CHARLES DICKENS

Yesterday ,seventh of  February, it was the bicentenary of Charles Dickens's birth. Dickens was one of the best and most famous novelists of the XIX century in Britain.

He was born the seventh of February of 1812 in Portsmouth and he died the nineth of June of 1870 after being in a train accident. During his childhood he had terrible experiences. First, his father went to jail because of financial problems. So, at the age of twelve Dickens had to work in a factory. He and other boys worked in dreadful conditions. They were in very small places under stairs and there were a lot of rats around them. Dickens suffered a lot and he used what he lived in those days in his books, for example in" David Copperfield."

The family received some money and he finally could go to school. Later he began working in newspapers and writing stories. These stories were published in episodes and very soon his writings became very popular.
Many of his books are a reflection of the difficulties of the working class during the Industrial Revolution as in "Little Dorrit" and "Oliver Twist".

"A Christmas Carol" is a very famous short story which was very popular in the United States, where Dickens travelled twice.

Here you have two videos. In the first you can see Dickens's house in London and in the second the social environment of his time.