In 1824, when John Dickens - the father of Charles -
found himself imprisoned for debt, Charles was put to hard
work at Warren's Blacking factory. Charles ' mother and the
other Dickens children joined Charles' father in the
Marshalsea prison.
After his father had
been released, the young Dickens was deeply wounded by his
mother's attitude, requiring him to continue his hard job at
the Blacking factory.
In October of
1843, when he started to write A Christmas Carol, Charles
Dickens was at thirty-one the successful author of Sketches
by Boz, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas
Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, and
American Notes.
His wife Catherine
was expecting their fifth
child.
Initially, the introduction
of Sam Weller into the fourth number of Pickwick Papers
(1836-37) had launched the most popular literary career.
Pickwick Papers became a sensation.
Forty thousand copies of each issue were sold out. England
had been flooded by Pickwick.
Dickens' novelist career had
started while he was working as a very successful reporter,
writing semi-fictional sketches for magazines, eventually
publishing them as Sketches by
Boz.
Although his novels were
best-sellers, money had always been a worry for
Dickens.
On the other hand, he was an
outgoing, playful man who loved games and
parties.
Dickens began Dombey and Son in
1847, in Switzerland. The Battle of Life appeared in
December 1848. By then, Dombey and Son had been achieved
together with an autobiographical fragment, and his last
Christmas book, The Haunted
Man.
1849-1850 saw the birth of David
Copperfield, at a time where Dickens had founded the weekly
Household Words and become an editor himself. The successor,
in 1859, was All The Year Round, which Dickens edited until
his death.
1851 found him at work on
Bleak House, which appeared monthly from 1852 until
September 1853.
In 1853 he traveled
around Italy with Augustus Egg and Wilkie
Collins.
Upon his return to England,
Dickens gave the first of many public readings from his own
works.
