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Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth
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Charles Dickens' life
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The Dickens family moved to London
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The Dickens family moved to Kent, where Charles spent early years of his childhood.
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Due to the financial difficulties they moved back to London, where they settled in Camden Town, a poor neighborhood of London.
Because of this, Charles was withdrawn from school and forced to work in a warehouse that handled 'blacking' or shoe polish to help support the family. -
His father, who was constantly in debt, was imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor's prison.
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At fifteen his formal education ended and Dickens found employment as an office boy at an attorney's, while he studied shorthand at night.
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From 1830 he worked as a shorthand reporter in the courts and afterwards as a parliamentary and newspaper reporter.
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In 1833 Dickens began to contribute short stories and essays to periodicals.
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Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of the editor of the Evening Chronicle. Together they had 10 children before they separated in 1858. Together they had 10 children before they separated in 1858.
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Dickens's first book, a collection of stories titled Sketches by Boz, was published in 1836.
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In 1842 he travelled with his wife to the United States and Canada, which led to his controversial American Notes (1842) and is also the basis of some of the episodes in Martin Chuzzlewit.
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Dickens' popularity had allowed him to buy Gad's Hill Place, an estate he had admired since childhood.
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Dickens separated from his wife. It was also around that time that Dickens became involved in an affair with a young actress named Ellen Ternan.
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Charles Dickens died at home after suffering a stroke
