Introduction on Charles Dickens :: English Literature

Introduction on Charles Dickens He was born in 1812, his family were very poor, his father who was a clerk in the Royal Navy based in Portsmouth, when he was five years old his family moved to Chatham which at the time was a big Dockyard. At the age of nine he moved again but this time it was to London, because his family were so poor they could not afford to send Charles to school so he taught himself. Charles started work at the age of 11 in a blacking factory helped and taught what to do by a friend named Bob Fagin (who is in Oliver Twist). As a result of being so poor his father went to debtors prison, because his mother could not afford things she joined him going to prison the bailiffs took away all there possessions. His Grandmother died and left money to the family and as a result of this they got out of prison. Charles then went to school as a day boy in Hampstead where he had a 'cane happy' headmaster called Mr Jones. Charles then got an office job for newspapers and magazines doing news reports from parliament and Law courts, soon after he started writing short stories for magazines, he then died in 1870 at an age of 58. Oliver Twist was written in 1839 by Charles Dickens and was published in monthly issues in magazines and newspapers. The first time Oliver Twist was made into a book was in 1850 this was when Charles Dickens was thirty - eight years old. This book was based on his history and about the poor who lived in London. Some characters in the book are from his history such as Fagin who was his old childhood friend or Mr. Bumble who was Dickens Headmaster. The Book Oliver Twist is an orphan who was born in a workhouse. After an unhappy apprenticeship, Oliver runs away to London where he falls in with thieves, headed by Fagin a villainous 'Jew '. Mr Brownlow rescues him but the gang kidnaps him back. Oliver discovers the identity of his parents. The gang that Fagin runs are exposed. This would be similar to the workhouse Oliver would have spent 10 years of his life in. Chapter VIII We learn a lot about the way people lived then from the way Dickens described it. In chapter eight Oliver runs away from the workhouse and from Mr Sowerberry and heads off to London. As Oliver walked away from the workhouse he was hiding behind the hedges because the fear of him being 'pursued had overtaken'. He saw a