arranged in a particular order

9. dickens started working at a very young age, 10. he did not need a formal education to be the greatest novelist.

By George Herbert Watkins – Wikimedia

11. Charles Dickens didn’t hesitate to express his opinions

Charles Dickens by Charles Baugniet from Wikimedia Commons

12. Little Red Riding Hood served as Charles Dickens’ initial source of inspiration

Little Red Riding Hood by Jessie Willcox Smith from Wikimedia Commons

13. For a period, Charles Dickens also lived with his pet cat

14. charles dickens didn’t particularly like living in america, 15. charles dickens was in a train crash.

Train Crash by Arthur McLeod from Wikimedia Commons

16. He often addressed social issues through his writing

17. dickens created memorable characters in english literature.

Richard Bentley , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

18. Dickens was famous for his public readings of his works

19. he once worked as a journalist, 20. charles dickens’s influence on christmas was notable.

Photo by Elin Melaas on Unsplash

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A twist on charles dickens: he was a public health pioneer too.

Joanne Silberner

During his life, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was known not only for his novels, but for his scientific research and public health advocacy. Herbert Watson/Charles Dickens Museum hide caption

In London, there's a museum dedicated to Charles Dickens, housed in his old, lovingly preserved home near the King's Cross rail station. There are over 200 museums in London. This one wasn't anywhere near the top of my list.

I hated the compulsory Dickens assignments in high school. To teenage me, slogging through the unremitting hopelessness of Great Expectations was absolutely agonizing. Bleak House ? I couldn't get past the name. And as for the 743 pages of The Pickwick Papers? I was so traumatized by the other novels that I skipped the book and went straight to a study guide.

No Dickens Museum for me!

But in May it opened an exhibit called "Dickens, Man of Science." (The exhibit runs through November 11.) The idea that Dickens was interested in science was surprising enough that I figured I'd give the exhibit a chance. And I learned from the exhibit and from Dickens scholars that this bane of high school students was not just a Man of Science, but a committed and effective public health activist with a strong eye for general medicine as well.

On display at the museum is an original copy of a weekly journal established and edited by Dickens in 1850 called Household Words , a two-penny weekly of the time. Dickens scholar Tony Williams has gone through hundreds of issues and his list of medical and health topics it covered is, well, Dickensian in length:

"Public health issues, sanitation, housing, slums." And more: "Hospital development, medical schools, proposals for health insurance, the problems facing new entrants to the medical profession, education for the disabled child."

Not done yet! "Compulsory vaccination, water pollution and food adulteration, the need for restrictions on the sale of poisons, the care of fighting men brought back from overseas conflicts, the spread of disease and how to prevent it; what we would now call repetitive stress syndrome for workers using the newly-invented sewing machine; homeopathy, epilepsy, lead poisoning."

The Charles Dickens Museum near King's Cross rail station in London recently opened an exhibit on Dickens' scientific influence. Joanne Silberner/NPR hide caption

The Charles Dickens Museum near King's Cross rail station in London recently opened an exhibit on Dickens' scientific influence.

And Dickens practiced epidemiology in the journals, and elsewhere. An article Dickens commissioned and edited compared mortality rates in a London slum to those in a specially designed housing project for the poor. The mortality rate in the slum was five to six times higher. In May of 1863 he gave a speech alerting the public to what had only been appreciated by a handful of epidemiologists at the time – that premature death was far more common in the poor than the rich.

Williams counted 125 articles on public health, sanitation and water, another 289 on medical care, nursing, hospitals, surgery and doctors, plus several hundred more on social conditions, poverty, psychiatry and mental health.

The exhibit credits Dickens as being a thorough student of medicine. He visited waxworks and anatomy museums, and walked the streets of London looking for people with injuries and diseases. He used the knowledge he acquired to describe "conditions not yet named by doctors," such as sleep apnea. There's a curative angle to his work as well – his good friend Florence Nightingale handed out his books to wounded soldiers so they'd have something to enjoy.

Dickens even left his mark on medical history. An exhibit in the museum tells the tale of "fat boy Joe," a character in The Pickwick Papers . Joe constantly fell asleep, sometimes when walking.

