Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

1812–1870

Charles Dickens was the dominant English novelist of the Victorian era. As a child he was pulled from school to work in a boot-blacking factory while his father was imprisoned for debt — experiences that drove his lifelong campaigning for the poor and his sharp satirical eye for social injustice. He published most of his novels in serial form, creating a direct, immediate relationship with his readers. Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities are among the most widely read novels in the English language.

Works

Cover of A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

The miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former partner and three spirits who show him his past, present, and future. Dickens's 1843 novella invented many of the modern traditions of the English Christmas — and remains the most influential argument for generosity in English literature.

 Cover of A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities

Set in London and Paris during the French Revolution, Dickens's 1859 novel is a story of sacrifice, resurrection, and the violence lurking beneath social order. It opens with the most famous first sentence in the English novel.

 Cover of Great Expectations

Great Expectations

Pip, a poor blacksmith's apprentice, receives a mysterious fortune and is sent to London to become a gentleman. Dickens's 1861 novel traces his moral and social education — and his gradual understanding of what 'great expectations' are really worth.

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