Charles Dickens, the English Writer and Social Critic
Charles Dickens is an author I revere in the highest respect; that is why I chose him for my satirical writer. Ever since a few years ago when I decided to pick up A Tale of Two Cities to read for fun, yes my own decision to read an "older" book in Middle School for my own enjoyment, I have thought Charles Dickens to be a man very eloquent with his words. Not only did that book make me think, but it made tears trickle down my face and in the very end his words all came together, and I was shocked to discover how a literary work could truly have so much depth.
Eagerly, I look for more opportunities to read more of his work, but for now just reading a couple of his masterpieces gives me ample satisfaction so I am not dying while I wait to read his books such as Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens will for certain always be a favorite author as mine as long as he still retains credit for writing such exemplary works such as A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities.
Eagerly, I look for more opportunities to read more of his work, but for now just reading a couple of his masterpieces gives me ample satisfaction so I am not dying while I wait to read his books such as Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens will for certain always be a favorite author as mine as long as he still retains credit for writing such exemplary works such as A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities.
Who He Was
Charles John Huffam Dickens has been called "the greatest author of his time" by numerous people. Born on Friday, February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsmouth England, Charles was born to his father John and mother Elizabeth Dickens. Up until age 15 he attended a couple schools, William Giles' school and Willington House Academy, for a few years and then for the rest of his life he mostly educated himself. Charles Dickens married in 1836 to Catherine Hogarth when he was at the age of 24; the Dickens family had a total of 10 children before Charles and Catherine's separation in 1858. After writing numerous noted works Dickens passed away on Thursday, June 9, 1870, due to a stroke; his legacy still living on through his works.
Though born into a family with both parents Charles Dickens suffered through a very traumatic experience that ultimately shaped his life and his literary works. Charles's father, when Charles was 12 years-old, was imprisoned for debt and Charles was sent to work in a factory in order to help support his family. This experience truly seemed to scar Charles, a bright, brilliant, sensitive boy, and it shows in Charles Dickens's fiction works and the darkness which is often present.
With over 30 published works, Charles Dickens showed great fortitude when he kept writing despite the difficulties in his life including the separation with his wife. He was writing up to the year he died in 1870 and was only 58 years-old when he died from a stroke. His life in England definitely influenced his literary works along with those experiences of his own life, and despite his little proper education, Charles Dickens continues to astound readers with his many works this day in age. (Perdue)
Though born into a family with both parents Charles Dickens suffered through a very traumatic experience that ultimately shaped his life and his literary works. Charles's father, when Charles was 12 years-old, was imprisoned for debt and Charles was sent to work in a factory in order to help support his family. This experience truly seemed to scar Charles, a bright, brilliant, sensitive boy, and it shows in Charles Dickens's fiction works and the darkness which is often present.
With over 30 published works, Charles Dickens showed great fortitude when he kept writing despite the difficulties in his life including the separation with his wife. He was writing up to the year he died in 1870 and was only 58 years-old when he died from a stroke. His life in England definitely influenced his literary works along with those experiences of his own life, and despite his little proper education, Charles Dickens continues to astound readers with his many works this day in age. (Perdue)
Satirical Elements
Charles Dickens's literary works were rich with satire and leaned often toward social criticism such as in A Tale of Two Cities. However, in perhaps one of the most well known Christmas stories there are, A Christmas Carol, being second only to the actual birth and story of Christ, satire is interwoven in the basic idea and plot. WIthout satire, the three ghostly beings who appear to the main character of Ebenezer Scrooge would have no way to form the idea for Scrooge and the readers of becoming better than a selfish, self-centered grouch.
In the preface of this novella, Charles Dickens has a message to the readers, showing that Dickens not only wants the gloomy main character of Scrooge to change his ways but for the readers of his literary work to experience a change in themselves also: "I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it." (
Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.
December, 1843.
If this one singular short novel does not clearly and plainly prove that Charles Dickens has pure satirical genius, then I am not sure if anyone else can be said to have "pure satirical genius". However, no one can deny that from the enormous amount of productions of this novella into movies, plays, and other performances, there is much to be appreciated from this author's literary work.
In the preface of this novella, Charles Dickens has a message to the readers, showing that Dickens not only wants the gloomy main character of Scrooge to change his ways but for the readers of his literary work to experience a change in themselves also: "I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it." (
Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.
December, 1843.
If this one singular short novel does not clearly and plainly prove that Charles Dickens has pure satirical genius, then I am not sure if anyone else can be said to have "pure satirical genius". However, no one can deny that from the enormous amount of productions of this novella into movies, plays, and other performances, there is much to be appreciated from this author's literary work.
Reviews of Charles Dickens and His Works
Some may complain about Dickens's work to be too "classic" and "boring" and too "hard to understand"; however, the majority of opinions that are of a more well informed and educated nature wish to praise Charles Dickens on his remarkable works.
