History Creator / CharlesDickens

* ''Barnaby Rudge'', a fictionalized account of the Gordon Riots with a notably [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} oddball]] title character. Also the heroine Dolly Varden, who inspired a minor fashion fad in the early 1870s; both a cake and a trout were named after her. (1841)

He ended at #41 in ''Series/OneHundredGreatestBritons''.

* AuthorTract: Much of Dickens' work includes some sort of strong social commentary. His most frequent targets include poverty and the plight of children. ** His ''American Notes'' also features his commentary on American systems, such as insane asylums (where he praised American efforts), slavery (where he condemned the practice) and spitting out tobacco on the floor.

He died of a stroke in 1870, coincidentally five years to the date after the fateful train crash, leaving his last novel, ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'', unfinished. His direct descendant Harry Lloyd is now an actor, whose work includes an adaptation of Dickens' ''Bleak House'', a role in the first half of an adaptation of ''David Copperfield,'' and a turn as Viserys Targaryen on ''[[Series/GameOfThrones Game of Thrones]].''

He defined VictorianLondon, but actually started writing before Queen Victoria came to the throne. In fact, several of his works are set in the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfHanover Georgian period]] (''Literature/ThePickwickPapers'' 1827–28, ''Literature/LittleDorrit'' around 1826, ''Barnaby Rudge'' 1780).

Charles John Huffham Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was the foremost English novelist of the 19th century, and remains to this day one of the most famous authors in the English language.

He defined VictorianLondon, but actually started writing before Queen Victoria came to the throne. In fact, several of his works are set in the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfHanover Georgian period]] (''Literature/ThePickwickPapers'' 1827-8, ''Literature/LittleDorrit'' around 1826, ''Barnaby Rudge'' 1780).

Many of his works were originally published as multi-part serials, complete with {{cliffhanger}}s. A typical 'Dickensian' scenario features hordes of memorable -- and often [[CatchPhrase catchphrase]]-spouting -- characters tumbling through ever-more-outrageously contrived plots. They would be delivered to the subscribing public in small bound monthly installments of three or four chapters at a time (rather like the modern comic-book industry) over the course of two or three years. Nowadays, the installments generally mark chapter breaks in the larger novel.

This set-up resulted in the books serving as the {{soap opera}}s of their day, and the subsequent need to keep reader interest alive accounts for the convoluted nature of much of Dickens's plotting. The more readers, the more subscription fees; a very direct connection to the fanbase, so to speak. If sales dropped over the latest plot twist, Dickens would sometimes be forced to undo months of careful pre-planning.

Thus it's perhaps not altogether surprising that his writing style can be best described as "barely controlled chaos." It mirrored [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain the society he lived and wrote in]] -- sentimental and satirical, melodramatic and priggish, exuberantly credulous and narrowly sceptical. And as if to match the action, the style of diction is [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness wordy in the extreme]] -- popular legend holds that he was "paid by the word." These novels are stuffed full of literary flourishes that are not criticized today only because their author was an undisputed genius. Also, this was before [[https://www.tangentonline.com/articles-columnsmenu-284/529-on-writing-as-a-fantasist the realism movement in literature]] which scorned extensive background information and description of characters and places, let alone any form of {{Anvilicious}} [[AuthorTract moralising]]. As in a modern SoapOpera, there are usually about four or five interwoven plots on the go in any single Dickens novel, not counting many more side-issues and [[AuthorFilibuster random authorial digressions.]] The whole was often leavened substantially with social criticism, most famously in ''Literature/OliverTwist'', ''Literature/NicholasNickleby'', and ''Literature/LittleDorrit''.

Towards the end of his career his stories took a noticeably darker and more didactic turn, as his interest in social issues consumed him more and more, and his despair in the face of their effects mounted accordingly. It's usually best, when starting a course of Dickens, to work your way through the canon from earlier to later books. Much of this may have largely been attributed, according to his son, from a near-death experience in the [[https://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/life/staplehurst-railway-accident/ Staplehurst Railway Accident]], in which he and his mistress were passengers on a train that derailed in 1865 due to a misread schedule during maintenance on a viaduct. Though he survived (albeit where he refused to acknowledge his presence to avoid alerting the public to his infidelity), he was shaken by the experience, and was apparently nervous riding trains from that point forward. Such an experience is suspected to have led him to write the short story ''The Signal-Man'' just a year later (though it was closer to a collision that occurred at Clayton Tunnel in 1861).

[[/index]]

* ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' - Containing the renowned Death of Little Nell (no, not [[Series/NCISLosAngeles that one]]), by reader acclaim the most tragic deathbed scene in English literature to that point...and these were ''Victorian'' readers, so you know the competition had to be stiff. Although Creator/OscarWilde said that you would need a heart of stone to read it without dissolving in tears of laughter. (1841)

* AuthorTract: Much of Dickens' work includes some sort of strong social commentary. His most frequent targets include poverty and the plight of children. His ''American Notes'' also features his commentary on American systems, such as insane asylums (where he praised American efforts), slavery (where he condemned the practice) and spitting out tobacco on the floor.