"That description entered into medical textbooks," says Adelene Buckland, one of the curators of the exhibit and a lecturer at Kings College London. William Osler, widely recognized as the founder of modern medicine, cited Joe as an example of a syndrome that occurs in some obese people: an uncontrollable tendency to sleep. The condition was initially called Pickwickian syndrome. Today it's obesity hypoventilation syndrome .

Dickens had his neuroscience moments as well. A character in Dombey and Son is paralyzed on her right side, and just before she dies she loses her ability to speak, demonstrating what neuroscientists now know — that both a person's ability to speak, and their control of the right side of the body rely on an area in the brain's left hemisphere."

The Hospital For Sick Children on Ormond Street was the first pediatric hospital in London, founded thanks to Charles Dicken's speeches and writings. W. E. Hodgkin/D. R. Warry, 1872/Wellcome Images via Wikimedia Commons hide caption

The Hospital For Sick Children on Ormond Street was the first pediatric hospital in London, founded thanks to Charles Dicken's speeches and writings.

The connections keep coming, says Buckland. "Retired doctors who read Dickens often find connections and publish little articles," she says. So there's a 1992 journal article asking what was wrong with Tiny Tim (the beloved character in A Christmas Carol ) that could cause his short stature, asymmetric crippling, and curious intermittent weakness. The answer: renal tubular acidosis. But no! Others authors in other medical journals blame tuberculosis, rickets, malnutrition, cerebral palsy, and a malformation of the spinal cord.

Not that Dickens was always on the right track — some of his medical ideas fall more into the science fiction genre: In Bleak House , a character spontaneously combusts. Dickens believed that electromagnetic fields could cure illnesses, and he thought cholera and typhus could spread through the air.

One panel at the exhibit begrudgingly admits to the author's fascination with mesmerism, or hypnotism. "It's one of the reasons people hadn't thought about Dickens as being interested in science," Buckland says. "People looked at him and said he couldn't see between good and bad science."

A sculpture of "Fat Boy Joe," a character from Dickens' Pickwick Papers. Charles Dickens Museum hide caption

A sculpture of "Fat Boy Joe," a character from Dickens' Pickwick Papers.

But that, she says, is an anachronism. At the time, mesmerism as a treatment for illness was a valid line of inquiry. "They just didn't know the answers we have now," she says. And he shared this interest with friend and noted chemist Michael Faraday. They were experimenting – doing science.

Dickens successfully hypnotized his wife. And he tested out chloroform as an anesthetic, first on himself, and then on his wife during childbirth. He encouraged other people to use it as well, and after many of them died he still insisted the benefits outweighed the risks.

But it's his influence on public health where Dickens' legacy is perhaps most impressive. Dickens thought it imperative that people did things with medical knowledge, says Williams. "The message of A Christmas Carol , that Tiny Tim will die if nothing is done for him, that's very strongly Dicken's argument," he says. "It's no good just to feel sympathetic. You have to take action."

At a time when society was indelibly divided into the rich and the terribly downtrodden – he drew attention to working people laboring in dangerous factories and living in unsanitary ghettos with few public protections in place. He created charismatic, impoverished characters like Tiny Tim to generate sympathy among London's middle and upper class, getting readers to see poor people as human. He pushed the same idea in speeches.

In Dickens' day, there were no separate wards for children in hospitals in England, and no separate specialty of pediatrics. In essays in Household Words , he argued for the establishment of a hospital dedicated to children. That hospital, now called Great Ormond Street Hospital, was subsequently opened, thanks to his efforts. He spared no words in lobbying the public for funding, describing an imaginary London where the bodies of dead children lined the streets. In an essay called "Drooping Buds," he noted that it was not natural "to men and women that they should see the glaze of death upon so many of the bright eyes that come to laugh and love among them ..."

Doctors of the day loved him, even though some of his physician characters were not particularly admirable. From the Lancet in 1865: "We are especially glad to find at our side Charles Dickens, the earnest and warmhearted opponent of social tyranny, one of the truest and most powerful friends of the oppressed, whether in middle or lower ranks of life."

