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Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Portsmouth on Feb. 7, 1812. He moved with his family to London when he was about two years old. Many of the events and people in his books are based on events and people in his life. Dickens’ father, John Dickens, was a poor and easygoing clerk who worked for the navy. John served in some respects as the model for Wilkins Micawber in ‘David Copperfield.’ He spent time in prison for debt, an event Charles re-created in ‘Little Dorrit.’

Even when John was free, he lacked the money to support his family adequately. At the age of 12, Charles worked in a London factory pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish. He held the job only a few months, but the misery of that experience remained with him all his life.

Dickens attended school off and on until he was 15, and then left for good. He enjoyed reading and was especially fond of adventure stories, fairy tales and novels. He was influenced by such earlier English writers as William Shakespeare, Tobias Smollett, and Henry Fielding. However, most of the knowledge he later used as an author came from his observation of life around him.

Dickens became a newspaper reporter in the late 1820’s. He specialized in covering debates in Parliament, and also wrote feature articles. Dickens’ first book, ‘Sketches by Boz’ (1836), consisted of articles he wrote for the ‘Monthly Magazine’ and the London ‘Evening Chronicle’. These descriptions, fictional portraits, and short stories surveyed manners and conditions of the time.

Literary success

Dickens won his first literary fame with ‘The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club’. Published in monthly parts in 1836 and 1837, the book describes the humorous adventures and misadventures of a group of slightly eccentric characters in London and the Englisn countryside. At 24, Dickens suddenly found himself famous. He remained so until his death.

Dickens founded and edited two highly successful weekly magazines. He edited ‘Household Words’ from 1850 to 1859 and ‘All the Year Round’ from 1859 to his death.

Personal life

Personal unhappiness marred Dickens’ public success. In 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth. Catherine had a sister Mary, who died in 1837. Dickens’ grief at Mary’s death has led some scholars to believe that he loved Mary more than his wife. Catherine was a good woman but lacked great intelligence. She and Dickens had 10 children. The couple separated in 1858.

Dickens had remarkable mental and physical energy. He recorded his activities in thousands of letters, many of which make delightful reading. He spent much of his crowded social life with friends from the worlds of art and literature. Dickens enjoyed drama and went to the theater as often as he could. When he was rich and famous, he made a hobby of producing and acting in amateur theatrical productions. He had great success giving public readings of his works. Dickens’ gift for creating dramatic scenes in his novels can be traced to his love for the theater.



Besides writing, editing, and touring as a dramatic reader, Dickens busied himself with various charities. These, charities included schools for the poor children and a loan society to enable the poor to move to Australia. Dickens often walked for hours to work off his remaining energy. He came to know the streets and alleys of London better, perhaps, than any other person of his time.

Dickens’ health began to decline about 1865 and he died of a stroke on June 9, 1870.

Dickens’ books

Dickens wrote 20 novels (including 5 short Christmas books), and many sketches, travel books, and other non-fiction works. Not all of his books were best sellers, but the most popular ones broke all sales records for the time.

The first phase

After the success of ‘The Pikwick Papers’, Dickens turned to more serious themes and plots. However, he always introduced enough humor to keep his books entertaining.

‘Oliver Twist’ (1837 – 1839) describes the adventures of a poor orphan boy. The book was noted for its sensational presentation of London’s criminal world and for its attack on England’s mistreatment of the poor.

In ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ (1838 – 1839), Dickens criticized greedy proprietors of private schools, who treated students brutally and taught them nothing.

‘Martin Chuzzlewit’ (1843 – 1844) is one of two books best known for its unflattering picture of the crudeness of American manners and for its comic characters.

The second phase

During the 1840s, Dickens’ view of Victorian society, and perhaps of the world, grew darker. His humour became more bitter, often taking the form of biting satire. His characters and plots seemed to emphasize the evil side of human experience.

‘Dombey and Son’ (1846 – 1848) deals primarily with a selfish egotist whose pride cuts him off from the warmth of human love. The book stresses the evils of the Victorian admiration for money. Dickens believed that money had become the measure of all personal relations and the goal of all ambition.

With ‘David Copperfield’ (1849 – 1850), Dickens temporarily lessened the role of social criticism to concentrate more on semi-autobiography. David’s youth is clearly patterned after Dickens’ youth.

‘Bleak House’ (1852 – 1853) is in many respects Dickens’ greatest novel. The book deals with many social evils, chiefly wasteful and cruel legal processes. It also attacks the neglect of the poor, false humanitarians and clergymen, and poor sanitation.

‘Hard Times’ attacks philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s doctrine of utilitarianism. Bentham believed that all human ideas, actions, and institutions should be judged by their usefulness.

In ‘Little Dorrit’ (1855 – 1857), Dickens continued his campaign against materialism and snobbery, which were represented by the rich Merdle family and their social-climbing friends. He also ridiculed government inefficiency.

In ‘Great Expectations’ (1860 – 186l), Dickens returned to the theme of a youth’s discovery of the realities of life. An unknown person provides the young hero Pip with money so that Pip can live as a gentleman. Pip’s pride is shattered when he learns the source of his “great expectations”.

‘Our Mutual Friend’ (1864 – 1865) was Dickens’ final novel of social criticism. Dickens again attacked the false great garbage heaps of the London dumps as a symbol of filthy money.

