Everything about Charles Dickens totally explained
Charles John Huffam Dickens,
FRSA (;
7 February 1812 –
9 June 1870),
pen-name "Boz", was the foremost
English novelist of the
Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language's greatest writers, he was acclaimed for his rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime.
Later critics, beginning with
George Gissing and
G. K. Chesterton, championed his mastery of prose, his endless invention of unique, clever personalities and his powerful social sensibilities, but fellow writers such as
George Henry Lewes,
Henry James and
Virginia Woolf fault his work for sentimentality, implausible occurrences, and
grotesque characters.
The popularity of Dickens'
novels and
short stories has meant that not one has ever gone
out of print. Dickens wrote
serialised novels, the usual format for
fiction at the time, and the reading public eagerly anticipated the arrival of each new part of his stories.
Life
Early years
Charles Dickens was born in
Landport,
Portsmouth in
Hampshire, the second of eight children to John Dickens (1786 – 1851), a clerk in the Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth, and his wife Elizabeth Dickens (née Barrow, 1789 – 1863) on
7 February 1812. When he was five, the family moved to
Chatham, Kent. In 1822, when he was ten, the family relocated to 16 Bayham Street,
Camden Town in London.
Although his early years seem to have been an idyllic time, he thought himself then as a "very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy". He spent his time outdoors, but also read voraciously, with a particular fondness for the
picaresque novels of
Tobias Smollett and
Henry Fielding. He talked later in life of his extremely poignant memories of childhood and his continuing
photographic memory of the people and events that helped to bring his fiction to life. His family was moderately wealthy, and he received some education at the private William Giles' school in Chatham. This time of prosperity came to an abrupt end, however, when his father, after spending far too much money entertaining and retaining his social position, was imprisoned at
Marshalsea debtors' prison.
The 12-year-old Dickens began
working ten hour days in a Warren's boot-blacking
factory, located near the present
Charing Cross railway station. He earned six
shillings a week pasting labels on the jars of thick
polish. This money paid for his lodgings in
Camden Town and helped him to support his family. The shocking conditions of the factory made an ingrained impression on Dickens.
After a few months, his family was able to leave Marshalsea, but their financial situation didn't improve until later, partly due to money inherited from his father's family. Dickens's mother didn't immediately remove him from the boot-blacking factory, owned by a relation of hers, and he never forgave her for this. Resentment of his situation and the conditions under which
working-class people lived became major themes of his works, championing the causes of the poor and oppressed. As Dickens wrote in
David Copperfield, his personal favourite as well as his most patently autobiographical novel, "I had no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from anyone, that I can call to mind, as I hope to go to heaven!" He eventually attended the Wellington House Academy in
North London.
In May 1827, Dickens began work in the office of Ellis and Blackmore as a
law clerk. This was a junior office position, but it came with the potential of helping him up to the Bar. It was here that he gained his detailed knowledge of the law and the poor's suffering at the hands of its many injustices, together with a loathing of inefficient bureaucracy which stayed with him for the rest his life. He showed his contempt for the lawyer's profession in his many literary works.
At the age of seventeen, he became a court
stenographer and, in 1830, met his first love, Maria Beadnell. It is believed that she was the model for the character Dora in
David Copperfield. Maria's parents disapproved of the courtship and effectively ended the relationship when they sent her to school in
Paris.
Journalism and early novels
In 1834, Dickens became a political journalist, reporting on parliamentary debate and travelling across
Britain by
stagecoach to cover election campaigns for the
Morning Chronicle. His journalism, in the form of sketches which appeared in periodicals from 1833, formed his first collection of pieces
Sketches by Boz which were published in 1836 and led to the serialization of his first novel,
The Pickwick Papers, in March 1836. He continued to contribute to and edit journals throughout much of his subsequent literary career. Dickens's keen perceptiveness, intimate knowledge and understanding of the people, and tale-spinning genius were quickly to gain him world renown and wealth.
On 2 April 1836, he married Catherine Thompson Hogarth (1816 – 1879), the daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the
Evening Chronicle. After a brief honeymoon in
Chalk, Kent, they set up home in
Bloomsbury, where they'd ten children:
Catherine's sister Mary entered Dickens's
Doughty Street household to offer support to her newly married sister and brother-in-law. It wasn't unusual for the unwed sister of a new wife to live with and help a newly married couple. Dickens became very attached to Mary, and she died after a brief illness in his arms in 1837. She became a character in many of his books, and her death is fictionalized as the death of Little Nell.
Also in 1836, Dickens accepted the job of editor of
Bentley's Miscellany, a position that he'd hold until 1839, when he fell out with the owner. His success as a novelist continued, however, producing
Oliver Twist (1837-39),
Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39),
The Old Curiosity Shop and, finally, as part of the
Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840-41)—all published in monthly instalments before being made into books. Dickens had a pet
raven named Grip; it died in 1841 and Dickens had it stuffed (it is now at
The Free Library of Philadelphia).
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Dickens made two trips to
North America.
In 1842, Dickens travelled with his wife to the
United States and
Canada, a journey which was successful in spite of his support for the abolition of slavery.
