CHARLES DICKENS:
HIS LIFE AND TIMES
1812—1870
CHILDHOOD
Dickens’ father was a clerk who
continually lived beyond his means.
He went to debtor’s prison when
young Charles was 12. Dickens’
mother and siblings were sent to
debtor’s prison too, but not
Charles…
…He had to work in a boot-blacking
factory and received 6 shillings a
week to support his entire family.
These experiences in Dickens’ youth directly influenced the development of
themes in his writings such as abandonment, alienation, betrayal, and
childhood poverty.
A WRITING LIFE
Dickens wrote 15 novels total as well
as countless short stories and
articles, including Great Expectations,
Hard Times, David Copperfield, A
Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist.
Eventually, Charles became a day
pupil at a school in London. At age
15 he got a job in a lawyer’s office
as an office boy and learned
shorthand.
Dickens took various jobs as a
reporter but after the success of
the serial The Pickwick Papers (1837),
he became a full-time novelist.
In 1859, the year in which A Tale of
Two Cities is published, Dickens was
probably the most popular author
of his time.
DICKENS TRIVIA
Dickens was married to Catherine Hogarth for
22 years, but separated from her around 1858.
A Tale Of Two Cities is published in 1859. By
this time Dickens is involved in a romance with
Ellen Ternan, a young actress who is likely the
model for the character of Lucie Manette.
Dickens’ last book, The Mystery of Edwin Drood,
was never finished.
Dickens’ Contemporaries
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George Eliot
Mark Twain
William Thackery
Anthony Trollope
Thomas Hardy
Emily Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
Rudyard Kipling
Robert Louis Stevenson
Arthur Conan Doyle
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Robert Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Matthew Arnold
George Meredith
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
VICTORIAN LITERATURE
Education was spreading, and as literacy increased so did the
impact of the written word. Probably at no other time before or
since did books enjoy such enormous popularity and influence.
ROMANTICISM — REALISM — NATURALISM
Romanticism, the previous literary era (begins 1789), had begun
as a radical departure from literary practice; now it was part of
mainstream culture, and slightly stale. A new generation of
writers, coming of age in a time of rapid technological change,
began to examine the social effects of that change.
Realism – a literary movement that
presented life as it is, rather than as it
might be. It sought to portray human life
realistically, without the sugar coating or
idealism of the previous era.
Because it focused on these more downto-earth or prosaic events, the literature
of realism is more suited to prose (poetry
being the hallmark of the Romantics).
Therefore, this shift in style helped make
the Victorian Age the great age of the
British novel.
This literature appealed to a growing
middle-class audience because of topics
like family relationships, religion and
morality, social change, and social reform.
Naturalism – an outgrowth of realism that sought to apply the
techniques of scientific observation to writing about life in the
industrial age.
Novels with details like the sour smells of poverty or the harsh sounds
of factory life sought to expose injustice and promote social reform.
They directly contradicted the romantic view of Nature as kindly and
benevolent.
The idea that nature mirrored human feelings was a “pathetic fallacy.”
Naturalist writers portrayed nature as harsh and indifferent to the
human suffering it often caused.
ROMANTIC REVIVAL
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – Formed about 1850,
this group of painters and poets sought to ignore the
ugliness of industrial life by portraying nature with the
fidelity found in medieval Italian art before the
Renaissance painter Raphael (1483-1520). The most
famous artist/poet is of this movement is Dante Gabriel
Rossetti.
The Aesthetic Movement – These writers appeared at the tail
end of the era, and turned away from the everyday world of
realism. Instead, they sought to create “art for art’s sake” –
works whose sole reason for being was their perfection or
beauty. Oscar Wilde (We read him soon!) was at the forefront
of this movement.
It Was The Best of Times…
 Love
 New beginnings
 New purpose
 “Recalled to Life”
It Was the Worst of Times…
 Social and economic
inequality
 Terrible living conditions
of the urban poor
 Arrogant and uncaring
ruling class
 Industrial Revolution
 Hunger – Disease –
Poverty – Ignorance
 Recipe for social upheaval
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
 “The best story I have ever written.”
 Rich in detailed descriptions, offering
a panoramic sweep of history,
suspense, mystery, and terror.
 Based upon a massive 3-volume
history of the French Revolution by
Thomas Carlyle.
 The action takes place over a period
of eighteen years, beginning in 1775
and ending in 1793. Some of the story
takes place earlier, as told in a
flashback.
To Be Continued…
A Tale of Two Cities, like all of Dickens’ novels, was
published serially, or in weekly or monthly installments in
popular magazines.
The novel—Dickens’
twelfth—was published
in the author’s new
magazine, All the Year
Round, from April to
November 1859, and in
book form the same year.
A REAL CLIFFHANGER!
 The serial form allowed Dickens to introduce a large
number of characters and develop the reader’s
familiarity with them.
 It also allowed the author to respond to the likes and
dislikes of the audience as he was writing the novel.
 Finally, serial publication required Dickens to end each
installment with a “cliffhanger” to leave the audience in
suspense, hungry for the next episode.
 As you read, pay attention to how Dickens ends each
chapter.
“Book the First: Recalled To Life”
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct
the other way - in short, the period was so far like the
present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted
on its being received, for good or for evil, in the
superlative degree of comparison only.