Nevertheless, this first critic, Samuel Hammond is someone that appears to dislike the long novel Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens: "I cannot understand how quickly some people resolve to propitiate Dickens unbearably long novels on the basis of their themes and formidable writing styles. I cannot stress enough how needlessly long his books, particularly this one, are. Therein, Pip's story is like an eloquent British chap of maturing age who is still allowed to awkwardly breast feed off his aging mother, with an ostentatious pinky in the air; literally, Dickens is milking it for all it's worth.
"I have even heard Dickens called the JK Rowling of the 19 th century, if not for his popularity, for his awful tendency to pad books with so much filler, that unnecessary words adorn each page; so much the back cover becomes stained with innumerous redundant paragraphs. There should be a warning on this book in big red letters: May cause catatonic state!
"This book is the Alex DeLarge of bildungsromans, and though it struggles to end-happy, with Estella's decency, for instance, its' attempts are transparent, and the books great expectations couldn't be farther from fulfilled, which really is appropriate." (Hammond)
I would like to point out that as Samuel Hammond says: "I cannot stress enough how needlessly long his books, particularly this one, are." And then he goes on to finish his long critical review (where here I included a small portion) and then continues to complete a long psychoanalysis about Great Expectations. "Needlessly long" you say, Hammond?
Next, a reviewer from Kirkus writes a review about a fairly new biography about Charles Dickens called simply CHARLES DICKENS A Life. This book is greatly thus enormously praising the legendary author of Dickens: "Like Shakespeare, Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was an overachiever of genius, and his life was as eventful, dramatic and character-filled as any of his novels. This rich new biography brilliantly captures his world.
"Acclaimed biographer Tomalin (Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man, 2007, etc.) has always hunted big literary game (Hardy, Jane Austen, Samuel Pepys, etc.), and here she goes after one of the biggest and most complex. Dickens once told a visiting Dostoevsky that his heroes and villains came from the two people inside him: “one who feels as he ought to feel and one who feels the opposite.” However, there were many more dimensions to Dickens’ character. Besides being a tireless writer of long, complicated novels and hundreds of articles, an editor of a succession of magazines and a frustrated actor whose public readings became standing-room-only events, he was ebullient, charming, radical, instinctively sympathetic to the poor, generous to friends but unforgiving once you got on his bad side. At home, he was a domineering husband to his long-suffering wife and a distant father to his ten children. Dickens certainly would have appreciated Tomalin’s keen eye for scene, character and narrative pace. Ever the deft critic, she notes how the characters in Martin Chuzzlewit are “set up like toys programmed to run on course,” and that Hard Times “fails to take note of its own message that people must be amused.” Having written previously on Dickens’ disastrous late-life affair (The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, 1991), Tomalin also displays considerable detective work to bolster the possibility that Dickens and his other woman had a secret child who died in infancy.
"Superbly organized, comprehensive and engrossing from start to finish—a strong contender for biography of the year." (Reviewer)
One last critique: "Hailed for his comic and journalistic abilities, powerful and provoking depictions of the poor, unforgettable characters, and the moral-filled Christmas stories, Dickens was one of the most successful writers of his time. Enormously popular in England, he was, before he turned thirty, honorably received in America as well. Dickens wrote of the reception: 'There never was a king or emperor upon the earth so cheered and followed by crowds, and entertained in public at splendid halls and dinners, and waited on by public bodies and deputations of all kinds.' Although some critics have asserted that Sketches by Boz focuses too heavily on the lower class and that the author's stories are at times too sentimental and laden with exaggeration, many have extolled them for their expressions of a fundamental faith in humanity and their unflagging censure of social injustice. A. Edward Newton perhaps best summarized the high esteem in which countless readers hold Dickens when he declared that 'in the resplendent firmament of English literature there is only one name I would rank above his for sheer genius: Shakespeare.' " (Cengage)
Is there really anything more that needs to be said?
Nevertheless, this first critic, Samuel Hammond is someone that appears to dislike the long novel Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens: "I cannot understand how quickly some people resolve to propitiate Dickens unbearably long novels on the basis of their themes and formidable writing styles. I cannot stress enough how needlessly long his books, particularly this one, are. Therein, Pip's story is like an eloquent British chap of maturing age who is still allowed to awkwardly breast feed off his aging mother, with an ostentatious pinky in the air; literally, Dickens is milking it for all it's worth.
"I have even heard Dickens called the JK Rowling of the 19 th century, if not for his popularity, for his awful tendency to pad books with so much filler, that unnecessary words adorn each page; so much the back cover becomes stained with innumerous redundant paragraphs. There should be a warning on this book in big red letters: May cause catatonic state!
"This book is the Alex DeLarge of bildungsromans, and though it struggles to end-happy, with Estella's decency, for instance, its' attempts are transparent, and the books great expectations couldn't be farther from fulfilled, which really is appropriate." (Hammond)
I would like to point out that as Samuel Hammond says: "I cannot stress enough how needlessly long his books, particularly this one, are." And then he goes on to finish his long critical review (where here I included a small portion) and then continues to complete a long psychoanalysis about Great Expectations. "Needlessly long" you say, Hammond?