This set-up resulted in the books serving as the {{soap operas}} of their day, and the subsequent need to keep reader interest alive accounts for the convoluted nature of much of Dickens's plotting. The more readers, the more subscription fees; a very direct connection to the fanbase, so to speak. If sales dropped over the latest plot twist, Dickens would sometimes be forced to undo months of careful pre-planning.

Many of his works were originally published as multi-part serials, complete with {{cliffhanger}}s. A typical 'Dickensian' scenario features hordes of memorable -- and often CatchPhrase-spouting -- characters tumbling through ever-more-outrageously contrived plots. They would be delivered to the subscribing public in small bound monthly installments of three or four chapters at a time (rather like the modern comic-book industry) over the course of two or three years. Nowadays, the installments generally mark chapter breaks in the larger novel.

This set-up resulted in the books serving as the soap operas of the day, and the subsequent need to keep reader interest alive accounts for the convoluted nature of much of Dickens' plotting. The more readers, the more subscription fees; a very direct connection to the fanbase, so to speak. If sales dropped over the latest plot twist, Dickens would sometimes be forced to undo months of careful pre-planning.

Many of his works were originally published as multi-part serials, complete with {{cliffhanger}}s. A typical 'Dickensian' scenario features hordes of memorable -- often CatchPhrase-spouting -- characters tumbling through ever-more-outrageously contrived plots. They would be delivered to the subscribing public in small bound monthly installments of three or four chapters at a time (rather like the modern comic-book industry) over the course of two or three years. Nowadays, the installments generally mark chapter breaks in the larger novel.

->''"Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait."''

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/charles_dickens.png]]

Charles John Huffham Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was the foremost English novelist of the 19th century, and is to this day one of the most famous authors in the English language.

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/charles_dickens.png]]

Many of his works were first published as multi-part serials, complete with cliffhangers. A typical 'Dickensian' scenario features hordes of memorable -- often CatchPhrase-spouting -- characters tumbling through even more outrageously contrived plots. They would be delivered to the subscribing public in small bound monthly installments of three or four chapters at a time (rather like the modern comic-book industry) over the course of two or three years. Nowadays, the installments generally mark chapter breaks in the larger novel.

Thus it's perhaps not altogether surprising that his writing style can be best described as "barely controlled chaos." It mirrored [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain the society he lived and wrote in]] -- sentimental and satirical, melodramatic and priggish, exuberantly credulous and narrowly sceptical. And as if to match the action, the style of diction is wordy in the extreme -- popular legend holds that he was "paid by the word." These novels are stuffed full of literary flourishes that are not criticized today only because their author was an undisputed genius. Also, this was before [[https://www.tangentonline.com/articles-columnsmenu-284/529-on-writing-as-a-fantasist the realism movement in literature]] which scorned extensive background information and description of characters and places, let alone any form of {{Anvilicious}} [[AuthorTract moralising]]. As in a modern SoapOpera, there are usually about four or five interwoven plots on the go in any single Dickens novel, not counting many more side-issues and [[AuthorFilibuster random authorial digressions.]] The whole was often leavened substantially with social criticism, most famously in ''Literature/OliverTwist'', ''Literature/NicholasNickleby'', and ''Literature/LittleDorrit''.

Towards the end of his career his stories took a noticeably darker and more didactic turn, as his interest in social issues consumed him more and more, and his despair in the face of their effects mounted accordingly. It's usually best, when starting a course of Dickens, to work your way through the canon from earlier to later books.

He died of a stroke in 1870, leaving his last novel, ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'', unfinished. His direct descendant Harry Lloyd is now an actor, whose work includes an adaptation of Dickens' ''Bleak House'', a role in the first half of an adaptation of ''David Copperfield,'' and a turn as Viserys Targaryen on ''[[Series/GameOfThrones Game of Thrones]].''

* {{Padding}}:[[invoked]] Getting paid by the word while spending a lot of time in financial difficulties naturally led to a good deal of it.

* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' - "Marley was dead, to begin with..." This book is credited with playing a major role, not only in the celebration of Christmas, but also in ''creating'' the modern version of the holiday. And you'll be hard-pressed to find a tale that's [[AdaptationOverdosed spawned more]] [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol adaptations]]. (1843)

* ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' - Containing the renowned Death of Little Nell (no, not [[Series/NCISLosAngeles that one]]), by reader acclaim the most tragic deathbed scene in English literature to that point...and these were ''Victorian'' readers, so you know the competition had to be stiff. Although Creator/OscarWilde said that you'd need a heart of stone to read it without dissolving in tears of laughter. (1841)