Table of Contents

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens’ Childhood

Charles Dickens’ Schooling
Charles Dickens’ Wife
Charles Dickens’ Works
Writing and Style of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens’ Death

A Tale of Two Cities

Introduction
The main characters
 Victorian Novelist Charles Dickens
Biography, Life and Education

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7th February 1812

in Landport, Hampshire. He was born to John and Elizabeth
Dickens. His father worked as a clerk in the navy pay
office. Charles Dickens was the most famous novelist of the
Victorian period.
Dickens (1812 – 1870) created some of the most memorable
characters in English Literature, while also criticizing the
worst excesses of Victorian society. His most famous
novels included Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and David
Copperfield.
His novels were very popular then and continue to be so even
today. His novels were essayed on the hardships faced by the
middle-class and other social issues. These novels were later
adapted in magazines in the form of serials. His work was
liked and admired by eminent writers like George Gissing and
G.K. Chesterton.
 Charles Dickens’ Childhood

By 1815, the Dickens family moved to London and later on to

Chatham. At Chatham, Charles received education at William
Giles School. Special attention was given to Charles by
William Giles, the schoolmaster. In 1824, Charles father John
was imprisoned in the debtor’s prison in Southwark, London.
At this time, Charles was twelve years old who, along with his
sister Fanny were permitted to spend a day in Marshalsea
where their father had been imprisoned. Charles lived in
boarding but due to the family’s condition, he began working
at Warrens Blacking Warehouse, Hungerford Market,
London.
He would work there for around ten hours every day and his
earning was six-shilling a week. The working conditions had
made a deep impact on Charles who later on used this
experience to essay his characters. However, when Charles
father was in the debtor’s prison, Johns grandmother died
leaving some money for him, some of which was used to pay
his debt.
Dickens saw a lot of poverty in his early life, from his father being
riddled with debt to the entire family being sent to something known
as a debtors prison, where young Charles was forced to work
for long hours.
The hard and dangerous work left a lasting impression on
Charles Dickens, who would later incorporate in his writings a
sense of social injustice that was endemic in Victorian Britain.
He escaped the grind of factory work by training to be a
shorthand writer and gaining employment as a journalist –
reporting on court cases. In 1836, he married Catherine
Hogarth and also in that year, he saw the first publication of
‘The Pickwick Papers.’
His first book proved to be a great seller, and this enabled him
to become a full-time writer. Charles Dickens took great
interest in the social issues of the day, touring both Europe
and the United States where he spoke against slavery and the
various social injustices that he saw. He even founded his own
paper – The Daily News.
 Charles Dickens’ Schooling

From 1824-1827 Charles studied at Wellington House

Academy, London and his mother did not remove him from
the blacking factory immediately. It is said that her failure to
remove him from the factory attributed to his demanding and
dissatisfied approach towards women.
Charles Dickens was at Mr. Dawsons school in 1827 and from
1827 to 1828 he worked at a law office as a clerk. After working
in the law office he was a shorthand reporter at Doctors
Commons. In 1833 he began his career as a fiction writer and
A Dinner at Poplar Walk was his first published sketch in the
Monthly Magazine.
His experience at the law office and being a reporter was used
by Charles to write his works like Nicholas Nickleby,
Dombey and Son and in particular Bleak House.

Charles Dickens’ Wife

In 1830, Charles met Maria Beadnell and fell in love with her.
However, her parents were against this relationship and so
they sent Maria to a school in Paris. In 1836, his first novel
The Pickwick Papers was serialized. In 1836 he became the
editor of Bentleys Miscellany and remained at that post for
.three years
In the same year on 2nd April Charles married Catherine
Thomson Hogarth and together they had ten children. Charles
was fond of Cathrine’s sister Mary who lived with the
Dickens family. He essayed her death in The Old Curiosity
.Shop as the death of Nell
Charles and his wife visited America in 1842. There, Charles
gave lectures in support of copyright laws. In November
1851, Charles moved into Tavistock House and it was here
that he wrote Bleak House, Hard Times and Little Dorrit.
Charles’ second visit to America was in 1867.
After separating from his wife, Charles in 1858 undertook his
first series of public readings in London. Charles major works
like A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations were
published in 1859 and 1861 respectively. Around the same
time, he was the publisher and editor of journals such as
Household Words and All the Year Round.
Charles was involved in giving farewell readings in England,
Scotland and Ireland between 1868-1869. on 22nd April while
giving one of his readings, Charles suddenly fell down at
Preston, Lancashire. His fall was an indication of a mild
stroke and after this incidence, all his remaining readings were
cancelled.
It was then that he started working on his last novel, The
Mystery of Edwin Drood. Charles however, arranged for the
partial, if not complete, reading of the series once his health
improved. Charles last public appearance was at the Royal
Academy Banquet.
Also, read about Mary Hogarth Charles Dickens’ Sister in
Law.
 Charles Dickens’ Works

