THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS ( BBC)

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

Charles John Heffam Dickens was born on the 2 nd 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 solicitors 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 Gads 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. Hes buried at Westminster Abbey.