Tribute to Charles Dickens on his birth anniversary

Charles Dickens was probably one of the most popular 19th century English novelists who wrote for both adults and children.

His full name was Charles John Huffam Dickens. He was born on 7th February 1812 in Portsmouth, England.

His father worked as a clerk in the Navy Pay office.

Dickens took most of the ideas of his stories from his everyday life and the persons whom he encountered throughout his life.

He wrote many novels in his life that are still reprinted years after his death and have been adapted for cinema and TV shows as well.

Some of his novels for adults are:

1. Pickwick Papers - This was the author’s first novel. It was a serial novel that appeared in a periodical of the time. But it gained widespread popularity in London and was thus converted in a book form in 1837. It traces the journey of the main protagonist Samuel Pickwick and his many adventures in and around London.

2. A Tale of Two Cities - This is also a popular novel by Dickens. It is the story of a French Doctor, Mannette and how he spends 18 long years in prison and ultimately goes to live with his daughter whose face he had never seen in all his life. It tells the story of all the factors and reasons that led to the eruption of the French Revolution.

3. Great Expectations - This novel of Dickens is the one that has been adapted time and again for films, television, stage plays, etc. It is the story of Pip and Estella who time and again become ill-fated lovers. They meet and separate at various levels of the story and ultimately bond for life at the end of the novel. It is a three-part story. A fun fact is that the 2016 Bollywood film, Fitoor which stars Aditya Roy Kapoor and Katrina Kaif is inspired by this very novel.

4. A Christmas Carol- This novel is a feel-good novel for adults as it tells how the festival of Christmas can melt even the most hardened of hearts. It is the story of a miserly man, Ebenezer Scrooge who gets visits from the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and Christmas spirits such as Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. All of these visits transform Scrooge for the better.

Novels for Children:

Not only for adults, but Charles Dickens also wrote prolific novels for children. For his children’s novels, he took inspiration from his own hard life that he had to face during childhood. Let’s have a look at some of his novels for children:

1. Oliver Twist - Probably one of Dickens’ most famous novels for children. It tells of the hardships of the protagonist, Oliver who works for an undertaker as an apprentice but later falls victim to a rugged gang of pickpockets led by Fagin and becomes friends with another pickpocket named “Artful Dodger”. Oliver is an orphan in the novel. This novel is a very sordid picture of the lives of orphans who were treated cruelly by criminals in the 19th century.