Charles Dickens loved the Gothic romance of the 18th

century. His writing style was florid, poetic and it had a
powerful comic touch. Charles Dickens was famous for his
novels which portrayed the difficult life of the working class
and his characters. The characters like Tiny Tim, Oliver
Twist, Pip, David Copperfield and many others were so
beautifully portrayed as if they really existed.
Major works of Charles like Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby,
The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the
Riots of Eighty were first written in weekly or monthly
installments and were later on printed as books.
These monthly installments were illustrated by Phiz or Hablot
Brownie. His works include Great Expectations, David
Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers, etc. Charles even produced
and edited essays. He wrote A Visit to Newgate, A Small Star
in the East and Mr. Barlow as an essayist by adopting the
name Boz.
A noted philanthropist, he helped raise funds for charities,
such as Great Ormond Street and also helped to set up a home
for ‘fallen women.’ Redemption was an important aspect of
Dicken’s philosophy and he often criticized harsh and
punitive punishments, such as solitary confinement.
 Writing and Style of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is one of the most popular writers in English. In

particular, his novels are brimming with colourful and eccentric
characters which leave a lasting impression. He was a keen and
observant writer, incorporating the characters that he met and
interacted with in his life, adding a touch of fantasy and exaggeration
with his vivid descriptive style.
There are various themes which run throughout his writings, which
often reflect various degrees of his own life stories. Dickens loved the
‘rags to riches stories’, exemplified by Oliver Twist and David
Copperfield. He frequently highlighted the worst excesses and social
evils of Victorian society and highlighted his views in a wonderfully
witty way.

Charles Dickens’ Death

On 8th June 1870, Charles suffered another stroke. He died

the next day, on 9th June at Gads Hill Place.
Charles had expressed that he should be buried at Rochester
Cathedral in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly
private manner but, was instead buried at Poets Corner of
Westminster Abbey.
 A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens' twelfth novel, was serialized

in All the Year Round from April 30 to November 26, 1859.
The iconic first words -- "It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times" -- appear at the top of page 1 of the first
number.
The novel depicts the plight of the French working class under
the brutal oppression of the French aristocracy during the
years leading up to the revolution, and the brutality of the
revolutionaries against the aristocrats in the early years of the
revolution.
The novel follows the lives of some people during those
events, the most famous of them in the novel is Charles
Darnay, a French aristocrat, who falls victim to the blind
revolution that did not distinguish between good and evil
despite his good personality, and Sydney Carton, the drunken
English lawyer, who sacrifices his life for his love for
Darnay's wife, Lucy Manette.
This novel is the most taught novel in secondary schools in the
United States and many countries of the world. The novel was
published weekly (unlike most of Dickens' other novels, which
were published monthly).
 The main characters

Doctor Alexandre Manette

He is Lucie's father, a brilliant physician, and spent eighteen
years "in secret" as a prisoner in the Bastille prior to
the French Revolution. He is imprisoned because in the course
of his medical practice he learns of abusive actions by two
members of the aristocratic Evrémonde family. While
realizing the power at court of nobles such as the
Evrémondes, Manette reports them to a minister of the royal
government. He is seized from his young family and
imprisoned under a lettre de cachet.(dynamic character)

Charles Darnay
He is the novel protagonist. He is good, virtu, and noble man.
He is an aristocratic character. Darnay is a
wealthy gentleman who spends time in both France and
England during the time of the story. However, he resents
how the lower classes are extorted and kept in extreme
poverty by the upper class. Darnay specifically resents the
views of his uncle, Marquis St. Evrémonde, who has no
respect for the people in poverty. He abandons his own family
name in favor of his mother's, D'Aulnais, which he later alters
to "Darnay"; relocating to London, he finds work as a tutor of
French language and literature.(static character)
Lucie…
Lucie is the daughter of Dr. Alexandre Manette. She is wise
beyond her years, unfailingly kind, and loving. Her love and
protection of her father is what attracts Charles Darnay to her.
she is An ideal pre-Victorian lady, perfect in every way.
described as short and slight with a "pretty figure, a quantity
of golden hair, a pair of blue eyes..." Although Sydney Carton
is in love with her, he declares himself an unsuitable
candidate for her hand in marriage and instead she marries
Charles Darnay, with whom she is very much in love, and
bears him a daughter. However, Lucie genuinely cares about
Carton's welfare and defends him when he is criticised by
others. She is the "golden thread" after whom Book the
Second is named, so called because she holds her father's and
her family's lives together (and because of her blonde hair like
her mother's). She also ties nearly every character in the book
together.(static character)

Madame Defarge
She is one of the main villains of the novel, obsessed with
revenge against the Evrémondes. She is the antagonist
character. She ruthlessly pursues this goal against Charles
Darnay, his wife, Lucie Manette, and their child, for crimes a
prior generation of the Evrémonde family had committed.
These include the deaths of her nephew, sister, brother, father
and brother-in-law. She refuses to accept the reality that
Charles Darnay changed his ways by intending to renounce
his title to the lands to give them to the peasants who worked
on them. Defarge symbolises several themes. She represents
one aspect of the Fates. The Moirai (the Fates as represented
in Greek mythology) used yarn to measure out the life of a
man, and cut it to end it; Defarge knits, and her knitting
secretly encodes the names of people to be killed. Defarge
also symbolises the nature of the Reign of Terror during the
French Revolution in which radical Jacobins engaged in mass
political persecution of all real or supposed enemies of the
Revolution who were executed on grounds of sedition to the
new republic with the guillotine, particularly targeting people

Sydney carton
He is described as virtually dead "like one who died young",
because he is a hopeless character and alcoholic he is always
under drugs, he may be seen as a Byronic hero, a dark,
brooding anti-hero.( hero who feel rejected by society and let
out to self-destructive path that results in isolation or death).
His life completely changed at the end of the novel. Because
of his beloved Lucy he tries to sacrifice himself as a
resurrection to save her beloved in order to have a better life.
( dynamic character)

Miss pross
She is a caring servant, who raised Lucy she is a loyal and
protective of Lucy. she is the one who causes the death of
Madam Defarge and she is a type of a British working class
woman.