A brief biography
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Charles Dickens is much loved for his
great contribution to classic English literature. He was the quintessential
Victorian author. His epic stories, vivid characters and exhaustive depiction
of contemporary life are unforgettable.
His own story is one of rags to riches. He
was born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. The
good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine was short-lived because
his father, inspiration for the character of Mr Micawber in 'David
Copperfield', 1_____________ imprisoned for bad debt. The entire family, apart
2_____________ Charles, were sent to Marshalsea 3_____________ with their
patriarch. Charles was sent to work in Warren's blacking factory and endured 5_____________
conditions as 6_____________ as loneliness and
despair. After three years he was returned to school, but the experience was
never forgotten and became fictionalised in two of his better-known novels
'David Copperfield' and 'Great Expectations'.
Like many others, he began his literary
career 7_____________ a
journalist. His own father became a reporter and Charles began with the
journals 'The Mirror of Parliament' and 'The True Sun'. Then in 1833 he became
parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. With new contacts in the
press he was 7____________ to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym
'Boz'. In April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth
who edited 'Sketches by Boz'. 8_____________
the same month came the publication of the highly successful 'Pickwick Papers',
and 9_____________ that point on there was 10_____________ looking back for
Dickens.
As well as a huge list of novels he published
autobiography, edited weekly periodicals 11_____________ 'Household Words' and
'All Year Round', wrote travel books and administered charitable organisations.
He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed 12_____________
Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time
abroad - for example lecturing 13_____________ slavery in the United States and
14_____________ Italy with companions Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, a
contemporary writer who inspired Dickens' final unfinished novel 'The Mystery
of Edwin Drood'.
He was estranged from 15_____________ wife in
1858 after the 16_____________ of their ten children, but maintained relations
with his mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan. He died of a stroke in 1870. He is
buried at Westminster Abbey.
