Charles Dickens (1812-70) was the quintessential Victorian novelist. He gave the world a host of characters like Ebenezer Scrooge and Oliver Twist, who live on in popular culture. Born to lower middle-class parents, Dickens' childhood ended at age 12 when he was put to work in a blacking factory, following the arrest of his father for debt. This experience colored his fiction, which often focuses upon orphans making their way in the world, and upon irresponsible parents.
Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time. It is a testament to his creative genius that a story such as A Christmas Carol, for example, seems always to have been a part of the cultural fabric, though it was not written until 1843. Dickens was a remarkably dramatic, emotional writer, at turns highly comic and equally tragic. Not surprisingly, Dickens had a strong interest in the theater.
There are a few blogs devoted solely to Dickens' life and works. He is also discussed on blogs about Victorian life and literature in a more general sense.
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