Dickens’ place in literature

Dickens is now considered one of the major figures in English literature. Numerous books and essays have described Dickens as a writer of considerable depth and complexity. He has also been praised as a sensitive and philosophic observer of human struggles within social institutions. In this sense, Dickens has been associated with such authors as Herman Melville, Franz Kafka, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

2.2. Answer the questions based on the information from the article.

1. What was the impact of John Dickens on his son’s writings?

2. How did Charles Dickens’ marital life influence his novels?

3. Should a professional writer avoid being influenced by his family life or everyday problems?

4. What were Dickens’ early novels?

5. What was novice about his novel ‘Oliver Twist’?

6. What is his work ‘American Notes’ noted for?

7. What does ‘Dombey and Son’ stress?

8. What proves Dickens’ recognition in Britain and in the world?

9. What do you think makes a writer prolific – literary craft, life experience, patience or ….. ?

2.3. Recall one of Charles Dickens’ books that you have read and write a blurb for a publishing company (a short description by the publisher of the contents of the book).

Task 3

3.1. Read the article about Washington Irving and highlight the most important facts in his biography.

THE FIRST AMERICAN CLASSIC

Washington Irving is best re­membered as America’s first interna­tionally successful author. During his lifetime, he traveled extensively in this country and abroad, served in diplomatic positions in Europe and wrote numerous works of fiction, history and biography.

Born in New York City on April 3, 1783, Washington Irving was the youngest of eleven children. He was named by his British-born parents for General George Washington. As a youth, he developed a lasting fond­ness for the theatre, music, art, travel and social occasions. After completing his secondary schooling, Irving studied law in the office of former Attorney General Josiah O. Hoffman. There, he devel­oped a strong attachment for Hoff­man’s daughter, Matilda, who un­fortunately died of tuberculosis at an early age. It has been said that this loss was the reason Irving remained a bachelor.

During the period 1802-1803, Ir­ving used the pseudonym “Jonathan Oldstyle” and contributed nine essays about the New York theatre to ‘The Morning Chronicle’, a newspaper published by his brother, Peter. In 1806, shortly after returning from a two-year trip through Europe, Irving took and passed New York State bar examinations. He also continued his literary efforts by contributing pseudonymously to ‘Salmagundi’, a humorous periodical published between 1807 and 1808. The following year he established his literary credentials by publishing his satirical ‘History of New York’ under the now famous pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker.

In 1815 Washington Irving and his brother Peter went to England in the hope of reviving the family’s failing export business. The Napoleonic Wars had contributed to the firm’s financial difficulties, and it ultimately went bankrupt in 1818.

Irving was then obliged to turn his full attention to professional author­ship and, in 1819-1820, published serially ‘The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.’, the volume that contained his two most famous stories, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.

From 1822 to 1829, Irving traveled in Europe, serving from 1826 to 1829 as a diplomatic attache at the United States Legation in Madrid and, from 1829 to 1832, as secretary of the United States Embassy in Lon­don. His ‘Bracebridge Hall’, ‘Tales of a Traveler’, ‘The Life of Columbus’, ‘The Conquest of Granada’ and ‘The Alhambra’ all grew out of those European experiences.

Returning to the United States in 1832 after seventeen years abroad, Irving traveled in the midwest and included an account of his travels, “A Tour of the Prairies”, in ‘The Crayon Miscellany’.

In 1835, Irving purchased the small cottage in Tarrytown that was to become Sunnyside. With the help of his friend, artist George Harvey, Irving set about directing the remo­delling of the house into a charming and unique expression of his tastes. In 1838, Irving was offered the nomina­tion for Mayor of New York City and the position of Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of Martin Van Buren. He declined both offers, choosing to remain at Sunnyside, which became widely known as a symbol of graciousness and hospitality, depar­ting only from 1842 to 1846 to serve as United States Minister in Spain.

While living at Sunnyside, Irving composed portions of ‘Astoria’ and ‘The Adventures of Captain Bonneville’ and supervised the preparation of the Author’s Revised Edition of his works, which was published by G. P. Putnam in fifteen volumes from 1848 to 1851. His final work, the five-volume ‘Life of George Washing­ton’, was also written at Sunnyside and subsequently published in 1855-1859. Washington Irving died at Sunny­side in November 1859. He was buried at the Sleepy Hollow Ceme­tery in Tarrytown, in the heart of the “sequestered glen” which he made famous.

3.2. Look through the article about W. Irving again and find equivalents for the following.

e.g. to begin to like smth – to develop a lasting fond­ness for the theatre, music, art.

- to leave school;

- to fall in love with smb;

- not to be married;

- to write essays for a journal;

- to take exams to become a barrister;

- to promote one’s literary success;

- to start one’s business again;

- to lose money and to be broke;

- to buy smth;

- to be offered to become a mayor;

- not to agree to become a mayor.

3.3. Answer the questions about the first American classic.

1. Why is Washington Irving remembered?

2. Why was he named Washington?

3. What were his likes and hobbies in the childhood?

4. Why did Irving remain a bachelor?

5. What was his first literary experience? What pseudonym did he choose?

6. What are his most famous stories?

7. How long and in what countries did he serve as a diplomat?

8. What nominations was he offered but declined in his home country?

9. Where did he live the rest of his life?

10. What’s the literary heritage of Washington Irving?

3.4. Get ready to speak about Washington Irving’s personal life, his career as a writer and one of his stories. You can analyse “Rip Van Winkle” or “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.


Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1225


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