He was the main character in the literary world of Victorian England, became the first master of the pen, who lived on the money earned by writing. And he turned out to be the first English celebrity in the modern sense of the word - he became a "star", which was idolized by enthusiastic fans. And at the same time, Dickens always led a double life - a public person and a person obsessed with painful complexes and passions.
The dark stage is illuminated only by the scant light of a lantern, similar to those that struggle to penetrate the darkness in the gloomy streets of London. At a small table, the figure of an elderly man is barely distinguishable. A moment passes, and his rough scolding breaks the silence of the hall. In response, a heartbreaking female screech is heard. The fight escalates until female voice does not suddenly stop ... In the hall, among the public, there is an unusual excitement. Loud sobs interspersed with hysterical exclamations. Someone faints. Finally, the man moves closer to the light of the lantern and with difficulty, leaning on the table with trembling hands, gets up.
What was it? A masterfully acted murder scene from Charles Dickens' novel The Adventures of Oliver Twist. Incredibly plausible. In the title role - Mr. Sykes - the famous author of the novel himself. He's the one who's been harassing the public with Nancy's murder for a year now. Plays so that the audience up to last minute believe that a cruel crime is being committed before their eyes.
With this scene Mr. Dickens ended his last public speech. His head is iron-bound due to high blood pressure, his pulse is pounding in his temples so that he loses the sense of reality. The treating doctor is alarmed. He warns Mr. Dickens that he himself may die right in front of his audience.
But then, as if waking up from hypnosis, the audience burst into shouts and applause. People screamed and applauded until the writer began to cry...
Charles, the eldest of the six surviving children of John and Elizabeth Dickens, was born near Portsmouth, an English port city, on February 7, 1812. His father was an employee of the Naval Treasury. Despite his by no means aristocratic origin, he was no stranger to art. The latter seemed to John Dickens an indispensable attribute of a gentleman, whom he tried his best to portray himself. His wife, in turn, was distinguished by liveliness and wit. The family encouraged such amusements as performing comic verses and participating in amateur home performances. His father often took Charles with him to local pubs, where he willingly sang and danced. Parents took the boy to theaters - his obvious acting skills flattered the vanity of the elder Dickens. True, Charles was distinguished by increased sensitivity and the ability to suffer for any very insignificant reason so deeply and painfully that it often looked like acting in the eyes of those around him.
He was also endowed with a phenomenal memory, including sounds, shapes, colors and even smells. And, apparently, Charles was not at all deceitful when, many years later, he confirmed to his dying sister Fanny that he also smelled autumn leaves when she got up from the bed and assured him that now these leaves were covering the floor in her room, as in the forest where they made long walks in childhood. No wonder memory will become a source of suffering for Dickens.
A short schooling and a serene childhood ended at the age of 10. In 1822, my father was transferred to London, to the Admiralty. In a city known as Babylon, it was not easy to maintain the same way of life as in the provinces. In the seductive capital, John and Elizabeth lived beyond their means, and soon their financial situation became desperate. The solution came to Elizabeth's mind: Charles should get a job. And now, all soiled, he sticks labels on bottles of wax. It seemed that he would never be able to get rid of her again. But the most humiliating thing for Charles is the onlookers outside the window, who, writhing in antics, are watching his occupation. But that was only the beginning of the nightmare. Shortly after his employment, his father was put in a debtor's prison, and his mother, along with the children, also went to special prison apartments. Parents not only did not take care of their eldest son, but they were not at all interested in how he lives. True, one day his father called him to his place and said instructively: “If a man receives 20 pounds a year and spends 19 of them, then he has a chance to remain happy. Having spent the last pound in an unrighteous way, he is able to distort his life. After this meeting, the boy who returned to the factory had a seizure: in a semi-conscious state, he fell to the floor and remained for several minutes in convulsive agony. It was one of the first panic attacks that would torment him severely for the rest of his life. Despite all the vicissitudes of fate, Charles managed to survive and not turn into one of the many juvenile delinquents that teemed with London.
Three months after the arrest, the father received an inheritance, and the family was again reunited at large. But Elizabeth was afraid that her husband would not be able to resist the card game and drinking, that there would not be enough money again, and without pity sent her son back to work. Dickens will never forgive her for this. His father was more gracious and allowed him to go back to school, after which Charles got a job as a clerk in a law office. For a small bribe, he persuaded a theater entrepreneur to allow him to perform in small street theaters for sophisticated London audiences. Once, impressed by the young actor's talent for impersonation, his facial expressions and brilliant pantomime, the impresario made an appointment with him at the Covent Garden Theatre. But Charles that day had one of those attacks of renal colic, which he had suffered from early childhood, which was certainly of a nervous nature.
Not to inform, but to entertain
Dickens decided to take up journalism. In three months he mastered shorthand and entered one of the first political publications, Mirror of Parliament. This was the beginning of the heyday of political journalism, and he really was a born reporter. Possessing volcanic energy, Charles could tirelessly wander around the city, sleep and eat, not get lost in the deafening roar of debate in the galleries of Parliament, where he wrote articles at crazy speed right on his knees. At the same time, Charles composed the first stories and sketches, where he turned the lives of the well-known inhabitants of the London bottom into satirical sketches. When the first collection of his stories was published in 1836, the twenty-four-year-old author received a flattering offer from Chapman & Hall. Dickens was required to provide them with a monthly series of stories to be continued. 20 thousand words a month for 20 months, fee - 14 guineas. Since then, Charles will always write for publications that are ready for such a "serialization" of his works, a kind of analogue of the modern "soap opera". First - the announcement and advertising, and with each new release, the readership grew and expanded. Her unrelenting interest guaranteed the author not only fame, but also constant financial income, which was incredibly important to him. And although the name of Dickens very quickly turned into a real brand, readers were ready to buy up all the publications where they promised to publish his new novel - he could not feel financially secure.
