Crazy Facts About Charles Dickens
By December 12, 2022
He Was Put To Work At An Early Age
Life should have been easy for Charles Dickens, having been born into a middle-class English family, but not long after their move to London, things went south for his father, a naval office clerk, who eventually fell into so much debt that he was arrested and sent to labor prison (which was a thing that used to happen). Dickens was only 12 years old, but without family support, he went to work in a warehouse for three years. No wonder childhood poverty and the struggles of the class system are major themes of his work.
He Began His Writing Career As A Journalist
Once he finally returned to school, Dickens found he had a knack for writing but turned his attention toward the news media at first. He worked for The Mirror Of Parliament, Morning Chronicle, and The True Sun but decided initially to publish under the pseudonym Boz because "dickens" was considered slightly N.S.F.W. at the time, thanks to Shakespeare's famous coinage of "What the dickens?" in his play The Merry Wives Of Windsor.
He Wrote Really Fast
By October 1843, Dickens had once again fallen on hard times. Convinced that a holiday hit would save him from ruin, he churned out A Christmas Carol, which not only sold well but went on to become his greatest literary success and a genuine classic, in only about six weeks. The cost to print the book was actually so high that he initially didn't make very much money from it, but it was enough to keep his head above water.
