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History of English Literature

Notes not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy". Charles spent time outdoors, but also read voraciously,
especially the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. He spoke, later in life, of
his poignant memories of childhood, and of his near-photographic memory of the people and
events, which he used in his writing.

Did u know? Charles Dickens father's brief period as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office afforded
him a few years of private education at William Giles's School, in Chatham.
This period came to an abrupt end when the Dickens family, because of financial difficulties,
moved from Kent to Camden Town, in London in 1822. John Dickens continually lived beyond his
means and was eventually imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor's prison in Southwark, London in
1824. Shortly afterwards, the rest of his family joined him - except 12-year-old Charles, who was
boarded with family friend Elizabeth Roylance in Camden Town. Mrs. Roylance was "a reduced
old lady, long known to our family", whom Dickens later immortalised, "with a few alterations
and embellishments", as "Mrs. Pipchin", in Dombey and Son. Later, he lived in a "back-attic...at the
house of an insolvent-court agent...in Lant Street in The Borough...he was a fat, good-natured, kind
old gentleman, with a quiet old wife"; and he had a very innocent grown-up son; these three were
the inspiration for the Garland family in The Old Curiosity Shop.

24.1.1 Journalism and Early Novels
In 1833, Dickens' first story, A Dinner at Poplar Walk was published in the London periodical,
Monthly Magazine. The following year he rented rooms at Furnival's Inn becoming a political
journalist, reporting on parliamentary debate and travelling across Britain to cover election
campaigns for the Morning Chronicle. His journalism, in the form of sketches in periodicals,
formed his first collection of pieces Sketches by Boz, published in 1836. This led to the serialisation
of his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, in March 1836. He continued to contribute to and edit
journals throughout his literary career.
In 1836, Dickens accepted the job of editor of Bentley's Miscellany, a position he held for three
years, until he fell out with the owner. At the same time, his success as a novelist continued,
producing Oliver Twist (1837-39), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), The Old Curiosity Shop and, finally,
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty as part of the Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840-
41)-all published in monthly installments before being made into books. During this period
Dickens kept a pet raven named Grip, which he had stuffed when it died in 1841. (It is now at the
Free Library of Philadelphia).

Did u know? On 2 April 1836, he married Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1816-1879), the
daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the Evening Chronicle.

After a brief honeymoon in Chalk, Kent, they set up home in Bloomsbury. They had ten children:
Dora Annie Dickens Charles Culliford Boz Dickens (C. C. B. Dickens), later known as
Charles Dickens, Jr., editor of All the Year Round, and author of the Dickens's Dictionary of
London (1879).
Mary Dickens
Kate Macready Dickens
Walter Landor Dickens
Francis Jeffrey Dickens
Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens
Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens
Sir Henry Fielding Dickens
Edward Dickens
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