For the first time, the Pickwick Papers were published in an edition of only 400 copies. But soon they were published - in parts and in whole volumes - with a circulation of 40 thousand copies. Dickens created a world that seemed to be familiar to every Englishman, but embellished it in an enchanting way, forcing the audience to laugh heartily. Pickwick hats, Pickwick cigars - a lot of things immediately began to be named after the protagonist of the novel. And Dickens understood: the public should not be informed, but entertained, forcing them to cry and laugh alternately. "The effect of well-cooked bacon with layers" - as he himself called the skillful combination of comic and tragic, farce and pathos in his art. He, unlike most of his colleagues, never felt the desire to build himself an ivory tower, where only a select few would be admitted.
Charles stood under the bedroom windows of the young daughter of the banker, Maria Bidnell, whom he accidentally met at the entrance to the theater on Drury Lane almost 4 years ago when he ran past on reporter business. His fertile imagination completed the angelic character, the intellectual breadth and sensitivity of this girl, in whom, it seemed, there was nothing but a pretty face and the coquettish antics of a rich spoiled young lady. But out of curiosity, Maria occasionally ran on dates to a slightly strange, but handsome young man with regular features, a high forehead, a beautifully contoured sensual mouth, lush and thick hair. She also answered his ardent endless letters. Charles, on the other hand, turned out to be, in his words, obsessed with Mary.
That night, dawn was already approaching, but Maria did not appear at the window. Her father somehow found out about the bankruptcy of the elder Dickens. Charles did not receive an answer to his last letter: “I have been subject to suffering for so long, accustomed to living in misfortune for so long, that my present experiences are only their pitiful semblance. There is no woman in the world on whom my existence would depend more than on you, because even I breathe only thanks to you. Having been refused, he experienced a humiliation comparable only to when passers-by could watch him while working in a factory. From then on, Dickens would suppress his nature and keep intimate experiences deep within himself. Again being rejected by a woman, being now a public person, such a prospect seemed unbearable to him, it was akin to the fear of being in poverty. Therefore, he conscientiously tried to "fit in" with the morals and customs of the society of Victorian England, with its cult family values and home hearth.
Katherine Hogarth beautiful black-haired girl with bright blue eyes, was the eldest daughter of a friend of Dickens, journalist George Hogarth, a friend of Sir Walter Scott. Catherine and Charles were engaged for a year, and during this time he convinced himself that the friendly Hogarth family was moderately bourgeois, respectable, endowed with a taste for life and art. And the imagination has already drawn a happy and correct marriage with Katherine: they will support each other morally and emotionally, and their love will coexist with friendship. Somewhere in the depths of his soul, Charles always envied the family idyll of his frivolous and unlucky parents, which for 40 years could not be disturbed by any life circumstances.
They married in the spring of 1836. The honeymoon of 20-year-old Katherine and 24-year-old Charles lasted only a week: in London, obligations to publishers awaited him.
The first years of marriage with the Dickens couple lived Mary, Catherine's younger sister. Dickens adored her, lively, cheerful, spontaneous. She reminded Charles of his sister Fanny, with whom the most precious childhood memories were associated. Her innocence made the writer feel the guilt inherent in Victorian men ... But he curbed his natural passion in every possible way. It is unlikely that Katherine liked such coexistence, but she did not have the habit of making scenes for her husband. One day, the three of them returned from the theater, and Mary suddenly lost consciousness. From that moment on, Charles did not let the girl out of his arms, and her last words were intended only for him. She died of a heart attack. On the tombstone, he ordered to engrave the words “Young. Beautiful. Good." And he asked his relatives to bury him in Mary's grave.
Inimitable
In those years, Charles was still attached to Katherine. The gentleness and kindness of his wife served as a reliable support in the constant and tireless struggle with life. This struggle Dickens could not stop for a second. Restlessness and inner fear forced him to constantly transport his family from one place to another, and he was indignant when Catherine dared to express her displeasure. At home, the writer demanded an iron routine. When he worked, everyone walked on tiptoe. When he wanted to have fun, a huge number of guests appeared in the house, and Catherine had to take part in all the entertainment. Quite quickly, their roles were clearly distributed: Charles was a despot, a domestic tyrant, and his wife had to remain cheerful and healthy, despite numerous pregnancies. But Katherine never managed to fill the void left by Mary's death.
By the age of 30, her husband became real star, whose fame and popularity are quite comparable with the popularity of modern movie stars. The richest heiress in England, Angela Bardett-Couts, chose Dickens as her attorney in charitable missions. Orphanages, schools for the poor, special shelters for repentant prostitutes were under the tutelage of Dickens. His knowledge of the London sewer and his indefatigability, combined with Miss Couts' money, gave good results. Dickens dealt with one of these shelters personally. He rented a house, picked up furniture, oversaw the installation of sewer pipes, and even came up with a uniform that was supposed to be issued to women who arrived at the institution.
At gala dinners and meetings with readers, he was greeted with a standing cheer by thousands of people - Dickens loved such promotions. During his first six-month American tour in 1842, the writer found out how great his popularity was on the other side of the Atlantic. It was said that even cowboys read his novels avidly, gathered around the night fire. For example, just like the English inhabitants, they mourned the death of their favorite little Nell from the Antiquities Store and were indignant that the author could decide to kill her.
“You should have seen how thousands of clerks, priests and lawyers filled the streets, preventing the passage and welcoming the Inimitable,” Dickens wrote to John Forster from America. Since then, the playful epithet, which the writer himself awarded, will turn into a nickname. And then one day the fans tore the coat of the Inimitable to shreds. What for? Of course, to take a piece of fabric as a keepsake. In America, even then they knew how to pester celebrities ... Sparing himself from such meetings, Dickens often left various institutions through the back door or locked himself from fans with a key.
