David Copperfield

Charles John Huffam Dickens - Published 1850

I  ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

The most popular Victorian author in Great Britain and the United States, Charles Dickens was both gifted humorist and critic of the social evils of his time. His characters are frequently eccentric, almost caricatures. They change very little or not at all in the course of the narrative, but they are nonetheless memorable. For example, Mr. Micawber is one of the outstanding characters in David Copperfield, and remains his improvident, amiable self all through the novel until he goes to Australia. Yet he is a comic character almost in the same league as Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff.

Great Expectations

Charles John Huffam Dickens - Published 1861

I  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. He was the son of John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, and Elizabeth (Barrow) Dickens. Young Dickens was taught at home by his mother, and attended a Dame School (a school in which the rudiments of reading and writing were taught by a woman in her own home) at Chatham for a short time, and Wellington Academy in London. Later, he further educated himself by reading widely in the British Museum. Dickens’s father was incompetent at managing money, and was eventually sent to debtor’s prison.

Oliver Twist

Charles John Huffam Dickens - Published 1837-1839

I  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charles John Huffham Dickens was born in Portsea, on England's southern coast, on February 7, 1812. The Dickens family moved several times during his youth, and the boy attended several schools, received instruction from his mother, and read voraciously. In 1824 Dickens's father, John, a middle-class naval pay clerk, was imprisoned for debt. Two weeks before this imprisonment, young Dickens was sent to work in a blacking warehouse pasting labels on bottles of boot polish. He lived alone in rented lodgings while the rest of his family moved into prison with his father, a common practice at

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles John Huffam Dickens - Published 1859

I  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on England's southern coast. John Dickens, Charles's father, was a respectable, middle-class naval pay clerk. His family moved several times during Charles's youth, and the boy attended several schools, received instruction from his mother, and read voraciously. John Dickens received a reasonable salary, but he always spent more than he made. In 1824 he was imprisoned for debt. Two weeks before his father's imprisonment, young Charles was sent to work in a blacking warehouse, pasting labels on bottles of boot polish.