查尔斯·狄更斯

EARLY CHILDHOOD 1812-1822

LONDON 1822-1827

APPRENTICE YEARS 1827-1836

THE INIMITABLE BOZ 1837-1842

AMERICA 1842-1844

EUROPE 1844-1846

DOMBEY AND SON AND

DAVID COPPERFIELD 1847-1851

DARKENING DAYS 1852-1856

THE END OF HIS MARRIAGE 1857-1858

CELEBRATED AUTHOR 1859-1865

FINAL YEARS 1865-1870

CHRONOLOGY

FURTHER READING

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is probably Britains best-known and best-loved author. His novels， such as Pickwick Papers， David Copperfield， Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol， have delighted generations of readers with their warmth and gentle humour， and his own colourihl and hectic life helped to shape some of his most vibrant scenes and famous characters.
　　His impoverished childhood - dogged by his fathers debts and imprisonment in London - and years as a parliamentary journalist and legal clerk， brought Dickens first-hand experience of city life， enabling him to expose its realities， injustices and hardships in works such as Oliver Twist， Bleak House and Little Dorrit. He was often disillusioned with society and championed the welfare of the common man through social， education and housing reforms， which found some of their widest expression in over a hundred articles he wrote for his weekly magazine， Household Words. Father of ten children， Dickens struggled with an unhappy marriage， but he worked untiringly all his life， achieving great fame and fortune. His reading tours， which indulged his love of the stage， enabled him to reach his audiences in Britain and America， and his editing and writing have produced an abundant legacy which continues to inform and delight readers to this day.
　　Illustrated throughout with letters， manuscripts， engravings and photographs， Elizabeth ]amess concise biography provides a revealing portrait of a prolific， talented and highly esteemed literary genius.

Elizabeth James is Head of British Collections, 1801-1914, at The British Library, where she has been responsible for a number of exhibitions relating to nineteenth-century authorship and publishing. Her previous books include Thomas Hardy, 1840-1928 (The British Library; 1990) and Penny Dreadfuls and Boys Adventures (co-authored with Helen Smith,TheBritish Library, 1998); she is currently working on an edition of Nicholas Nickleby for the Clarendon Press.