Charles Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsea, on the south coast of England, while his father was stationed nearby at Portsmouth. Although the Dickens family was from the lower middle class, it tried to maintain an air of respectability. The father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the navy pay office. He was a man of some ability and he did advance in the service, but his tastes for living beyond his means eventually led to disaster.
In 1814, John Dickens was transferred to London for a tour of duty of unknown duration. By 1817, the family was established in Chatham, near the naval dockyard, marking the beginning of the happy years of Charles’s childhood. His recollections of early life were centered in Kent. Later in his life, he spoke of himself as coming from that region. One of Charles’s fancies was to own Gad’s Hill Place, a stately old dwelling near Rochester.
When Dickens was forty-four years old, he was able to afford to purchase the property; it became his permanent residence for the rest of his life.
Young Charles received his first schooling at home from his mother. He later attended regular schools in Chatham. He soon began reading his father’s small collection of literary classics. The youngster also revealed early signs of genius, which John Dickens delighted in showing off. Having his father’s approval encouraged Charles to work at his studies.
The pleasant times came to an end in 1822, when John Dickens was ordered back to London. The elder Dickens’s fondness for luxuries beyond his means had caught up with him. He was in debt beyond the point where his creditors would cut him slack. Mrs. Dickens tried to help by starting up a school, but this only drew the family deeper into debt.
To lessen the strain, Charles, then twelve years old, was put to work in a shoe-polish factory at low wages. Two weeks later,, his father was sent to a debtors’ prison, where Mrs. Dickens and their four smallest children joined him. During that difficult time, young Charles had only irregular relations with his family.
The next four or five months were a painful ordeal. In addition to degrading labor, Charles endured the indignities of insufficient food, shabby quarters, and the association of rough companions. It was a humiliating trial that left an indelible impression on the proud and sensitive boy. In later years, he never spoke of this episode, except in the pages of David Copperfield. It is likely that this introduction to poverty was instrumental in shaping his life. Dickens became distinguished by furious energy, determination to succeed, and an inflexible will.
After John Dickens had been in prison for about three months, his aged mother died. The inheritance he received was large enough to pay his more pressing debts and allow his release from debtor’s prison. An additional result of this inheritance was that Charles was taken out of his job at the shoe-polish factory a few weeks later and sent back to school. He spent the next two and a half years in an academy, completing all of the formal education he was ever going to get.
In the spring of 1827, Charles Dickens, then a youth of fifteen, entered a lawyer’s office. While applying himself to the law, he managed in his free time to master shorthand. About a year and a half later, the energetic young man felt ready to try a more promising occupation. He became a freelance court reporter, and for the next three years, the future novelist was brought into close contact with grim realities of life as it was played out in the courts. His work was seasonal and irregular, giving him time to read in the British Museum.
In March 1832, Dickens became a journalist. After serving on two newspapers and gaining experience as a parliamentary reporter, in 1834 he joined the staff of the prominent Morning Chronicle, where he got d the reputation for being one of the fastest and most accurate reporters in London. In addition to his metropolitan activities, his assignments took him all over England, mainly to cover political events. With this exposure to the prevailing realities of political life, in Parliament and around the nation, Dickens’s apprenticeship was receiving its finishing touches.