During this visit, Dickens spent time in
New York City, where he gave lectures, raised support for copyright laws, and recorded many of his impressions of America. He toured the City for a month, and met such luminaries as
Washington Irving and
William Cullen Bryant. On
14 Feb 1842, a Boz Ball (named after his pseudonym) was held in his honour at the
Park Theater, with 3,000 of New York’s elite present. Among the neighbourhoods he visited were
Five Points,
Wall Street, The
Bowery, and the prison known as
The Tombs.
The trip is described in the short
travelogue American Notes for General Circulation and is also the basis of some of the episodes in
Martin Chuzzlewit. Shortly thereafter, he began to show interest in
Unitarian Christianity, although he remained an
Anglican, at least nominally, for the rest of his life.
(External Link) Dickens's work continued to be popular, especially
A Christmas Carol written in 1843, the first of his Christmas books, which was reputedly written in a matter of weeks.
After living briefly abroad in
Italy (1844) and
Switzerland (1846), Dickens continued his success with
Dombey and Son (1848);
David Copperfield (1849-50);
Bleak House (1852-53);
Hard Times (1854);
Little Dorrit (1857);
A Tale of Two Cities (1859); and
Great Expectations (1861). Dickens was also the publisher and editor of, and a major contributor to, the journals
Household Words (1850 – 1859) and
All the Year Round (1858-1870).
Middle years
In 1856, his popularity had allowed him to buy
Gad's Hill Place. This large house in
Higham, Kent, had a particular meaning to Dickens as he'd walked past it as a child and had dreamed of living in it. The area was also the scene of some of the events of
Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1 and this literary connection pleased him.
In 1857, in preparation for public performances of
The Frozen Deep, a play on which he and his protégé
Wilkie Collins had collaborated, Dickens hired professional actresses to play the female parts. With one of these,
Ellen Ternan, Dickens formed a bond which was to last the rest of his life. The exact nature of their relationship is unclear, as both Dickens and Ternan burned each other's letters, but it was clearly central to Dickens's personal and professional life. On his death, he settled an
annuity on her which made her a financially independent woman. Claire Tomalin's book,
The Invisible Woman, set out to prove that Ellen Ternan lived with Dickens secretly for the last 13 years of his life, and has subsequently been turned into a play by Simon Gray called
Little Nell.
When Dickens separated from his wife in 1858, divorce was almost unthinkable, particularly for someone as famous as he was, and so he continued to maintain her in a house for the next 20 years until she died. Although they appeared to be initially happy together, Catherine didn't seem to share quite the same boundless energy for life which Dickens had. Nevertheless, her job of looking after their ten children, the pressure of living with a world-famous novelist, and keeping house for him, certainly didn't help.
An indication of his marital dissatisfaction may be seen when, in 1855, he went to meet his first love, Maria Beadnell. Maria was by this time married as well, but seemed to have fallen short of Dickens's romantic memory of her.
Rail accident and last years
On
9 June 1865, while returning from France with Ternan, Dickens was involved in the
Staplehurst rail crash in which the first seven carriages of the train plunged off a
cast iron bridge that was being repaired. The only
first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling. Dickens spent some time tending the wounded and the dying before rescuers arrived. Before leaving, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for
Our Mutual Friend, and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it. Typically, Dickens later used this experience as material for his short
ghost story The Signal-Man in which the central character has a premonition of his own death in a rail crash. He based the story around several previous
rail accidents, such as the
Clayton Tunnel rail crash of 1861.
Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the
inquest into the crash, as it would have become known that he was travelling that day with Ellen Ternan and her mother, which could have caused a scandal. Ellen had been Dickens's companion since the breakdown of his marriage, and, as he'd met her in 1857, she was most likely the ultimate reason for that breakdown. She continued to be his companion, and likely mistress, until his death. The dimensions of the affair were unknown until the publication of
Dickens and Daughter, a book about Dickens's relationship with his daughter Kate, in 1939. Kate Dickens worked with author Gladys Storey on the book prior to her death in 1929, and alleged that Dickens and Ternan had a son who died in infancy, though no contemporary evidence exists.
Dickens, though unharmed, never really recovered from the Staplehurst crash, and his normally prolific writing shrank to completing
Our Mutual Friend and starting the unfinished
The Mystery of Edwin Drood after a long interval. Much of his time was taken up with public readings from his best-loved novels. Dickens was fascinated by the theatre as an escape from the world, and theatres and theatrical people appear in
Nicholas Nickleby. The travelling shows were extremely popular. In 1866 a series of public readings were undertaken in
England and
Scotland. The following year saw Dickens give a series of readings in England and
Ireland. Dickens was now really unwell but carried on, compulsively, against his doctor's advice.
