Charles Dickens

Introduction & Top Questions
Early years
- Beginning of a literary career
- Novels from The Pickwick Papers to Martin Chuzzlewit
- The invention of the Christmas books
- The product of his age
- Dombey and Son and David Copperfield
Middle years
- Journalism
- Novels from Bleak House to Little Dorrit
- Marital unhappiness: Catherine Dickens and Ellen Ternan
- Public readings
Last years
- Final novels: A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend
- Farewell readings
Legacy

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Portrait of Charles Dickens seated at a desk, writing with a quill pen, dressed in a suit with a bow tie.

Explore English novelist Charles Dickens's early Victorian era and literature with Clifton Fadiman

Watch dramatized scenes of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations with literary commentary by Clifton Fadiman

Illustration of Joe Gargery standing with clenched fists in a smithy, a man cowering on the floor, and Pip working at the forge in the background, from Great Expectations.

At a Glance

Charles Dickens summary

Notable Characters in the Works of Charles Dickens

Quizzes

Who Did That? A Historical Bio Quiz

Textbook chalkboard and apple. Fruit of knowledge. Hompepage blog 2009, History and Society, school education students

The Literary World (Famous Novels)

Row of colorful books on a bookshelf. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

The Literary World

Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)

Novels and Novelists Quiz

49 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Literature Quizzes

Related Questions

How did Charles Dickens combine comedy with criticism of social problems?
How did Charles Dickens use Household Words and All the Year Round to publish fiction and essays?
How did Charles Dickens’s American visit influence American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit?
How did Charles Dickens’s childhood experiences influence the themes of A Christmas Carol?
How did Charles Dickens’s childhood factory experience shape his concern for poor people?
How did Charles Dickens’s father’s debts affect the family?
How did Charles Dickens’s father’s imprisonment for debt influence his fiction?
How did Charles Dickens’s interest in theater influence his writing?
How did Charles Dickens’s later novels differ from his earlier novels?
How did Charles Dickens’s novels reach people who did not read them?
How did Charles Dickens’s work as a parliamentary reporter affect his views of Parliament?
How did Dombey and Son mark a change in Charles Dickens’s writing?
How did G.K. Chesterton defend Charles Dickens’s use of caricature?
How did Maria Beadnell influence David Copperfield and Little Dorrit?
How did Sketches by “Boz” help launch Charles Dickens’s literary career?
How did The Pickwick Papers make Charles Dickens famous?
How did later critics reassess the importance of Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Great Expectations?
How did serialized publication shape Charles Dickens’s storytelling style?
How did the character Mr. Micawber reflect Charles Dickens’s father?
How did working as a court reporter help Charles Dickens write novels?
How do Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend address social class and human worth?
How do Want and Ignorance in A Christmas Carol represent social problems in Victorian England?
How does Bleak House criticize the legal system?
How does Hard Times defend art and imagination in an industrial society?
How does Little Dorrit explore literal and spiritual imprisonment?
How quickly did A Christmas Carol become popular after publication?
What jobs did Charles Dickens hold before becoming a novelist?
When and where was Charles Dickens born?
When did Charles Dickens begin publishing stories and essays in newspapers?
When did Charles Dickens die and where was he buried?
Where did Charles Dickens spend his happiest childhood years?
Which events from Charles Dickens’s life appear in David Copperfield?
Which major Charles Dickens novels were serialized in All the Year Round?
Who illustrated Oliver Twist and Sketches by “Boz”?
Who was Ellen Ternan and how was she connected to Charles Dickens?
Why did A Christmas Carol become a lasting Christmas classic?
Why did Charles Dickens criticize the lack of copyright protection in the United States?
Why did Charles Dickens found the Daily News?
Why did Charles Dickens remain popular with readers from different social classes?
Why did Charles Dickens separate from Catherine Dickens in 1858?
Why did Charles Dickens use several plotlines in many of his novels?
Why did Charles Dickens work in a factory as a child?
Why did Charles Dickens write A Christmas Carol in 1843?
Why did Charles Dickens’s humor become darker in his novels of the 1850s?
Why did Maria Beadnell reject Charles Dickens as a young man?
Why did some early critics call Charles Dickens’s characters exaggerated?
Why did the death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop become so famous?
Why do prisons and lost children appear so often in Charles Dickens’s novels?
Why have Charles Dickens’s novels been adapted so often for theater, film, radio, and television?
Why is Charles Dickens considered an important novelist of the Victorian era?
Why is David Copperfield considered partly autobiographical?
Why was Charles Dickens interested in journalism throughout his career?
Why was David Copperfield Charles Dickens’s favorite novel?
Why was The Mystery of Edwin Drood left unfinished?
Why were The Pickwick Papers published in monthly parts?
Why is Charles Dickens important?
When did Charles Dickens write A Christmas Carol?
What was Charles Dickens’s early life like?
What is Albert Camus known for?
Where was Albert Camus from?
What philosophies and ideas did Albert Camus discuss in his work?
What are some of Albert Camus’s most famous works?
What is Joan Didion known for?
What are some of Joan Didion’s most famous works?
What was W.E.B. Du Bois known for?

Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists A-K

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External Websites

Historic UK - The Life of Charles Dickens
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Charles Dickens
Humanities LibreTexts - Charles Dickens (1812ï¿½1870)
Australian Dictionary of Biography - Biography of Charles Dickens
The Victorian Web - Biography of Charles Dickens
Poetry Foundation - Biography of Charles Dickens

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Charles Dickens - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Charles Dickens - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Charles Dickens

British novelist

Also known as: Charles John Huffam Dickens

Written by

Philip Collins

Emeritus Professor of English, University of Leicester, England. Author of Dickens and Crime, Dickens and Education, and others.

Philip Collins

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 14, 2026 •History

Charles Dickens (born February 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England—died June 9, 1870, Gad’s Hill, near Chatham, Kent) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era. His many volumes include such works as A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity during his lifetime than had any previous author. Much in his work could appeal to readers...

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