Fame, of course, warmed. And what could be sweeter than glory? And Dickens continued to maintain his image until he made the mistake of allowing himself to publicly outrage. It so happened that in the newspapers, without his knowledge, they published - without paying the due fee - excerpts from the writer's speech on copyright issues. The audience exploded: he was immediately subjected to a public "flogging", Inimitable was called "greedy and uncouth cockney", accused of "typically English narrow-mindedness and inability to behave in a refined society."
crisis therapy
In family life, everything was different. Catherine was a very persistent woman, she never complained to her husband, did not shift family concerns to him, but her postpartum depression and headaches irritated Charles more and more, who did not want to recognize the validity of his wife's suffering. Home idyll, born of his imagination, did not correspond to reality. The desire to become a respectable family man went against his nature. I had to suppress a lot in myself, which only exacerbated the feeling of dissatisfaction.
With children, Charles also showed the duality characteristic of his nature. He was gentle and helpful, entertained and encouraged, delved into all the problems, and then suddenly cooled off. Especially when they reached the age when his own serene childhood ended. He felt the constant need to take care, first of all, that the children would never experience the humiliations that fell to his lot. But at the same time, this concern was too burdensome for him and prevented him from continuing to be a passionate and tender father.
In 1843, Dickens wrote the first work in the Christmas Tales series. A Christmas Carol was such a success with the public that a publishing house pirated it. Charles sued, won the case, but the legal costs were much more than he expected. The writer will never defend his copyright in court again. It all ended with the fact that the fear of poverty brought him to a nervous fever. He again, without even consulting his wife, got ready for the road, deciding to temporarily move to Europe.
In the cold old palazzo in Genoa, Dickens brought not only his family, but also Georgina, another younger sister of his wife, appointing her the governess of his children. Georgina was a bit like Mary, but Dickens refused to admit his passion - he tried his best to resist the young beautiful girl.
After 7 years of marriage, Dickens increasingly began to flirt with women. Katherine's first open rebellion about this struck him to the core. Having grown fat, with faded eyes, barely recovering from another birth, she sobbed muffledly and demanded that he immediately stop his visits to the “other woman”. The scandal erupted because of the friendship of Dickens in Genoa with the Englishwoman Augusta de la Rua. Augusta suffered from a nervous condition that Freud would most likely have identified as hysteria. Dickens offered her his services as a "doctor". During visits to France, he became interested in mesmerism, the fashionable teaching of the physician Anton Mesmer. It is not surprising that, possessing powerful energy, the writer discovered in himself the gift of suppressing someone else's. Sending "energetic fluids", he introduced Augusta into a state of "magical sleep" and, while she was under hypnosis, asked her questions. She admitted that she was visited, threatening, by a "phantom". Dickens was sure that the phantom was just a sign of a mental disorder, and tried to identify its origin. It is possible that psychoanalysis, which, in essence, Dickens began to use, would have helped his “patient”, if he had not obeyed the demands of his wife to end this “therapeutic” relationship with Augusta. Katherine sounded the alarm not in vain - her husband's relationship with an attractive compatriot was platonic, but at the same time much more intimate than even physical intimacy ... Dickens obeyed his wife's demands, but these "therapeutic" relationships testified not only to the desire to satisfy pathologies and mental disorders ...
On the day when Dickens painfully pondered the fate of David Copperfield's wife Dora and finally killed her, his own wife gave birth to her ninth child - a girl. Charles called her Dora, on some irresistible impulse. The girl died 8 months later. Dickens was exhausted with guilt - he could not help but admit that he subconsciously wished for his daughter to die, because he was burdened by her birth.
Now Dickens was truly rich and successful, dictating his terms to publishers, rightly believing that they depended on him more than he did on them. Fulfilled a "childish" dream - he bought the Gadshill Place estate in Kent. This old castle (one of the scenes with Falstaff in Shakespeare's Henry IV was played out in it) was once shown to him by his father during a walk as a child and said that if his son behaves correctly, he will someday be able to become his master.
With the writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton (author of The Last Days of Pompeii), Dickens created the Literature and Art Guild to support people whose artistic careers were not going very well. It was decided to collect money by giving non-repertory performances. He invited the most important person in England, Queen Victoria, to a performance based on the play by Wilkie Collins "The Frozen Abyss". After that, people poured into the theater in droves. In this melodrama the writer played leading role and in the end he died in the arms of a woman who had once been beloved, but who rejected him, without finding a worthy girlfriend. And so Dickens was introduced to the Ternan acting family - mother, Francis, her daughters Fanny, Mary and the youngest Ellen, eighteen years old. On the third day of performances, Dickens confessed backstage to his friend Wilkie Collins that he was "obsessed" with Ellen. Returning from the tour, he arranged for her an engagement in London theater Haymarket, but they did not immediately become lovers. The new woman in his life demanded respect and courtship, it was impossible to make demands on her as a wife, and she had to hide her dissatisfaction. Consequently, rage and resentment poured out on the one that no longer aroused passion, but only irritation.
At home, he ordered his wife's maid to divide their bedroom with a screen so that he would no longer share a bed with her. He offered Catherine to go to France, leaving him with the children and Georgina. In response, Mrs. Dickens accused her husband of wanting to get rid of her in order to be alone with her sister. But the climax of the family drama was a completely banal scene of jealousy. Seeing the bracelet Charles bought for Ellen, Katherine threw a tantrum and left with her eldest son to her parents. Her husband did not allow her to take the rest of the children and did not allow them to see her. Only the eldest daughters occasionally visited their mother. One of them - Kate hastened to marry without love for a man much older. Dickens tried to interfere and wept in his daughter's room on her wedding day. The other - Mamie did not marry. None of his children inherited the talents or energy of their father. The atmosphere of unhappiness and family troubles, his mood swings, the breakup of his parents, the hardships of the consequences of his father's popularity and fame - all this could not but affect their lives.