And The BMJ (then the British Medical Journal ) ran an obituary of Dickens, citing the "rare fidelity" with which he described diseases and death, and noted that some of his descriptions of symptoms had appeared in medical journals of the day.

But Dickens' own medical instincts failed him at the end of his life. According to his obituary in the Manchester Guardian , his sister-in-law told him he looked unwell, and pleaded with him to let her call for a doctor. "No," he answered, "I have a toothache. I shall be better presently." He soon fell unconscious, and died of a stroke.

Still, by the end of the exhibit, it's clear. Dickens' lasting legacy is not just literary – he left his mark on public health and medicine, and deserves the attention of anyone interested in the history of those fields. So fie on the high school English teacher who failed to inspire me! Fie on adolescent me! I'm already on page 157 of The Pickwick Papers , and I'm quite liking it. Just 586 pages to go.

Joanne Silberner is a freelance health and science writer who lives in London.

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15 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Charles Dickens

15 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was the greatest novelist of the Victorian period, utterly dedicating himself to his work and creating some of the most distinguished fiction in literary history.

Poor social and bleak economic circumstances are oft referred to in the modern era as being “Dickensian” in nature and the subjects and narratives of Dickens’s books would suggest a serially sombre author who probably isn’t much fun on a night out.

Not so. This list alone paints Charles Dickens as not only a man of great authority, talent and wisdom, but also a more amusing character down the pub than you would give him credit for. At least part of number 8 does.

(Images: Rex Features, Flickr Creative Commons, Penguin)

Dickens had a tough childhood, which he chronicled heavily in David Copperfield. "I had no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from anyone, that I can call to mind,” he scoffed.

Dickens also suffered from epilepsy as a child but later grew out of the condition. He chronicled his sufferings via his some of his characters including Bradley Headstone from Our Mutual Friend and Edward Leeford, a.k.a. Monks, from Oliver Twist .

Dickens had a pet raven called Grip which he had taxidermied and mounted when it died in 1841 from eating lead paint chips.

No matter where he lay, Dickens always made sure to sleep with his head pointing north as he believed it improved his writing.

The only novel by Dickens that includes the word “kangaroo” is David Copperfield and the only novel by Charles Dickens that mentions “beetroot” is Martin Chuzzlewit .

Dickens is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing no less than 247 new words and usages into the language including “butter-fingers”, “fluffiness” and the verb “to manslaughter”.

He was very fond of nicknames and imbued all of his children with them such as “Chickenstalker” and “Skittles”. He called his favourite daughter Kate, “Lucifer Box”, because her temper could flare up in an instant.

Dickens was an amateur magician, very afraid of bats and an insomniac.

Dickens had a Bond-esque secret door in his study which was disguised as a bookcase filled with fake books.

Dickens had more than a passing interest in the paranormal and was an active member of The Ghost Club.

Dickens liked to blow his own trumpet, referring to himself quite matter-of-factually as ‘The Sparkler of Albion’. (Gently mocking Shakespeare referring to himself as the “Bard of Avon” at the same time.)

After having ten children together, Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth decide they weren’t right for each other, and separated in 1858 (she was becoming 'fat and boring'). He then met a nubile young actress named Ellen Ternan who was the same age as his younger daughter, Kate.

He had a favourite letter opener (as you do) that was engineered from the claw of his favourite cat, Bob.

Dickens had a little bit of the Melvin Udall about him: He preferred to touch things 3 times for luck and was a mild obsessive-compulsive with regard to his hair and would often comb and preen it over 100 times every day.

Charles Dickens gave everything he had to his work and died on 9th June 1870 after suffering a massive stroke. The last novel he completed was Our Mutual Friend . He is buried in the Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey.

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Think You Know Dickens? 15 Shocking Charles Dickens Facts

Think you know Dickens? I’m prepared to bet you don’t know at LEAST 7 of these facts about Charles Dickens, one of the most successful Victorian writers to come out of England. 

Charles Dickens is famous as the author of such works as A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, The Old Curiosity Shop, and more. He’s plenty well-known now, yes, but during his lifetime, he achieved global celebrity status. 

