THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS ( BBC)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unKuZ2wlNdw&feature=email

Charles John Heffam Dickens was born on the 2nd February 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles was the second of 8 siblings in all, 6 of whom survived to adulthood.

John, a naval clerk, always spent beyond his means. One day he pointed out a house to Charles, remarking that he could live in such a house if he worked hard. The family moved to London in 1822. At 12, as the family finances worsened, Charles had to start working in a blacking factory, labelling bottles for 11 hours a day. John Dickens was eventually sent to a debtors’ prison. Charles visited him there every Sunday.

His youth left him with an ambitious drive. In 1827 he began to work as a solicitor’s clerk. From the surroundings of his remarkable office he began to collect names and characteristics of the people he saw. Charles began a journalistic career in 1831; writing became his passion. Working for the paper by day and on his own work by night., he was beginning to taste success. His first piece of fiction was published in 1835.

That same year Charles met Catherine Hogarth, and they fell in love and were married. The next few years of fervent activity resulted in much writing and many children. As his writing became more popular and his fame more widespread, rumours began to abound of his drunkenness and admission to an asylum. Stories were easy to concoct about a writer who kept a pet raven and whose writing dealt in the extremes of the sentimental and the grotesque.

In 1842 Charles and Catherine set sail for America. On landing in Boston they were mobbed by crowds. Dickens’ interest lay in

visiting the unusual, which inspired his writing. He took his whole family on his next big trip to Italy in the summer 1844. Upon his return Dickens began to look for new diversions. He helped to start and edit a radical newspaper, founded a refuge for homeless women and performed his works at public readings. Aged 44, Charles bought Gad’s Hill, the house his father had pointed out to him all these years before. It symbolized a pinnacle of achievement.

Whilst Dickens was organizing a theatrical project, The Frozen Deep, he met and was spellbound by a young actress - Ellen Ternan. There is much speculation about this relationship that caused the end of his marriage to Catherine.

One fateful night in 1865 whilst Charles and Ellen were returning from Paris their train crashed at Staplehurst. Dickens administered brandy and water to the injured and the dying. Only at the last minute did he remember to retrieve the final part of Our Mutual Friend from the wrecked carriage. The incident left Dickens very shaken. For a while he maintained his busy itinerary but then his health began to fail. At home on Wednesday 9 June 1870 at the age of 58 Charles suffered a stroke and died. He’s buried at Westminster Abbey.