Charles Dickens
(Portsmouth, 7 febbraio 1812 – Higham, 9 giugno 1870)
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in England on 7th February 1812. He spent the first years of his life moving around different places. He developed a great passion for writing since his adolescence. In 1824 his father was arrested for debts. At that time, Charles was 12 and he knew the hard work and the juvenile exploitment.
He lived in terrible conditions: he was thrown in a factory similar to a shed, he was sticking labels on bottles of polish shoes and he was working ten hours a day. He was earning six Shillings a week and he was forced to provide himself to own maintenance and to his family. These experiences were impressed in his mind and influenced his literary journey.
In 1825 he re-started to study at the Wellington Academy, but two years later he had to leave it because his father couldn't afford to pay. Then he started to work as a delivery boy and, in 1829, he became a journalist at the "Law Courts" with his cousin. A year later Charles fell in love with the daughter of a bank officer , but three years later they left because of the social differences.
In 1836 he got married Chaterine Hagorth, but the relation ship whit his sister-in-law took him to fall in love whit her; si he had the divorce by Chaterine. On 6 January 1837 the first of eight sons was born. This was a successful year: "Oliver Twist" and "The Pickwick Diaries". Then he published his mast important works, as "David Copperfield" this fame spread out in Europe and the USA, where he went because he was interested in prison regulation. In 1844 he went to Genova with his family. In 1867 he became ill seriously. In 1869 he wrote his last work: "The mystery of Edwin Drood".
He died in 1870, exactly 11 years ofter the terrible train crash from which he had survived.