dickens

Charles Dickens
(1812-1870)

Quick Overview

Bio: You've got to be kidding me right? You expect the life of one of the greatest authors in the English language from one of the most voluminously recorded ages in history to be summarized in a paragraph or less? Well, just forget it! Oh, all right but it won't be just a paragraph; that's for sure! The following is the introduction from the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Generally regarded as the greatest English novelist, Charles Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity than any previous author had done during his lifetime. Much in his work could appeal to simple and sophisticated, to the poor and to the Queen, and technological developments as well as the qualities of his work enabled his fame to spread worldwide very quickly. His long career saw fluctuations in the reception and sales of individual novels, but none of them was negligible or uncharacteristic or disregarded, and, though he is now admired for aspects and phases of his work that were given less weight by his contemporaries, his popularity has never ceased and his present critical standing is higher than ever before. The most abundantly comic of English authors, he was much more than a great entertainer. The range, compassion, and intelligence of his apprehension of his society and its shortcomings enriched his novels and made him both one of the great forces in 19th-century literature and an influential spokesman of the conscience of his age.

To cite this page:
"Charles Dickens:" Britannica Online.
<http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=macro/5001/74/toc.html>
[Accessed 02 April 1998].

Comments: Charles Dickens is the author whom I studied as my primary figure in my PhD. Furthermore I did the unthinkable in today's critical world, I wrote an entire dissertation on one novel: Who then Shall Be Saved? A Study of Dickens' Use of the Christian Theme of Loss and Reclamation as a Unifying Force in David Copperfield. A cyber version of this work can be found on our main frame.

Especially for Introduction to Literature ENG1073 follow this link for outstanding quotes from Dickens' novels.

His Life

Another major source for the information found here is The Dickens Project: University of California located at http://hum.ucsc.edu/dickens/Dickens.Project.Home.html (see bottom) Click here for Dickens Time-line.

Links

Lectures

Works

Novels:

Sketches by Boz (First book but not actually a novel but a collection of sketches or essays first published in local newspapers as filler)
Pickwick Papers {Click here for Actual Text]
Oliver Twist
Nickolas Nickleby (Click here for Actual Text)
Curiosity Shop
American Notes
Great Expectations (Click here for Actual Text)
Hard Times
Bleak House
David Copperfield (Click here for Actual Text)
Our Mutual Friend
Little Dorrit
Tale of Two Cities
Dombey and Son
The Mystery of Edward Drood
The Christmas Books

A Christmas Carol [Click Here for Actual Text]

Click here to read about the Christian elements found in Christmas Carol

Links

Here are some links you might find interesting:

Biographies from Looksmart

Dickens, Charles Compilation of biographical information, quotations, electronic texts of his publications, and links to Dickens trivia and tributes.

Dickens, Charles Read John Forster's life of Charles Dickens, then link to the message board, Quotations Center, or UC Santa Cruz Dickens Project. See the index.

Dickens, Charles - Chronology Detailed profile of the author summarizes much of his life and work.

Dickens, Charles - Gad's Hill Place Explores the Victorian author's private life, including the mysterious 1860-incident when Dickens burned all his private papers and letters.

Dickens, Charles - MSN Encarta Encyclopedic entry on Dickens includes a portrait, a brief biography, and a list of his best known books. With related links.

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