7 February 1812: Charles Dickens is born

Charles John Huffam Dickens, who was born on 7 February 1812, created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

Charles was the second of eight children born to John Dickens, a pay clerk in the navy office at Portsea and his wife Elizabeth. The family settled in Kent when Charles was 4 where he spent his formative years until the age of 11. His early life seems to have been idyllic, young Charles enjoyed a private education at Chatham’s William Giles School, spent time outdoors, and read voraciously.

This period came to an end in June 1822, when John Dickens was recalled to the navy pay office headquarters in London and the family moved to Camden Town. The family was living beyond their means and in growing debt, and two years later, John Dickens was forced by his creditors into the Marshalsea debtors’ prison in Southwark, London. His wife and youngest children joined him there, as was the practice at the time. Charles, then 12 years old, boarded with a family friend in Camden Town and was sent to work in Warren’s blacking factory, where he spent 10 hours a day pasting labels onto pots of shoe polish for 6 shillings a week, which went towards his family’s debts and his own modest lodgings. This experience of lonely hardship was the most significant event of his life, it coloured his view of the world and would later be depicted in several of his novels.

Charles briefly returned to school when his father received an inheritance and was able to repay his debts. But in 1827, at age 15, Charles was again forced to leave and work as an office boy. Five years later he had become a freelance reporter and stenographer at the law courts of London. At this time, he also began to contribute a series of impressions and sketches to newspapers and magazines, signing some of them “Boz.” These scenes of London life established his literary reputation and were published in 1836 as Sketches by Boz, his first book.

On the strength of this success, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in April 1836 and 10 children were born before they separated in 1858. During this time Dickens became the greatest writer of his day. His creative energy was immense, and novels poured out. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still widely read today.

On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered a stroke. He died the next day, never having regained consciousness. He was only 58 years old. He was buried in Westminster Abbey (against his wishes) and his will insisted that no memorial be erected in his honour.