On this day 138 years ago, the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens, died. He was born in Portsmouth in 1786, and had to start earning a living at the age of 12 when his father was imprisoned in Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison. He was forced to work ten hours a day at a boot-blacking factory to support his family, and he later became a strong campaigner for social reform. His childhood experiences provided fertile material for his writings, and David Copperfield is a partly autobiographical novel.
In 1827 Dickens became a law clerk in the hope of qualifying as a lawyer, and this gave him first-hand experience of the problems faced by the poor in seeking justice; again this experience provided material for his later writings. He started writing journalistic pieces for publication in newspapers in 1833, leading to publication of his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, in serial form, with illustrations, from March 1836 to October 1837.
The novel in serial form was a great success, and Dickens subsequently published numerous other novels in similar format, with subscribers eagerly awaiting each installment. His best-known works include Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. My personal favourite is Martin Chuzzlewit, which features the character Mark Tapley, who finds “merit” in maintaining his cheerfulness in the worst of circumstances.