Charles Dickens

Born in Portsmouth, England, in 1812, Charles Dickens went through hardship early in life. When his father was sent to debtors' prison, Dickens was forced to work in a blacking factory as a child, an experience that shaped his lifelong concern for poverty, class, and the treatment of children.

He first found success as a journalist and sketch writer, then became one of the most popular novelists of the 19th century with books such as The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and A Christmas Carol. He was famous not only for his storytelling, but also for creating characters who seemed to step right off the page.

Dickens also gave public readings that drew large crowds, and his work helped readers see the human cost of social inequality in Victorian Britain. He died in 1870, but his fiction has remained central to English literature ever since, loved for its energy, emotion, comedy, and moral force.