 Georgina Hogarth |
Georgina became the mistress of the house - it was not easy for her, but the habit of bowing to Dickens made the girl neglect the grief of her sister and the anger of her parents. He almost managed to negotiate with Catherine about separation and payment of 600 pounds a year to her. But the Hogarths began spreading rumors about their son-in-law's relationship with their youngest daughter, probably hoping to open Ellen's eyes. Dickens brought Georgina to the doctor, who testified to her virginity. It turned out that Dickens was accused in vain when for the first time in his life he decided to express his feelings towards a young and innocent woman. His rage at what had happened was expressed in seizures, which his daughters called "insane". From that moment on, he felt like a victim of the Hogarths and stopped holding back, plunging himself into a grandiose public scandal. The writer published in his weekly " Home reading” letter, dubbed “angry”. Until now, the public did not suspect anything about the events in the writer's personal life, now he told everything himself. The main theses of this message are as follows: Katherine herself is to blame for their break with his wife, it was she who turned out to be unsuitable for family life with him, for the role of wife and mother. Georgina is what kept him from breaking up. She also raised children, since Katherine, according to her husband, was a useless mother (“Daughters turned into stones in her presence”). Dickens did not lie - his feelings for women were always distinguished by a special either negative or positive intensity. All their actions, which they committed from the moment he rewarded them with a negative "image", only confirmed in his mind that they were right. So it was with my mother, and now with Katherine. Much of the letter was dedicated to Georgina and her innocence. He also admitted to the existence of a woman, to whom he “experiences strong feeling". With his public confession, which, after a long habit of keeping his spiritual secrets, became extreme in its form and content, he seemed to win another "battle with life." Won the right to break with the past. Almost all friends turned their backs on the writer, taking the side of Katherine. This he did not forgive them until the end of his life. At the same time, he composed another letter to refute the storm of gossip and rumors that had risen. But most newspapers and magazines refused to publish it...
death number
Then the idea came to him to give a public reading of his novels. It was a way to make money and at the same time test the attitude of readers, people who had never betrayed him. He began to read his works long ago, in a narrow circle of friends. Then no one remained indifferent to this reading, but he was not advised to drop his dignity, speaking to the general public. Now, however, the society in which he never managed to “fit in” could blame him as much as he liked, but the audience greeted him with applause. People have been queuing since the evening to buy a ticket, the police created a cordon to prevent a crush. Dickens took the stage fresh flower in his buttonhole and waited for the rumble to subside. And he began to read - supposedly looking into the book. They say that he remembered all his novels by heart, magically transformed into their heroes. Between the author and those sitting in the hall there was a contact akin to mystical. There were rumors that Dickens put the audience into a state of trance.
Since 1857, Charles began to live a double life - a public person and secret lover. He settled Ellen with her mother in a separate house and paid her secret visits. She never returned to the stage. But even in this novel, which lasted 14 years, Dickens did not find either peace or satisfaction.
Ellen didn't want to miss her chance to get married someday. In the secret life for Dickens, despite the disappointment, at least the drama, the heat of passions, was preserved. He lived all the time, as if in a train car, moving from the editorial office to his house, from home to Ellen, from there to abroad, constantly traveling between the cities where he went on stage. But often, despite living apart, a despot woke up in him, their meetings turned into scandals of lovers, one of whom was not only much older, but also the one on whom they depend, which means that at such moments they hate even more. Ellen (although there is no conclusive evidence of this) gave birth abroad to a child who died in infancy. Dickens, until the last day, did not want to admit to himself that Ellen did not reconcile him with reality and did not make him happy. To admit it was to experience the humiliation he feared more than anything.
Once Charles, the eldest son of Dickens, heard heartbreaking cries from the garden. Furiously, viciously and rudely argued a man and a woman. Rushing into the garden, frightened Charles saw his father there. Dickens, who by that time could hardly move, and his pulse could not be counted, his hands were shaking so much, rehearsed the scene of Nancy's murder from the novel "The Adventures of Oliver Twist", written by him 30 years ago. The attending physician warned that such an "experiment" would bring his own death closer. But there was no person capable of hindering Dickens. He included the scene on his last tour, the beginning of which coincided with a turning point in his relationship with Ellen. She, with the approval of her mother and older sister, who successfully married one of Dickens' friends, limited her communication with him, graciously leaving the role of patron and mentor to the writer. In one of the letters of that period, Ellen admitted in a letter to her confessor that "she always hated even the thought of intimacy with Dickens." Killing on stage a young woman created by his own imagination, the rejected Dickens experienced incredible relief. By killing himself, he put an end to the reality that he never managed to transform with the power of his genius...
On June 8, 1870, around noon, he went to visit Ellen - she occasionally received his visits and money for the household. There he lost consciousness. Ellen called the carriage and, with the help of her butler, transferred Dickens to it. It was in this state that she delivered him to Gadshill Place. Together with Georgina, she laid the writer on the sofa, where he died, without regaining consciousness, a day later, on June 9. A minute before his death, a tear slowly rolled down his cheek. Both women agreed not to make public the fact that Dickens was with Ellen on the eve of her death and that it was she who intended his last words, the secret of which she never revealed.
On June 14, Charles Dickens was buried in Westminster Abbey. Although in his will he asked for something else ... However, a public person of such a magnitude, even after death, is forced to obey the desires of society. Neither Catherine Dickens nor Ellen Ternan attended the modest but solemn ceremony. But thousands of English people came to bow to their favorite author, buried under a heavy gloomy slab within the walls of the famous abbey.
(1812 - 1870) - a classic of world literature. His works are read and re-read by millions of people today.
Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens, first published by Chapman & Hall in 1836-1837. It was from this book (and its ruddy and plump protagonist) that a brilliant career as a writer began.
