Charles Dickens, author of Great Expectaions, was born February 7, 1812. He was one of eight children of John and Elizabeth Dickens, and seemingly insignificant. But this small boy would grow to be one the most influential authors of the 19th century writing such classics as A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations.
He had started working in Warren's Blacking Warehouse at age twelve pasting labels on cans of shoe polish for six schillings a week. But being born in this time period meant poor treatment of workers and even worse treatment of children. He then worked as a clerk at a law office and then as a courtroom stenographer.
Dickens started his writing career as a political journalist in 1834. His first novel was The PIckwick Papers, "a sequence of loosely-related adventures."
In April 1836 he married Catherine Thompson Hogarth with whom he had ten children. Over the next 14 years he is going to write thirteen books including: Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and David Copperfield. David Copperfield was a novel with information taken from Dickens's own life and is one of the most renowned and autobiographical of his works.
Three more novels came before he wrote A Tale of Two Cities another famous work of his with its well- known opening sentence, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." It was after this he wrote Great Expectations, a story of a boy named Pip and his journey through his life's expectations.
His last work was The Mystery of Edwin Drood. While working on this book he had suffered a stroke and died in his home in Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England on June 9, 1870.
His legacy will live on in his works that are read by readers all over the world.