Next, a reviewer from Kirkus writes a review about a fairly new biography about Charles Dickens called simply CHARLES DICKENS A Life. This book is greatly thus enormously praising the legendary author of Dickens: "Like Shakespeare, Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was an overachiever of genius, and his life was as eventful, dramatic and character-filled as any of his novels. This rich new biography brilliantly captures his world.
"Acclaimed biographer Tomalin (Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man, 2007, etc.) has always hunted big literary game (Hardy, Jane Austen, Samuel Pepys, etc.), and here she goes after one of the biggest and most complex. Dickens once told a visiting Dostoevsky that his heroes and villains came from the two people inside him: “one who feels as he ought to feel and one who feels the opposite.” However, there were many more dimensions to Dickens’ character. Besides being a tireless writer of long, complicated novels and hundreds of articles, an editor of a succession of magazines and a frustrated actor whose public readings became standing-room-only events, he was ebullient, charming, radical, instinctively sympathetic to the poor, generous to friends but unforgiving once you got on his bad side. At home, he was a domineering husband to his long-suffering wife and a distant father to his ten children. Dickens certainly would have appreciated Tomalin’s keen eye for scene, character and narrative pace. Ever the deft critic, she notes how the characters in Martin Chuzzlewit are “set up like toys programmed to run on course,” and that Hard Times “fails to take note of its own message that people must be amused.” Having written previously on Dickens’ disastrous late-life affair (The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, 1991), Tomalin also displays considerable detective work to bolster the possibility that Dickens and his other woman had a secret child who died in infancy.
"Superbly organized, comprehensive and engrossing from start to finish—a strong contender for biography of the year." (Reviewer)
One last critique: "Hailed for his comic and journalistic abilities, powerful and provoking depictions of the poor, unforgettable characters, and the moral-filled Christmas stories, Dickens was one of the most successful writers of his time. Enormously popular in England, he was, before he turned thirty, honorably received in America as well. Dickens wrote of the reception: 'There never was a king or emperor upon the earth so cheered and followed by crowds, and entertained in public at splendid halls and dinners, and waited on by public bodies and deputations of all kinds.' Although some critics have asserted that Sketches by Boz focuses too heavily on the lower class and that the author's stories are at times too sentimental and laden with exaggeration, many have extolled them for their expressions of a fundamental faith in humanity and their unflagging censure of social injustice. A. Edward Newton perhaps best summarized the high esteem in which countless readers hold Dickens when he declared that 'in the resplendent firmament of English literature there is only one name I would rank above his for sheer genius: Shakespeare.' " (Cengage)
Is there really anything more that needs to be said?
Perdue, David. "Dickens Fast Facts." David Perdue's
Charles Dickens Page. Dap Designs, 1997-2012.
Web. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://charlesdickenspage.com/fast-facts.html>.
Dickens, Charles. "A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens Preface." The Online Literature Library.
Knowledge Matters Ltd., n. d. Web.
Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.literature.org/
authors/dickens-charles/christmas-carol/>.
Hammond, Samuel. "Charles Dickens Critical Review and Psychoanalysis."
The Rational Response Squad A place for activist atheists to unite.
Rational Response Squad, 4 2007. Web.
Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.rationalresponders.com/
charles_dickens_critical_review_psychoanalysis>.
Reviewer, Kirkus. "Charles Dickens A Life Kirkus Review."
Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Reviews, 11 2011. Web.
Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <https://www.kirkusreviews.com/
book-reviews/claire-tomalin/charles-dickens-life/>.
Cengage, Gale. "Charles Dickens." eNotes.
eNotes, 1995. Web. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.enotes.com/charles-dickens-criticism/dickens-charles>.
Charles Dickens Page. Dap Designs, 1997-2012.
Web. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://charlesdickenspage.com/fast-facts.html>.
Dickens, Charles. "A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens Preface." The Online Literature Library.
Knowledge Matters Ltd., n. d. Web.
Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.literature.org/
authors/dickens-charles/christmas-carol/>.
Hammond, Samuel. "Charles Dickens Critical Review and Psychoanalysis."
The Rational Response Squad A place for activist atheists to unite.
Rational Response Squad, 4 2007. Web.
Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.rationalresponders.com/
charles_dickens_critical_review_psychoanalysis>.
Reviewer, Kirkus. "Charles Dickens A Life Kirkus Review."
Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Reviews, 11 2011. Web.
Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <https://www.kirkusreviews.com/
book-reviews/claire-tomalin/charles-dickens-life/>.
Cengage, Gale. "Charles Dickens." eNotes.
eNotes, 1995. Web. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.enotes.com/charles-dickens-criticism/dickens-charles>.