The Literature Book

147

See also: Oliver Twist 151 ■ The Count of Monte Cristo 152–53 ■ Vanity Fair 153

■ David Copperfield 153 ■ Madame Bovary 158– 63 ■ The Moonstone 198–99

Charles Dickens

Born in Portsmouth, England,

on February 7, 1812, Charles

Dickens was the second of

eight children. When he was

12, his father was imprisoned

for debt. Charles left school

and worked in a bootblacking

factory, a grim experience that

he would describe in David

Copperfield. Later he worked

as a legal clerk and started

writing as a journalist.

In 1836 Dickens married

Catherine Hogarth and began

work on The Pickwick Papers,

establishing his reputation

as a novelist. Over the next

30 years, he published 12

major novels; he also edited

periodicals and wrote

numerous articles, short

stories, and plays. He

separated from Catherine

in 1858, having fathered

10 children. Dickens died in

1870 and was buried in Poets’

Corner, Westminster Abbey.

Other key works

1836–37 The Pickwick Papers

1837–39 Oliver Twist

1843 A Christmas Carol

1849–50 David Copperfield

1855–57 Little Dorrit

1859 A Tale of Two Cities

1860–61 Great Expectations

1864–65 Our Mutual Friend

before being offered in book form.

Improved printing technology,

cheaper paper, the growth of the

railroads, and a rise in literacy all

contributed to the emergence of

serial fiction. Price, too, played

a part: readers were more willing

or able to pay per episode than to

buy an expensive book outright. In

this way serial fiction enabled the

growth of a mass reading public.

Serial pioneer

When Charles Dickens embarked

on his novel-writing career, he had

intended to produce a three-volume

novel, in the conventional tradition

of the time. However, his publishers

suggested that he write a series

of articles to accompany some

sporting prints. According to

Dickens, “My friends told me it was

a low, cheap form of publication, by

which I would ruin all my hopes,”

but he accepted and began work

on the first episode of The Pickwick

Papers. It was a huge success, and

from then on Dickens published all

of his novels in serial form.

Despite the stress involved

in meeting a weekly or monthly

deadline, the serial format perfectly

suited Dickens’ energetic and

dramatic storytelling style. It also

helped to create an intimacy

between him and his readers—he

sometimes even altered the plot

of later installments in response

to his readers’ reactions.

Mature complexity

Bleak House was published in

monthly installments between

March 1852 and September 1853.

It was Dickens’ ninth novel and

is thought by many to be one of his

most mature. English writer and

critic G. K. Chesterton considered it

to be his best novel, a view shared

by many readers, then and now.

An immense and complex

novel, Bleak House is set mainly

in London but also in Lincolnshire

in the east of England. Its main

theme is the iniquities of the

English legal system at that time,

which through delays, obfuscation,

and lack of humanity, destroyed

the lives of innocent individuals.

Central to the story, and woven

through it, is the fictional case of

Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a legal ❯❯

ROMANTICISM AND THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

The one great principle

of the English law is, to

make business for itself.

Bleak House

Each installment of Bleak House was

accompanied by two illustrations by

Hablot Knight Browne, enhancing

the mood of the text—this illustration

shows the stately home Chesney Wold.

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