The Adventures of Oliver Twist
The Adventures of Oliver Twist is Dickens' most famous novel.
Good old England is unkind to orphans and poor children. The story of a boy left without parents and forced to wander through the gloomy slums of London. twists and turns of fate little hero, numerous meetings on his way and a happy ending to difficult and dangerous adventures - all this is of genuine interest to many readers around the world.
Big hopes
The novel "Great Expectations" needs no introduction - a huge number of theatrical productions and adaptations constantly keep it in the field of view of readers.
The hero of the novel "Great Expectations", a young man Philip Pirrip (or simply Pip), strives to become a "true gentleman" and achieve a position in society. But disappointment awaits him. Money stained with blood cannot bring happiness, and the "gentleman's world" in which Philip placed so many hopes turned out to be hostile and cruel.
Hard times
Hard Times is set in the industrial city of Coxtown, where everything is impersonal: people are dressed the same, leave the house and return at the same hours, the same clatter of the soles of the same shoes. The city has a philosophy of facts and figures, followed by the wealthy banker Bounderby. Such is the system of education at the Gradgrain school - without love, warmth, imagination. The soulless world of facts is opposed by a traveling circus troupe and the circus performer's little daughter, Sissy Jupe.
cold house
"Bleak House" was written in 1853 and is the ninth novel in Dickens's work, and also opens the author's period of artistic maturity. This book provides a cross-section of all strata of British society. Victorian era, from the highest aristocracy to the world of city gateways. A master of creating intrigue, the writer saturates the work with secrets and intricate plot twists, which are simply impossible to break away from.
Christmas stories
"Christmas stories" were written by Dickens in the 40s of the XIX century. In these stories, the main characters are fairies, elves, ghosts, spirits of the dead and ... ordinary Englishmen. In them, a fairy tale is intertwined with reality, and horrors underworld not inferior to the cruelty of the surrounding reality. Magical, scary and moderately moral and educational reading for all time.
The life of David Copperfield as told by himself
The Life of David Copperfield, as Told by Himself, is a largely autobiographical novel by Charles Dickens, published in five parts in 1849 and as a separate book in 1850.
David's father died shortly before the birth of his son. At first, the boy grew up surrounded by the love of his mother and nanny, but with the advent of his stepfather, a stubborn tyrant who considers the child his burden, about former life had to forget. Another "mentor", the ignorant Mr. Creekle, a former hop merchant turned headmaster, continued to hammer his miserable ideas of order into the young hero. But these barbaric methods of education are interrupted by the outwardly harsh Betsy Trotwood, who becomes the embodiment of kindness and justice for the boy.
Charles John Huffham Dickens - English writer, novelist, essayist
February 7 marks the 205th anniversary of the birth of the writer.
Charles Dickens
(1812-1870)
“A person cannot truly improve unless he helps others to improve.”
Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in Landport. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles was the second child of eight children in the family. His father worked at the naval base of the Royal Navy, but was not a hard worker, but an official.
Little Dickens inherited from his father a rich imagination, lightness of words, apparently adding to this some seriousness of life inherited from his mother, on whose shoulders all worldly concerns to preserve the well-being of the family fell.
The boy's rich abilities delighted his parents, and the artistically minded father literally tormented his son, forcing him to act out different scenes, tell his impressions, improvise, read poetry, etc. Dickens turned into a little actor, full of narcissism and vanity.
However, the Dickens family was suddenly ruined to the ground. The father was thrown into long years in debtor's prison, the mother had to fight poverty. Pampered, frail in health, full of fantasy, in love with himself, the boy ended up in harsh operating conditions at a wax factory.
Throughout his subsequent life, Dickens considered this ruin of the family and this black polish of his as the greatest insult to himself, an undeserved and humiliating blow. He did not like to talk about it, he even hid these facts, but here, from the bottom of need, Dickens drew his ardent love for the offended, for the needy, his understanding of their suffering, understanding of the cruelty that they meet from above, a deep knowledge of the life of poverty and such horrendous social institutions, like the then schools for poor children and orphanages, like the exploitation of child labor in factories, like debtors' prisons, where he visited his father, etc.
Dickens carried out of his adolescence a great, gloomy hatred for the rich, for the ruling classes. Colossal ambition possessed the young Dickens. The dream of climbing back into the ranks of people who enjoyed wealth, the dream of outgrowing his original social place, winning for himself wealth, pleasure, freedom - that was what excited this teenager with a mop of chestnut hair over a deathly pale face, with huge , burning with healthy fire, eyes.
After his father's release from prison, Charles remained in his service at the insistence of his mother. In addition, he began attending Wellington Academy, graduating in 1827. In May of the same year, Charles Dickens got a job as a junior clerk in a law office, and a year and a half later, having mastered shorthand, he began working as a free reporter. In 1830 he was invited to the Moning Chronicle.
The public immediately accepted the novice reporter. His notes attracted the attention of many. In 1836, the first literary experiments of the writer were published - the moralistic "Essays of Boz". He mainly wrote about the petty bourgeoisie, its interests and state of affairs, drew literary portraits Londoners and psychological sketches. Needless to say, Charles Dickens short biography which does not allow to cover all the details of his life, and began to publish his novels in newspapers in separate chapters.
"Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club". The novel began to appear in 1836. The novel made an incredible sensation. The names of the heroes immediately began to be called dogs, give nicknames, wear hats and umbrellas like Pickwick's.
Charles Dickens, whose biography is known to every inhabitant of Foggy Albion, made the whole of England laugh. But it helped him to solve more serious problems. His next work was the novel The Life and Adventures of Oliver Twist. It is difficult now to imagine a person who does not know the story of the orphan Oliver from the London slums. Charles Dickens portrayed a broad social picture in his novel, touching on the problem of workhouses and showing the life of the wealthy bourgeois in contrast.
