Charles Dickens, n Portsmouth dans le comt du Hampshire (1812-1870), est un romancier britannique. Il est le plus clbre des crivains anglais du dix neuvime sicle. En 1833, il commence crire des histoires quil fait publier dans des journaux et des magazines. Celles-ci furent republies plus tard sous le titre de Esquisses par Boz. En 1836, commence la publication sous forme de feuilletons mensuels des Aventures de M. Pickwick. Avant que Pickwick ne sachve, Dickens, devenu en 1836 diteur du Recueil de Bentley avait entam la publication dun nouveau feuilleton Oliver Twist (1837/39). Dickens publie La Vie et les Aventures de Nicolas Nickleby de 1838 1839 en revue mensuelle puis en pisodes hebdomadaires: Le Magasin dAntiquits de 1840 1841 et Barnab Rudge en 1841. Viennent ensuite La Maison Dsole de 1852 1853, Les Temps difficiles en 1854 et Petite Dorrit de 1855 1857. Il retourna au roman historique avec Le Conte de Deux Cits en 1859 et lutilisation de la premire personne dans Les Grandes Esprances de 1860 1861.
Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.