A Tale Of Two Cities General Overview
...Hampshire on Feb. 7, 1812, the second of seven children. His father, a financially irresponsible pay clerk for the navy, landed himself and all his family but his second born in debtors prison in 1824, upon which Charles was forced to spend his early years working in a factory in London to support his family. He earned a meager six pence an hour wrapping shoe-black containers.
Half a year after being imprisoned, Charles' father, John inherited enough money from a relative to pay off his debts and be released from jail. On this inherited fortune, Charles attended the Wellington House Academy in London, a local private school from 1824-27, where he first discovered his passion for writing. However, Charles disliked the work, and dropped out at the age of fifteen.
For the next two years he worked as a law office clerk, after which becoming a regular contributor to such periodicals as the True Son, a radical social reform paper, Mirror of Parliament a report on the proceedings of Parliament, and the Morning Chronicle, and became editor of the London Daily News. It was from these periodicals that Dickens' career as a writer first gained traction. In 1836, the Morning Chronicle published Dickens' first renowned works, The Pickwick Papers and Sketches By Boz (Boz being his pen name). In this same year, Charles married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of one of his good friends.
Dickens' novels soon began release in regular installments. Olliver Twist, for example, being released from 1837-39, Nicholas Nickelby from 1838-39, and The Old Curiosity Shop from 1840-41. Charles spent much of the next decade using his fame to protest the social injustices of his day, not producing much literature beyond pamphlets and plays dedicated to his cause. Part of this social crusade involved his condemnation of slavery in the United States.
Following his deviation into social reform,...
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