The fame of Dickens grew rapidly. Both liberals saw him as their ally, because he defended freedom, and conservatives, because he pointed out the cruelty of new social relationships.
In 1843, the "Christmas Carol" was published, which became one of the most popular and read stories about this magical holiday.
In 1848, the novel "Dombey and Son" is published, which is called the best in the writer's work. His next work is "David Copperfield". To some extent, the novel is autobiographical. Dickens brings into the work the spirit of protest against capitalist England, the old foundations of morality.
The novel "Our mutual friend"attracts with its versatility, in it the writer rests from social topics. And this is where his style of writing changes. It continues to transform in the next works of the author, unfortunately, not finished.
In the 1850s Dickens reached the zenith of his fame. He was a darling of fate - a famous writer, ruler of thoughts and a rich man - in a word, a person for whom fate did not stint on gifts.
But Dickens' needs were wider than his income. His disorderly, purely bohemian nature did not allow him to introduce any kind of order into his affairs. He not only tormented his rich and fruitful brain, forcing it to overwork creatively, but being an unusually brilliant reader, he tried to earn huge fees by lecturing and reading passages from his novels. The impression of this purely acting reading was always colossal. Apparently, Dickens was one of the greatest reading virtuosos. But on his trips he fell into the hands of some entrepreneurs and, earning a lot, at the same time time brought himself to exhaustion.
His family life turned out hard. Quarrels with his wife, some difficult and dark relationships with her entire family, fear for sickly children made Dickens from his family rather a source of constant worries and torment.
On June 9, 1870, fifty-eight-year-old Dickens, not old in years, but exhausted by colossal work, a rather hectic life and a lot of all sorts of troubles, dies in Gaideshill from a stroke.
Do you know that
∙ Charles Dickens always slept with his head to the north. Also, when he wrote his works, he sat facing in this direction.
∙ One of Charles Dickens's favorite pastimes was going to the Paris mortuary, where he could spend whole days captivated by the sight of unidentified remains.
∙ From the very beginning of the relationship, Charles Dickens declared Catherine Hogarth, his future wife that her main purpose is to bear children and do what he tells her. Over their years living together she gave birth to ten children, and all this time unquestioningly carried out any instruction of her husband. However, over the years, he began to simply despise her.
∙ Dickens was a very superstitious person: he touched everything three times - for good luck, considered Friday his lucky day, and on the day the last part of the next novel was released, he would certainly leave London.
∙ Dickens assured that he sees and hears the characters of his works. They, in turn, constantly get in the way, do not want the writer to do anything other than them.
∙ Charles very often fell into a trance, which his comrades noticed more than once. He was constantly haunted by a sense of deja vu.
Internet resources:
Dickens Charles. All books by the same author[Electronic resource] / Ch. Dickens / / RoyalLib.Com: electronic library. – Access mode: http://royallib.com/author/dikkens_charlz.html
Dickens Charles. All books by the author[Electronic resource] / Ch. Dickens / / Read books online: electronic library. – Access mode: http://www.bookol.ru/author.php?author=%D0%A7%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B7%20%D0%94 %D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BA%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81
Charles Dickens. Collected Works[Electronic resource] / Ch. Dickens // Lib.Ru: library of Maxim Moshkov. – Access mode: http://lib.ru/INPROZ/DIKKENS/
Charles Dickens: biography[Electronic resource] // Litra.ru. – Access mode: http://www.litra.ru/biography/get/wrid/00286561224697217406/
Charles Dickens. Articles. Speeches. Letters[Electronic resource] // Librarian. Ru.: electronic library of non-fiction. - Access mode: http://www.bibliotekar.ru/dikkens/
Aphorisms and quotes:
Our world is a world of disappointments, and often disappointments in those hopes that we cherish most of all, and in hopes that do great honor to our nature.
Tears cleanse the lungs, wash the face, strengthen eyesight and calm the nerves - so cry well!
There are some books that have the best thing - the spine and the cover.
Women can explain everything in a nutshell, unless they start to boil.
I decided that if my world can't be yours, I will make your world mine.
There is no repentance more cruel than useless remorse.
In this world, everyone benefits who lightens the burden of another person.
Not always high is that which occupies a high position. And it is not always low that which occupies a low position.
Printing is the greatest discovery in the world of art, culture and all technical inventions.
Why are we given life? So that we defend it bravely until the last breath.
Persistence will reach the top of any hill.
What is more courageous than the truth?
The key to your prosperity is hard work.
By helping others learn and develop, we improve ourselves.
Children feel and feel injustice more acutely and more subtly than adults.
A dead man is not as scary as a living, but devoid of mind person.
A lie is always a lie, whether you tell it or hide it.
Tears are the rain that washes away the earthly dust that covers our hardened hearts.
Any beautiful goal can be achieved by honest means. And if not, then this goal is bad.
by Notes of the Wild MistressIn 1839, 27-year-old Charles Dickens, who had just published his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, was already so popular that a portrait of the writer, painted by his friend, the Irishman Daniel Maclise, was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In the next 30 years, Dickens wrote 13 major novels, and his fame spread throughout the world. The famous British writer, biographer of Charles Dickens Claire Tomalin told about how this happened in a lecture organized by the British Council in conjunction with the State Tretyakov Gallery. Lenta.ru publishes excerpts from her speech.
Wax and secrets
Charles Dickens was born in early XIX century in 1812 during the reign of King George III, at the end of the long war between Great Britain and France. At that time, England was investing all its resources in the fight against the French, and its main military force was the fleet - the main employer in the country. Dickens's father and great-grandfather on the maternal side worked in the Navy as officials - they were engaged in the issuance of salaries. Both worked in the city of Portsmouth, where the writer was born.
