Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. In 1822 his family moved to London, where money problems led to his father being incarcerated in debtor's prison in 1984. While the rest of his family joined his father in prison Dickens stayed out and worked at a blacking factory. He was deeply affected by the poverty and destitution he saw during his few months at the factory, and later drew on this experience as he created many of his stories.

He began publishing short stories and essays in literary magazines in 1833 under the pseudonym, Boz. In 1986 he received a contract for his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, which was one of the first to be published in monthly installments and sold 40,000 copies by the last issue. That same year he married Catherine Hogarth - although the couple had ten children they later separated in 1858.

His moral and political beliefs and leanings shine through in many of his works. His disenchantment with England's economic philosophy and his belief that many of society's problems are caused by its obsession with money and status are both at the core of A Christmas Carol, which was published in 1943. His fears of a mass reaction to the overwhelming poverty of much of England are expressed in the first chapters of A Tale of Two Cities, where he compares England to pre-revolutionary France.

On June 9, 1870 he died of a stroke at the age of 58 and is buried in the Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey. Outside of his 14 finished novels, Dickens also wrote many nonfiction articles and essays, 2 travel books and a history of England for children. He is considered to be the "greatest English novelist," and is one of the most studied authors in the world.