He seemed to be everywhere at once, working in a frenzy, and going in a million different directions. In total, he wrote 15 novels (most of them astonishingly long), but also edited periodicals, gave hundreds of public performances, and involved himself in charity work. 

These days, it’s relatively common knowledge that Dickens grew up poor and began working in a factory at the age of 12. Most of us already know the incredible story of how he wrote and published A Christmas Carol in a gamble that paid off immensely. 

But I’ve done a deep dive into the life of the author and uncovered 15 Charles Dickens facts that are sure to surprise you. So, think you know Dickens? Read on, and you certainly shall. I’m a lifelong bibliophile and a literary travel expert, but even I was surprised to learn some of these interesting facts about Charles Dickens.

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Charles Dickens nearly became an actor

All the evidence of Charles Dickens’s life seems to reveal one constant: he loved — and longed for — fame. He was drawn to the art of performance as a teenager, and before he ever picked up a pen to try his hand at fiction, he dreamed of a career on the stage as an actor. 

Dickens even had a scheduled audition time for the Covent Garden Theatre in 1832, but he missed his audition due to illness. Ultimately, he didn’t pursue a life on the stage, and the reason? Love.

At the age of 18, Dickens fell wildly in love with Maria Beadnell, who was two years his senior. The love lasted three years an included some rather cringe-worthy poetry from Dickens. Apparently, Maria’s husband was less than thrilled at the idea of his daughter spending time with an aspiring actor, so he gave up the dream. 

And no, Maria Beadnell still didn’t marry him. 

Tip : To learn more, check out Charles Dickens and Maria Beadnell 

He published the works of other now-famous authors, like Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins

Dickens was not just a writer, as you’ll come to see as you read through these interesting facts about Charles Dickens. One of the many projects he worked on was his own serial publication, called Household Words . This was a weekly literary magazine, in which many authors published under pseudonyms. 

Dickens sought out other writers whom he admired to contribute to his serial, which included contemporaries Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins. 

You can view an online archive of editions of Household Word s for free (isn’t the internet amazing?) 

Dickens founded a home for “fallen women”

Charles Dickens is well-known for his charity work. He concerned himself greatly with working conditions, poverty, and the plight of the common man, themes that featured prominently in his novels. 

In 1847, Dickens partnered with benefactor Angela Burdett-Coutts to establish Urania Cottage , a refuge for fallen women — this likely included former sex workers, but also women whose reputations had been compromised for one reason or another. 

At Urania Cottage, women found not only privacy and safety but another chance at life. Dickens reportedly insisted that they not be lectured by any religious leaders or encouraged to repent; rather, women at Urania Cottage spent their time learning new skills. Eventually, the charity would help them restart their lives overseas. 

This really is an interesting fact about Charles Dickens, because as much as Dickens loved his own celebrity, he quite notably didn’t make his involvement in this charity known to the public. 

Tip : To find out more, check out Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women by Jenny Hartley

Related : If you’re a Dickens fan and looking for an audiobook version of A Christmas Carol , check out my review of one rendition that’s free for Audible Plus users. Plus, check out my list of recommended Christmas books to expand your seasonal reading.

Charles Dickens (might have) based his villains on… himself

If you haven’t gathered it yet, Dickens was a complicated man, neither hero nor villain. He was charitable and enthusiastic, but sometimes cruel and quick to cut people out of his life. He wrote some of literature’s most memorable villains, and the story goes, these villains are based on himself. 

There’s a story that appears in multiple Dickens biographies about a meeting of Russian author Dostoevsky and Dickens. According to the story, the pair discussed their writing processes, and Dostoevsky later recorded some of their discussion in a letter, including the following: 

“He told me that all the good simple people in his novels …are what he wanted to have been, and his villains were what he was (or rather, what he found in himself), his cruelty, his attacks of causeless enmity towards those who were helpless and looked to him for comfort, his shrinking from those whom he ought to love, being used up in what he wrote.  There were two people in him, he told me : one who feels as he ought to feel and one who feels the opposite. From the one who feels the opposite I make my evil characters, from the one who feels as a man ought to feel I try to live my life.”