His father, John Dickens, the son of a servant, was very lucky to get such a good position. The maternal great-grandfather of the writer had a good education, position and respect in society, but Dickens did not know his name, it was never mentioned in the family, because shortly before the birth of John's father, this man was found guilty of systematic embezzlement of the fleet's money, and he was forced to flee the country to avoid jail. The great-grandfather of the writer became a family secret, which is not customary to talk about - the very one that Charles Dickens often exploited in his works.
Since 1817, the family lived in Chatham, in Kent, and Charles remembered this time as the happiest period of his childhood. He liked rural life, forests and rivers, gardens and swamps, the seashore.
His father had a good library, and Charles read passionately: old novels, plays and fairy tales. He performed comic verses with his older sister - the family went to the pub, the children were put on the table, and they sang. Dickens loved applause.
There he first visited the theater, which became his passion for life. In addition, he was placed in good school, where the teacher recognized the extraordinary giftedness of the child and began to encourage him to read a lot, write and strive to succeed in life.
But this happy time came to an end when the employers recalled John Dickens to London. He didn't lose his job, but he got into such debt (from books, wine, and poor spending management) that the family got into trouble. They did not find a school for the children, and the eldest child - Charles, who was then 10 years old - was regularly sent to the pawnshop to pawn furniture, dishes, fabrics and other things. He had to take all his books, which he loved so much, there. In the end, there was nothing to pawn.
Charles Dickens. Painting by artist Daniel Maclise
In 1824, Dickens' father was sent to debtor's prison. Soon his mother joined him with all the children except Charles. A family friend arranged for the future writer to work in a wax factory, which was located on the rat-infested banks of the Thames in central London.
This event became the main episode in the formation of his personality. Charles Dickens felt helpless and abandoned by his family. He lived in a miserable shack, woke up alone every day, got up and went to work, where he packed wax into cans.
But even then he was different from his father. He was paid a few shillings and pence a week. Charles divided the money into seven parts and spent exactly the allotted amount on food so as not to remain hungry for the weekend.
Memories of this period of childhood influenced what Charles Dickens wrote about - he often described suffering children. As his friend John Foster said, all these children were in some way the writer himself.
When the writer's father was released from prison, something strange happened: Dickens' parents never remembered his work at the wax factory - as if it had never happened. He, too, kept it a secret, like his great-grandfather, who fled abroad, the mention of which was taboo. All this to a large extent influenced the formation of Charles's imagination.
He was placed in a modest London school, but soon his father again got into debt and could not pay for his son's education. Dickens' formal education ended when he was 15 years old. His mother arranged for him to be a messenger in a law office.
Path to glory
After nine years, he became famous. How did it happen? He learned shorthand and became a reporter, covering debates first in the House of Lords and then in the House of Commons. Dickens excelled in this field, and also became convinced that politicians were inefficient and possessed of excessive conceit. He carried his contempt for parliamentarism through his whole life. Later, he made several political friends, but he never changed his attitude towards the situation as a whole.
He worked for newspapers. Newspapermen found him smart, quick, ambitious, and hardworking—a rising star in journalism. He was hot.
During these years, he worked a lot on the streets of London, watching everything that happened around. A contemporary of the writer, political scientist Walter Baget, said: "Dickens described London as a special correspondent for subsequent generations."
Charles Dickens began by taking notes on what he saw on the streets. At first, he simply gave his essays to small newspapers and magazines. Readers liked them, and then Dickens began to sell them. Finally a friend said to him, "Why not collect them and find a publisher?" The publisher has been found. In 1836, Dickens' book Essays on Boz. Volume I" is out.
Dickens called himself Boz - his younger brother's name was Moses, and he shortened that name to Moz. But at that time he had a runny nose, and instead of Moz he nasally Boz. In the future, he signed like this - Boz.
This is a great book. It allows the reader to see, hear and smell London as it was then. It has social satire, court reports, compassion for people, and smart observations. The book was so successful that another publisher suggested that he publish the novel and gave him a good advance, thanks to which Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers.
This book, which is a monthly sketch of the life of a bachelor and his servant, was a phenomenal success. Dickens and his wife moved into a comfortable house - the first good house in his life. Other publishers fought for the right to collaborate with him.
London
In 1847, Dickens' first child was born, son Charlie, whom he considered an extension of himself. Then began his friendship with John Foster, which changed his whole life. Foster also came from poor family but got a better education and made a good career literary critic and editor. He quickly became Dickens' literary consultant. Foster proofread his works, made suggestions and negotiated with publishers.
He saw the genius of Dickens and was ready to serve this genius, Dickens believed him and relied on him. They talked, walked, dined and went to the theater together. Foster introduced Dickens into his circle of intellectual friends. In one of his letters to him, Charles Dickens wrote that nothing but death could put an end to their friendship - and so it turned out in the end.
Three careers
The ascent of the writer to success was due to his inexhaustible energy - mental and physical. Physical was necessary in order to walk up to 20 miles a day. Dickens always wanted to move, travel, explore. One day he went on a long journey from England to Italy with his wife, several children, a nanny and a dog.
He worked at his desk from early morning until lunchtime, and again in the afternoon. But no matter how much Dickens wrote, he was very sociable: he loved parties, holidays, dinners, clubs and dancing until five in the morning.
He could write two novels at the same time. Before finishing The Pickwick Papers, he began to write Oliver Twist, which had a completely different type of narrative - with a complex plot. Having finished "Notes ...", he began "Nicholas Nickleby". Simultaneously with the novel, he also wrote short stories - for example, "A Christmas Carol". Dickens was so energetic that in 1850, not wanting to be only a novelist, he decided to publish his own weekly magazine. This is his second career: he edited, worked with authors and wrote articles himself. Dickens published his magazine until the end of his life.
In 1859 he began his third career. While continuing to write novels and edit the magazine, he began to arrange public readings, adapting his works for this format and adding new scenes.
