Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was a renowned English writer and social critic who was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. He was the second of eight children in a family that struggled financially. His father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, and his mother, Elizabeth Dickens, was a homemaker. Dickens' early life was marked by hardship and poverty. His father was imprisoned for debt when Dickens was just 12 years old, and the young boy was forced to leave school and work in a factory to support his family. These experiences would later influence his writing, as he became a champion of the working class and a critic of social injustice. Despite his difficult upbringing, Dickens was a gifted writer from a young age. He began his career as a journalist, writing for various newspapers and magazines. In 1836, he published his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, which was an instant success and made him a household name. Over the course of his career, Dickens wrote many other classic novels, includin