![]() Dickens died in 1870 and is buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Dickens had ten children with his wife Catherine Hogarth, but their marriage was never happy and Catherine left him after Dickens had an affair with the actress Ellen Ternan. He worked tirelessly, producing a magazine Household Words (later All the Year Round) and cranking out still-famous novels including Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Great Expectations, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. He also enjoyed huge popularity in America where he made several reading tours. As we will later learn, his bitterness originates at Christmas time and has warped his perspective of it. As a novelist, Dickens was successful from the start, with the publication of The Pickwick Papers in 1836, and quickly became the most famous writer in Victorian England for his unforgettable characters, comic ingenuity, and biting social critique. For characters like Fred and Bob Cratchit, Christmas represents the Christian ideal of goodness and moral prosperity, but Scrooge is at his most miserly when Christmas is mentioned. ![]() He left school at age 15, but read voraciously and acquired extensive knowledge through jobs as a law clerk, court reporter, and journalist. ![]() His experience of financial hardship and impoverishment greatly influenced the content of his stories, and his ambition. A Christmas Carol A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future. When his father was briefly imprisoned for debt, Charles worked long days at a warehouse. Born to a naval clerk, Dickens moved with his family to London at age 10. ![]()
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