Life of Charles Dickens

Life of Charles Dickens

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Life of Charles Dickens, by Frank
Marzials
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Life of Charles Dickens
Author: Frank Marzials

Release Date: October 1, 2005 [eBook #16787]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF
CHARLES DICKENS***
E-text prepared by Jason Isbell, Linda Cantoni, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net/)

Great Writers.

Edited by
Eric S. Robertson, M.A.,
Professor of English Literature and Philosophy in the University of the
Punjab, Lahore.

[Illustration: Portrait of Dickens]

LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS
by
FRANK T. MARZIALS
London Walter Scott 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row
1887

NOTE.
That I should have to acknowledge a fairly heavy debt to Forster's "Life
of Charles Dickens," and "The Letters of Charles Dickens," edited by
his sister-in-law and his eldest daughter, is almost a matter of course;
for these are books from which every present and future biographer of
Dickens must perforce borrow in a more or less degree. My work, too,
has been much lightened by Mr. Kitton's excellent "Dickensiana."

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE
The lottery of education; Charles Dickens born February 7, 1812; his
pathetic feeling towards his own childhood; happy days at Chatham;
family troubles; similarity between little Charles and David
Copperfield; John Dickens taken to the Marshalsea; his character;
Charles employed in blacking business; over-sensitive in after years
about this episode in his career; isolation; is brought back into family
and prison circle; family in comparative comfort at the Marshalsea;
father released; Charles leaves the blacking business; his mother; he is
sent to Wellington House Academy in 1824; character of that place of
learning; Dickens masters its humours thoroughly. 11

CHAPTER II.
Dickens becomes a solicitor's clerk in 1827; then a reporter; his
experiences in that capacity; first story published in The Old Monthly
Magazine for January, 1834; writes more "Sketches"; power of minute
observation thus early shown; masters the writer's art; is paid for his
contributions to the _Chronicle_; marries Miss Hogarth on April 2,
1836; appearance at that date; power of physical endurance; admirable
influence of his peculiar education; and its drawbacks 27

CHAPTER III.
Origin of "Pickwick"; Seymour's part therein; first number published
on April 1, 1836; early numbers not a success; suddenly the book
becomes the rage; English literature just then in want of its novelist;
Dickens' kingship acknowledged; causes of the book's popularity; its
admirable humour, and other excellent qualities; Sam Weller; Mr.
Pickwick himself; book read by everybody 40

CHAPTER IV.
Dickens works "double tides" from 1836 to 1839; appointed editor of
_Bentley's Miscellany_ at beginning of 1837, and commences "Oliver
Twist"; Quarterly Review predicts his speedy downfall; pecuniary
position at this time; moves from Furnival's Inn to Doughty Street;
death of his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth; his friendships; absence of all
jealousy in his character; habits of work; riding and pedestrianizing;
walking in London streets necessary to the exercise of his art 49

CHAPTER V.
"Oliver Twist"; analysis of the book; doubtful probability of Oliver's
character; "Nicholas Nickleby"; its wealth of character; _Master
Humphrey's Clock_ projected and begun in April, 1840; the public
disappointed in its expectations of a novel; "Old Curiosity Shop"
commenced, and miscellaneous portion of _Master Humphrey's Clock_
dropped; Dickens' fondness for taking a child as his hero or heroine;
Little Nell; tears shed over her sorrows; general admiration for the
pathos of her story; is such admiration altogether deserved? Paul
Dombey more natural; Little Nell's death too declamatory as a piece of
writing; Dickens nevertheless a master of pathos; "Barnaby Rudge"; a
historical novel dealing with times of the Gordon riots 57

CHAPTER VI.
Dickens starts for United States in January, 1842; had been splendidly
received a little before at Edinburgh; why he went to the United States;
is enthusiastically welcomed; at first he is enchanted; then expresses
the greatest disappointment; explanation of the change; what the
Americans thought of _him_; "American Notes"; his views modified on
his second visit to America in 1867-8; takes to fierce private theatricals
for rest; delight of the children on his return to England; an admirable

father 71

CHAPTER VII.
Dickens again at work and play; publication of "Martin Chuzzlewit"
begun in January, 1843; plot not Dickens' strong point; this not of any
vital consequence; a novel not really remembered by its story; Dickens'
books often have a higher unity than that of plot; selfishness the central
idea of "Martin Chuzzlewit"; a great book, and yet not at the time
successful; Dickens