Some people have called into question the authenticity of this letter and of the encounter itself, it’s important to note. But while it may be a fabrication, the central message may still be true. Indeed, though he was charitable, Dickens wasn’t always the nicest guy. 

In my facts about Elizabeth Gaskell , for example, I wrote about how Dickens told his friend that if he was Gaskell’s husband, “oh heaven how I would beat her.” Charming, no?

He publicly defamed his wife and divorced her to pursue a teenage actress

This interesting fact about Charles Dickens follows quite naturally from the last… in perhaps Dickens’s darkest period, he fell in love with an 18-year-old actress (he was 45), not unlike John Steinbeck remarrying a twenty-something night club singer. In order to pursue a life with Ellen Ternan, he divorced his wife and the mother of their 10 children in very public fashion.

Dickens raged against Catherine Hogarth publicly and in the press and turned all but one of their children against her. If friends spoke up in her defense, he cut them out of his life. Notably, Catherine never responded to his ongoing defamation of her character and is generally believed to have maintained a dignified silence in response. 

Tip : to find out more, read The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin

Dickens was a ghost hunter (of sorts)

Dickens was fascinated by the paranormal to the point that he literally joined a club of ghost hunters . It’s called The Ghost Club, based in London, and it’s still active today. The organization’s mission as stated on their current website is to “offer open-minded, curious individuals the opportunity to debate, explore, and investigate unexplained phenomena.” 

Dickens practiced hypnosis 

Here’s another surprising Charles Dickens fact: he fancied himself a hypnotist. Actually, the technique was known as mesmerism at the time, and was believed to be a way of influencing the magnetic forces inside of people to cure them of various ailments. 

Dickens trained under one of the most well-known practitioners of mesmerism , John Elliotson, and practiced it on anyone who was willing (interestingly, he was never willing himself to be the subject). Dickens used mesmerism as treatment for his wife’s headaches and also practiced on his sister-in-law and one of his illustrators.

He practiced this kind of hypnotism repeatedly on a friend Augusta de la Rue, to help cure her of “spectres,” and he even bragged in a letter once, 

“I have the perfect conviction that I could magnetize a Frying-Pan.” Charles dickens

Dickens rolled around in mud outside Windsor Castle on Queen Victoria’s wedding night 

I can’t believe I wrote that statement. The story seems too bizarre to be true, but it’s one that was uncovered by a noted Dickens biographer, Claire Tomalin. Apparently, Dickens (a married man and father) suddenly decided he was passionately in love with Queen Victoria, despite the fact that they had never actually met (Tiny, insignificant detail). 

On the Queen’s wedding night to Prince Albert, he brought his friend with him to Windsor Castle to find the window of the room where Victoria and Albert would have been… royally consummating their marriage. Overcome with agony at the thought, Dickens threw himself down into the mud and began rolling around in it, unconcerned with staring passersby. 

He later even wrote to his friend that he was considering starving himself to death for love of the Queen. Yet on repeated occasions for the next 30 years, Dickens flat out refused every request she extended to meet him. He finally relented and met her in 1870, very shortly before his death. 

I always knew Dickens was a passionate man, but my goodness…

Related : If you’re a Dickens fan, you don’t want to miss the Charles Dickens Museum in London . It’s one of my favorite literary travel sights!

He invented several words and phrases, like butterfingers and “the creeps”

Like Shakespeare, Dickens is credited with creating or popularizing many words and phrases we still use in the English language. He created the word “butterfingers” to describe the clumsiness of a cricket player in The Pickwick Papers . 

He used the expression “The creeps” in David Copperfield : 

“She was constantly complaining of the cold, and of its occasioning a visitation in her back which she called ‘the creeps’.”

And these are only two of many examples. He also invented other words and expressions, like “flummox” and “devil-may-care.”

Gretchen Wieners could have taken a page from Dickens’s book ; if only she’d just become a world-famous author, maybe she could’ve made Fetch happen after all. 