Charles Dickens speaking at the Dulwich College Benefit Meeting at the Adelphi Theater
Dickens was famous for his generosity and charity. In his famous story "A Christmas Carol" he wrote that society is destroyed by ignorance and poverty, and ignorance is even more dangerous than poverty. At that time there was no public education and he helped open schools for the poor. Dickens traveled around England and lectured to raise money for the education of workers. After his death, many educational establishments which he helped to open became universities, and we owe this to his faith and efforts.
Very few know about the other public project, to whom he also devoted a lot of time and effort. From 1847 to 1858, the writer founded and maintained a home for young women who were either prostitutes or could become prostitutes.
Dickens insisted that they should not be made to confess or feel guilty, but should be shown that life can be happy and interesting. These women were given good food, they could work in the garden, sew and cook, they were taught to read if necessary.
Dickens knew that some of them would reject this offer, but it helped many - the girls saved by Dickens and his associates moved to Australia, Canada or South Africa and started a new life.
Character Creator
If Dickens as a social reformer is to be popularized, then Dickens as a writer has never been forgotten, he has never gone out of fashion. In 44 years, he created 13.5 novels and many short stories. The spectrum of his prose is amazing: humor, history, crime, works that appeal to the senses, and philosophical treatises dedicated to the fight against false educational ideas.
He was the first writer to speak directly about the vulnerability of the child. Dickens sympathized with the poor, even the ragged. In his novels, small people are always more important than the powerful of this world. He praised working children - Dickens took their side and wrote about them like no other.
As his friend Foster said, Dickens was a prose poet. Like Shakespeare and Chaucer, Dickens was the greatest character creator in English literature. The names of his heroes immediately came into use. He created characters by listening to their voice. Working in his office, Dickens sometimes spoke their lines in front of a mirror.
Miss Flyte from Bleak House, who keeps birds in cages, calls them Hope, Joy, Youth, Collapse, Despair, Madness - she is going to release them when she wins a hopeless litigation. Mr. Crook's spontaneous combustion is not so much a real event as a metaphor. Dickens describes the lawyer Vowles strangling his victims like a snake taking its last breath before devouring the last bite of his client. Amy Dorrit, a symbol of purity, walks through a vicious world...
Oliver Twist asking for more porridge from the workhouse warden
Virtue, vice and memory
Over the years, the writer came to hate London, calling it a black, noisy city with a river that smelled like a sewer. He preferred to live in the countryside - in Kent, and often visited France. Dickens admired respectful attitude French writers and found them less hypocritical in matters of sexual behavior.
The key theme of the life of Charles Dickens is his work. He worked to the last and died, finishing the 14th novel to the middle. Dickens did not want a monument erected to him. In his will, he wrote: "I place my hopes that my country will remember my work, and I rely on the memory of my friends, on their impressions of communicating with me."
In the novel "Hard Times" Dickens described his main life credo in the words of the owner of the circus. Here is a humble man who insists that the imagination is more important than the multiplication table. "People need to be entertained," he says, and that's what the writer believed.
Recorded by Mikhail Karpov
Photo: Globallookpres.com, Mary Evans Picture Library / Globallookpres.com, George Cruikshank / Wikipedia
Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist"
The Adventures of Oliver Twist is Dickens' most famous novel.
The story of a boy who turned out to be an orphan, forced to wander through the gloomy slums of London. The vicissitudes of the fate of the little hero, numerous meetings on his way and a happy ending to difficult and dangerous adventures - all this is of genuine interest to many readers around the world.
For some reason, it always seemed to me that this is a very sad story, where at the end the protagonist surely dies. And since I am an impressionable nature, I put off reading this book for a long time. And in vain :) As it turned out, Dickens was a kind person, and not wanting to upset his readers, almost all of his works ended with a happy ending.
Oliver Twist is a wonderful story about the victory of good over evil, about overcoming difficulties and believing in miracles. The book is a bit like a soap opera, in its best traditions)) Those who read it will understand what I mean)) I think that younger readers the book will go generally with a bang!
Charles Dickens "Greater Hope"
In the novel "Great Expectations" - one of latest works Dickens, the pearl of his work - tells the story of the life and collapse of the hopes of the young Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip in childhood. Pip's dreams of a career, love and prosperity in the "world of gentlemen" are shattered in an instant, as soon as he learns the terrible secret of his unknown patron, who is being pursued by the police. Money stained with blood and marked with the seal of crime, as Pip is convinced, cannot bring happiness. But what can be done in this case? And where will the hero of his dreams and high hopes lead?
I got goosebumps while reading this book! A story of great hopes, and no less big crashes... It is easy to read, it is even, to some extent, a detective story, so the book will not let you go, I promise :)
And again, thanks to Dickens for his kindness... I know, the author originally planned a different ending...
Charles Dickens "David Copperfield"
The Life of David Copperfield is truly Dickens' most popular novel. A novel translated into all languages of the world, filmed dozens of times - and still captivating the reader with its simplicity and perfection.
This is the story of a young man who is ready to overcome any obstacles, endure any hardships and, for the sake of love, commit the most desperate and courageous deeds. The story of the infinitely charming David, the grotesquely insignificant Uriah, and the sweet, charming Dora. A story that embodies the charm of "good old England", nostalgia for which is amazingly felt today by people living in different countries on different continents.
Here in Dickens, if a villain, then such that one can see for a kilometer! And if positive, then just an angel with wings :) Perhaps this book is my favorite of the works presented here. The book describes David's life from birth to old age, everything is full of events, adventures and experiences.
I liked the part about the hero's childhood more than about him adult life. But in general, the book is very worthy, I recommend it for reading, however, like any other by this author. Dickens has an amazing style of writing books, this is such a wonderful, lively style, there is a lot of humor in his books, at some moments I really laughed, which you don’t expect in general from classic books (or I don’t expect ..))