Charles Dickens was born in Landport, Hampshire. His father was a clerk in the navy pay office, who was well paid but often ended in financial troubles. In 1814 Dickens moved to London, and then to Chatham, where he received some education. He worked in a blacking factory, Hungerford Market, London, while his family was in Marshalea debtor's prison in 1824. In 1824-27 he studied at Wellington House Academy, London and at Mr. Dawson's school in 1827. From 1827 to 1828 he was a law office clerk, and worked then as a shorthand reporter at Doctor's Commons. He wrote for True Son (1830-32), Mirror of Parliament (1832-34) and the Morning Chronicle (1834-36). He was also in the 1830s contributor to Monthly Magazine, and The Evening Chronicle and edited Bentley's Miscellany. In the 1840s Dickens founded Master Humphrey's Cloak and edited the London Daily News.

These years as a journalist left Dickens with lasting affection for journalism and suspicious attitude towards unjust laws. Dickens's career as a writer of fiction started in 1833 when his short stories and essays to appeared in periodical. His SKETCHES BY BOZ and PICKWICK PAPERS were published in 1836; he married in the same year the daughter of his friend George Hogarth, Catherine Hogart. The had 10 children but they were separated in 1858. Dickens had also a long liaison with the actress Ellen Ternan, whom he hand met by the late 1850s.

Dickens's novels first appeared in monthly instalments, including OLIVER TWIST (1837-39), which depicts the London underworld and hard years of the foundling Oliver Twist, NICHOLAS NICKELBY (1838-39), a tale of young Nickleby's struggles to seek his fortune, and OLD CURIOSITY SHOP (1840-41). Among his later works are DAVID COPPERFIELD (1849-50), where Dickens used his own personal experiences of work in a factory, BLEAK HOUSE (1852-53), A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1859), set in the years of the French Revolution, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1860-61), the story of Pip (Philip Pirrip), and the unfinished mystery novel THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1870).

From the 1840s Dickens spent much time travelling and campaigning against many of the social evils of his time. In addition he gave talks and reading, wrote pamphlets, plays, and letters. In the 1850s Dickens was founding editor of Household World and its successor All the Year Round (1859-70). In 1844-45 he lived in Italy, Switzerland and Paris. He gave lecturing tours in Britain and the United States in 1858-68. From 1860 Dickens lived at Gadshill Place, near Rochester, Kent. He died at Gadshill on June 9, 1870.

Although Dickens's career as a novelist received much attention, he produced hundreds of essays and edited and rewrote hundreds of others submitted to the various periodicals he edited. Dickens distinquished himself as an essayis in 1834 under the pseudonym Boz. 'A Visit to Newgate' (1836) reflects his own memories of visiting his own family in the Marshalea Prison. In 'A Small Star in in the East' reveals the working conditions on mills and 'Mr. Barlow' (1869) draws a portrait of a unsensitive tutor.

For further reading: Dickens by Peter Acroyd (1990); Charles Dickens as Familiar Essayist by Gordon Spence (1977); The World of Charles Dickens by Angus Wilson (1970); Dickens at Work by Kathleen Tillotson and John Butt (1957)

Trivia: Dickens suffered periodically insomnia like many authors, among them Franz Kafka

Dickens at works: "His hours and days were spent by rule. He rose at a certain time, he retired at another, and, though no precisian, it was not often that arrangements varied. His hours for writing were between breakfast and luncheon, and when there was any work to be done, no temptation was sufficiently strong to cause it to be neglected. The order and regularity followed him through the day. His mind was essentially methodical, and in his long walks, in his recreations, in his labour, he was governed by rules laid down for himself - rules well studied beforehand, and rarely departed from. " (anonymous friend, from Charles Dickens, An Illustrated Anthology, Cresent Books 1995)

Selected works:

• SKETCHES BY BOZ, 1836
• THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB, 1836-37 - Pickwick-kerhon jälkeenjääneet paperit
• THE ADVENTURES OF OLIVER TWIST, 1837-39 - Oliver Twist (film 1948, directed by David Lean)
• THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, 1838-39 - Nicholas Nickleby
• THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP, 1841
• BARNABY RUDGE, 1841
• AMERICAN NOTES, 1842
• THE CHRISTMAS CARROL, 1843
• THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT, 1843-44
• THE CHIMES, 1845
• THE CRICKET ON THE HEART, 1846
• PICTURES FROM ILTALY, 1846
• DOMBEY AND SON, 1848
• DAVID COPPERFIELD, 1849
• A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 1851-53
• BLEAK HOUSE, 1853
• HARD TIMES, 1854
• LITTLE DORRITT, 1855-57
• THE TALE OF TWO CITIES, 1859
• THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER, 1860
• REPRINTED PIECES, 1861
• GREAT EXPECTATIONS, 1861 (film 1946, directed by David Lean)
• OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, 1865
• THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, 1870
• SPEECHES. LETTERS AND SAYINGS, 1870
• COLLECTED WORKS EDITIONS: The Charles Dickens Edition, 21 vols., (1867-75); Nonesuch Edition, 23 vols., (1937-38); The New Oxford Illustrated Dickens, 21 vols. (1947-58); The Clarendon Dickens (in progress, 1966-)
• TO BE READ AT DUSK, 1898
• MISCALLENOUS PAPERS, 1908 (2 vols.)
• A DECEMBER VISION, 1986
• DICKENS'S JOURNALISM, vol. I, 1993
• DICKENS'S JOURNALISM, vol. 2, 1997