Charles Dickens, summary of his life and works PDF

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this is a summary of his lige and works for the exam...

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CHARLES DICKENS LIFE AND WORKS Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on the southern coast of England, in 1812. He had an unhappy childhood. His father was imprisoned for debt and at the age of 12 he worked in a factory. At 15, he began to work as an office boy at a lawyer’s and studied shorthand at night. Then he became a successful shorthand reporter of parliamentary debates in the House of Commons and then he begane to work as a reporter for a newspaper. In 1833 he adopted the pen name “Boz” and published “Sketches by Boz”, a collection of articles and tales describing London’s people and scenes. It was immediately followed by the “Pickwick Papers” which was published in instalments revealing Dicken’s humoristic and satirical qualities. Then he married Catherine Hogarth in April. After the success of “The Pickwick Papers”, he startes a full time career as novelist and he continued his journalistic and editorial activities. The protagonists of his autobiographical novells, “Oliver Twist”, “David Copperfield” and “Little Dorrit” became the symbols of an exploited childhood. Other works were “Hard Times” and “Great Expectations” which deal about the conditions of the poor and the working class.

CHARACTERS They belonged to the lower orders. His aim was to attract the reader’s interest by exaggerating his character’s habits. He was always on the side of the poor. Children are often the most important characters in Dicken’s novels.

A DIDACTIC AIM The novelist had a social role, make the rich classes aware of their poor neighbours.

STYLE AND REPUTATION Dickens employed the most effective language and powerful descriptions of life and characters, using adjective, repetitions of words and structures, juxtapositions of images and ideas. He is considered as the greatest novelist in the English languages.

DICKENS’S NARRATIVE Dickens’s novels were influenced by the Bible, fairy tales, fables. London was the setting of most of his novels. He gradually developed a radical social vision, aware of the spiritual and material corruption of everyday life under industrialism; the result was an increasingly critical attitude towards his society....