Charles Dickens - Early life, Literary success

Other interests He travelled in America, Switzerland, France and Italy and wrote accounts of his journeys; kept a voluminous correspondence with all sorts of people; committed himself to a variety of social causes; was a keen amateur actor and theatrical producer; gave public readings from his works; fathered ten children and separated from his wife. He died at the age of fifty-eight, in 1870, prematurely old and broken down by strain and exhaustion.

Novels, short stories and periodicals Dickens wrote fourteen novels, all characterised by elaborate plots and a unique sense of humour. 0liver Twist (1837-38) and Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39) are periodicals adventure novels centred around the heroes that give title to the book; The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41) is a sentimental story which moved its readers to tears both in England and in America; Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44) is party set in America which the writer makes an object of satire; Dombey and Son (1847-48) Is about the decline and fall of a proud capitalist who loses his money hut finds his heart; David Copperfield (1849-50) is Dickens's most autobiographical novel and revisits his painful childhood; Bleak House (1852-53) offers a satirical portrait of the world around the courts of law; Hard Times (1854) shows the class struggle in industrial society; Little Dorrit (1855-57) is mainly set in the Marshalsea prison where Dickens's father had spent some time; A Tale of Two Cities (1859) takes place in London and in Paris at the time of the French Revolution; Great Expectations (1860-61) is considered Dickens's masterpiece; Our Mutual Friend (1864-68) has a very complicated plot; and finally The Mystery of Edwin Drood, left unfinished in 1870 at the author's death, uses the conventions of the newly-horn genre of crime fiction. Dickens also wrote many short stories - the most famous is A Christmas Carol (1843) - and was the editor of two periodicals, Household Words and All the Year Round.

Literary influences For his use of humour and story planning he was indebted to the l8th-century tradition of the 'picaresque' novel, which revolved around the life and adventures of a central character. He borrowed descriptive techniques for people and landscapes from Walter Scott, while his interest in the theatre gave him a flair for dialogue and provided many of the sensational and melodramatic devices he used in his plots.

Themes Dickens as a writer believed he had a reforming mission. Not only in his novels, hut also in his magazines, he attacked what he considered the worst social abuses of his time, which are reflected in his recurrent themes: the exploitation of child labour, the ill-treatment of pupils in hideous schools, unsafe factory conditions, injustices caused by the ferocious penal code, imprisonment for debt, the unsanitary slums, the greediness and selfishness of the rich upper classes, the plight of the working class.

Oliver Twist However, his fiction is not read for its social criticism nor for its realism. 0liver Twist, like others of his early works, is a sort of fairy tale in which good triumphs over evil. The 'workhouse' where Oliver and his companions live is based on 'charitable' institutions of the time which treated the poor as if poverty was a crime; the aim of Dickens's satire is to expose a form of public charity which eliminates poverty by starving the poor. But this is not the reason why the passage you have read is still enjoyable today. The scene is not realistic. The novelist juxtaposes the hungry boys and the self-righteous officials, he creates the melodramatic climax of Oliver asking for more, and ironically insists on the disproportionate reaction of the people in charge; sympathy and irony are well balanced. Although reality is the writer's starting point, his exuberant distinctive style and his love for exaggeration create a tragic-comic vision of the Victorian world. Dickens was primarily a great entertainer who could skilfully mix melodrama, humour and dramatic contrasts of lighter and darker effects.

Characterization The writer displays his greatest talent in the portrayal of character, not so much in his virtuous heroes and heroines as in the huge crowd of flawed human beings who populate his fictional world. These are 'flat' characters, larger-than-life figures or grotesque caricatures. Mr Bumble, the beadle you have briefly seen in 0liver Twist, is one of them.

Nicholas Nickleby A very good example is to be found in Nicholas Nickleby. In the extract you have Nickleby read, the presence of Nicholas, the novel's central hero, is hardy noticed. As to the pupils, although they are a pitiful group of boys bearing the marks of suffering, they stick in the reader's mind mainly because of the comic ill-treatment meted out to them by the Squeers family. But the one memorable character in this passage is the villainous Mr Squeers, shown as a ridiculous figure when he sets himself up as a teacher who does not know the correct spelling of words and has a very weak knowledge of Latin.

Description of setting Dickens's talents 15 also evident in the description of environment. Reality IS again setting the starting point but the writer's imagination transforms a setting into a richly detailed fresco which includes the human beings inhabiting it. Coketown in Hard Times, for example, recalls the actual environment of northern mill towns and, at the same time, becomes a symbolic representation of the economic and spiritual poverty that oppresses its working class. The name itself not only recalls the black colour that covers everything hut also confirms the general impression of an ugly town where living is monotonous and unpleasant.

Attitude to Victorian society Although the writer was an effective critic of the injustices of Victorian society, he was no revolutionary and never questioned the basic values of his time. He shared the contemporary view that the secret of happiness was to be found in hard work, romantic love and family life. This reassuring view, combined with his gift as a storyteller, largely accounts for the immense success that he enjoyed in his lifetime and continues to enjoy today.

Literary reputation Dickens is the one truly universal and popular genius English literature has produced since Shakespeare. Many characters, events and quotations from his novels have passed Into the English language and into national culture. Yet literary critics have long found fault with his novels because of the sentimental and sensational elements in them. Only comparatively recently has his genius been unanimously acknowledged.

OLIVER TWIST (1837-38)

book publicated in stomans, every 15 days, became popular; misfortune of his heroes; lotsof different characters (women too sweet and always die); happy ending.

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (1838-39)

Humor is very important: it's funny (buffo) and fun (divertente)