Dickens had a brief stint as an incognito stage magician

Dickens seems to have simply loved the art of performance. He’s known for his popular, dramatic readings of his novels, and we’ve already established that he considered a career in acting. 

But did you know this Charles Dickens interesting fact? Between 1842 and 1849, he performed stage magic under the pseudonym The Unparalleled Necromancer. For the final climax of his show, Dickens would produce a (reportedly stinky) plum pudding from his hat. 

Amateur conjuring was a fleeting passion. In total, 10 amateur magic shows from The Unparalleled Necromancer have been documented . 

Tip : To learn more, read Charles Dickens Magician: Conjuring in Life, Letters and Literature by Ian Keable

He nearly died in a train accident

Dickens and his mistress, Ellen Ternan, were passengers during the infamous Staplehurst rail crash on June 9, 1865. Their train hit a broken rail line when passing over a viaduct, derailing so severely that six first class carriages uncoupled and plummeted off the bridge. 

The final first class carriage, the one which held Dickens and Ternan, was left dangling off the edge of the bridge, precariously coupled to the second class carriage behind it.

10 passengers died in the accident, with many more seriously injured. Dickens reportedly helped administer to injured passengers and even climbed back into the dangling train car to retrieve his latest manuscript, Our Mutual Friend . 

Charles Dickens was buried in Westminster Abbey against his wishes

How old was Charles Dickens when he died? It’s easy to imagine he lived a long life, given the sheer volume of works he produced during his lifetime, but he actually died quite young, at the age of 58. Some people attribute his failing health as an effect of his divorce and the turbulent times that followed.  

You might expect that for a man who loved performances and audiences, and who was an international celebrity, he would have had a public and perhaps even ostentatious funeral. To the contrary. 

In his will, Dickens gave very specific instructions about his burial, right down to what people should wear (no scarf, cloak, black bow, or long hatband) and how many coaches could be used (no more than three). He designated that he should be buried in an “inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner,” but what he didn’t specify? Where he wanted to be buried.

So, naturally, what less ostentatious or public place to put him to rest than inside Westminster Abbey, the most famous church in England, the burial place of the Kings and Queens of England and the site of royal coronations? 

You can still visit Dickens’s final resting place there in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey (one of my favorite places in all of London!).

Dickens expressly stated that there should never be any statues of him

Alongside his very specific instructions that he have a private, unostentatious funeral, Dickens also wanted to make it perfectly clear that he should NOT be memorialized in any way after his death. 

“I conjure my friends on no account to make me the subject of any monument, memorial, or testimonial whatever. “ charles dickens

It’s safe to say, these wishes haven’t exactly been carried out to the letter. Dickens’s own great-great grandsons attended the unveiling of a statue of Charles Dickens near his birthplace. One might also argue that turning one of his London houses into a museum is a sort of memorial (but a really fun one!).

Related : If you’re a tea-drinking bibliophile, check out my recommendations for bookish tea companies. There are several that make teas inspired by Charles Dickens !

Dickens Supposedly haunts a hotel in Boston

When touring the US giving readings of his latest novels, Dickens often based himself at the Omni Parker Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. And word is, he never left. Perhaps it’s appropriate for a former ghost hunter, but people have reported sightings of Charles Dickens’s ghost at the Omni Parker hotel. 

It is a fascinating phenomenon, one you can read more about in my post about the literary and haunted history of the Omni Parker Hotel.  

Dickens still has descendants who perform his works 

Because Dickens and Catherine Hogarth had so many children, it makes sense that there are still Dickens descendants alive today! And several of them have embraced their literary heritage.

The Dickens Museum in London frequently hosts members of the surviving Dickens family to give readings of his books or to host “Christmas with the Dickens.”  They also sometimes give talks and webinars about their ancestor.

How many of these 15 Charles Dickens facts surprised you? What other authors would you like to learn more about? Drop them in the comments!

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I'm Constance, an avid reader and traveler. I love tracking down the best literary sights everywhere I go, from the best indie bookstores to author's homes and fictional locations you can visit in real life. I'm also passionate about all things tea and chocolate. I have a BA in English literature and an MS in Nutrition Science.

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