Charles Dickens biography and masterpieces

2. • He was born on February 7th 1812 in
Portsmouth, England
• He is the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens.
• Officially became a novelist after the success
of Pickwick (1836-1839).
• When he resigned in 1838, Nicholas Nickleby
got underway his previous work.
• 1843, A Christmas Carol appeared.
biography

3. • He purchased Gad’s Hill, an estate he had
admired since childhood.
• Between 1856-1858, Dickens’s theatrical
company performed The Frozen Deep for the
Queen.
• He undertook payment for his public reading
for the first time in 1858.

4. • 1860, Dickens and his family had taken up
residence in Gad’s Hill.
• In the same year, he involved in another series
of public readings in London-he was in poor
health.
• 1866, he had done public readings around
England and Scotland.
• 1870 watched his final public readings in
London.
• He died June 9th 1870 at Gad’s hill.

6. Famous literary works
NOVELS
-David Copperfield
-The Pickwick Papers
-Oliver Twist
-Nicholas Nickleby
-The Old Curiosity
Shop
BOOKS
-A Christmas Carol
-The Chimes The Cricket on
the Hearth
-The Battle of Life
-The Haunted Man and the
Ghost’s Bargain
SHORT STORIES
-A Christmas Tree
-What Christmas is, as We
Grow Older
-The Poor Relation's Story
-The Child's Story
-The Schoolboy's Story
POEMS
-The Village Coquettes
-The Fine Old English
Gentleman

9. SUMMARY
Scrooge receives a visitation from the ghost of
his dead partner, Jacob Marley
Marley informs Scrooge that 3 spirits will visit
him during each of the next 3 nights
After the wraith disappear, Scrooge collapses
into a deep sleep.
He wakes moment before the arrival of the Ghost
Christmas Past

10. The spirit escort Scrooge on a journey into the past
previous christmases from the curmudgeons earlier
years.
The phantom returns him to his bed
The ghost of chrismast present, take Scrooge through
London to unveil Christmas as it will happen that year.
He saw bussinessman discuss the dead man’s riches.He
anxious want to know who is the dead man and shock
when he saw his name on the headstone

11. He desperately implores the spirit to alter the fate.He
promise to renounce his insensitive, avaricious way and
to honor Christmas with all his heart.
As years goes by, he hold true his promise and honor
Christmas with all his heart.

12. THE
CHRISTMAS
SPIRIT
THEMES
CRITIQUE OF
VIOCTORIAN
SOCIETY
CAPITALIST
TIME AND
EPIPHANIES
REDEMPTION
AND FREE
WILL

14. What inspired dickens
to write the fiction?
 the way Christmas was being celebrated at that
time
 humiliating experiences of his childhood
 his sympathy for the poor and their children
during the boom decades of the 1830s and 1840s
Washington Irving's stories of the traditional old
English Christmas
 real social concern

15. POPULARITY OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL
 sold for 6000 copies by Christmas 1843
 2000 copies of second printing were snapped on
first days of new year
 Eight adaptations within two months of
publication
 has undergone numbers of adaptations to other
media including film, opera, ballet, etc.
 influenced many aspects of Christmas that are
celebrated today in Western culture
 most widely enjoyed work, with hundreds of
further reprints and adaptations

16. RESPONDS
1) “ I have always found A Christmas Carol to be
one of the most cynical pieces ever written.”
by Michael on December
1, 2009
- Charles Dickens wrote the story for one reason
which is to make a lot of money quickly
- Mr. scrooge was far more honest and in the
right than almost everyone else in the story

17. 2)“For theorists whose critical presuppositions emphasized
intelligence, sensitivity and an author in complete control of
his work the cruder aspects of his popular art often proved
an insurmountable obstacle, while for the formulators of
traditions his gigantic idiosyncrasies can never be made to
conform.”
by Alan Shelston, University of Manchester
- Charles Dickens has always presented problems for literary
criticism

18. 3) “when one heard Charles Dickens’s name, the name will
conjures up visions of plum pudding and Christmas
punch, quaint coaching inns and cozy firesides.”
“we will also remember the orphaned and starving
children, misers, murderers, and abusive
schoolmasters.”
“Charles dickens was the 19th century London
personified, he survived its mean streets as a child
and, largely self educated, possessed the genius to
become the greatest writer of his age.”
by David Perdue

19. ~Thank You~