Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations

When Charles Dickens was twelve years old, his father was arrested for debt and confined in a debtors’ prison. Charles had dreamed of growing up to be a distinguished gentleman. Instead, he was taken out of school and put to work in a blacking factory, living by himself in rented rooms and supporting himself on his meager wages. Not twelve years later, The Pickwick Papers would propel him toward literary fame.

Having lived in the gritty slums of industrial London, Dickens chose to write, not about the affairs of the great and wealthy as most authors did, but of the grim and desperate lives of the poor. In books like David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, Dickens wrote about children cast adrift in a cold, uncaring city. These stories touched the hearts of so many readers that laws were passed to improve the lives of the struggling underclass. His books teemed with such unforgettable characters, gripping story lines, humor and drama, that Charles Dickens became one of the first international superstars in history.