Later in the year he embarked on his second American reading tour, which continued into 1868. During this trip, most of which he spent in New York, he gave 22 readings at
Steinway Hall between
9 December 1867 and
20 April 1868, and four at
Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims between
16 January and
21 January 1868. In his travels, he saw a significant change in the people and the circumstances of America. His final appearance was at a banquet at
Delmonico’s on
18 April 1868, when he promised to never denounce America again. Dickens boarded his ship to return to Britain on
23 April 1868, barely escaping a
Federal Tax Lien against the proceeds of his lecture tour
Social commentary
Dickens's novels were, among other things, works of
social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the
poverty and
social stratification of
Victorian society. Dickens's second novel,
Oliver Twist (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and
crime and was responsible for the clearing of the actual London
slum that was the basis of the story's
Jacob's Island. In addition, with the character of the tragic prostitute,
Nancy, Dickens "humanised" such women for the reading public; women who were regarded as "unfortunates," inherently immoral casualties of the Victorian class/economic system.
Bleak House and
Little Dorrit elaborated expansive critiques of the Victorian institutional apparatus: the interminable lawsuits of the
Court of Chancery that destroyed people's lives in
Bleak House and a dual attack in
Little Dorrit on inefficient, corrupt
patent offices and unregulated market
speculation.
Literary techniques
Dickens is often described as using 'idealised' characters and highly sentimental scenes to contrast with his
caricatures and the ugly social truths he reveals. The extended death scene of Little Nell in
The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) was received as incredibly moving by contemporary readers but viewed as ludicrously sentimental by
Oscar Wilde:"You would need to have a heart of stone," he declared in one of his famous witticisms, "not to laugh at the death of Little Nell." In 1903 Chesterton said, "It isn't the death of Little Nell, but the life of Little Nell, that I object to."
In
Oliver Twist Dickens provides readers with an idealised portrait of a young boy so inherently and unrealistically 'good' that his values are never subverted by either brutal orphanages or coerced involvement in a gang of young
pickpockets (similar to Tiny Tim in
A Christmas Carol). While later novels also centre on idealised characters (Esther Summerson in
Bleak House and Amy Dorrit in
Little Dorrit), this idealism serves only to highlight Dickens's goal of poignant
social commentary. Many of his novels are concerned with social realism, focusing on mechanisms of social control that direct people's lives (for instance, factory networks in
Hard Times and hypocritical exclusionary class codes in
Our Mutual Friend).
Dickens also employs incredible coincidences (for example, Oliver Twist turns out to be the lost nephew of the upper class family that randomly rescues him from the dangers of the pickpocket group). Such coincidences are a staple of eighteenth century
picaresque novels such as Henry Fielding's
Tom Jones that Dickens enjoyed so much. But, to Dickens, these were not just
plot devices but an index of the humanism that led him to believe that good wins out in the end and often in unexpected ways.
Autobiographical elements
All authors might be said to incorporate autobiographical elements in their fiction, but with Dickens this is very noticeable, even though he took pains to mask what he considered his shameful, lowly past.
David Copperfield is one of the most clearly autobiographical but the scenes from
Bleak House of interminable court cases and legal arguments are drawn from the author's brief career as a court reporter. Dickens's own family was sent to prison for poverty, a common theme in many of his books, and the detailed depiction of life in the Marshalsea prison in
Little Dorrit resulted from Dickens's own experiences of the institution. Little Nell in
The Old Curiosity Shop is thought to represent Dickens's sister-in-law, Nicholas Nickleby's father and
Wilkins Micawber are certainly Dickens's own father, just as Mrs. Nickleby and Mrs. Micawber are similar to his mother. The snobbish nature of
Pip from
Great Expectations also has some affinity to the author himself. The character of
Fagin is believed to be based upon
Ikey Solomon, a 19th century Jewish criminal of London and later Australia. It is reported that Dickens, during his time as a journalist, interviewed Solomon after a court appearance and that he was the inspiration for the gang leader in
Oliver Twist. Dickens may have drawn on his childhood experiences, but he was also ashamed of them and wouldn't reveal that this was where he gathered his realistic accounts of squalor. Very few knew the details of his early life until six years after his death when John Forster published a biography on which Dickens had collaborated. A shameful past in Victorian times could taint reputations, just as it did for some of his characters, and this may have been Dickens's own fear.
Racial defamation
Dickens wrote articles that strongly attacked other cultures, for example, the
Inuit, falsely calling them murderers of the
Franklin expedition. Dickens writings on Inuit people have had long-lasting effects in the defamation on an entire race and culture. In the documentary
Passage (2008 film), a member of Dickens' family apologizes on behalf of his ancestor to an Inuk statesman, who accepts the apology on behalf of Inuit people. Dickens has also been accused of
anti-Semitism in his depictions of several characters, most notably the character of Fagin in
Oliver Twist.
Legacy
A well-known personality, his novels proved immensely popular during his lifetime. His first full novel,
The Pickwick Papers (1837), brought him immediate fame, and this success continued throughout his career. Although rarely departing greatly from his typical "Dickensian" method of always attempting to write a great "story" in a somewhat conventional manner (the dual narrators of
Bleak House constitute a notable exception), he experimented with varied themes, characterisations, and
genres. Some of these experiments achieved more popularity than others, and the public's taste and appreciation of his many works have varied over time. Usually keen to give his readers what they wanted, the monthly or weekly publication of his works in episodes meant that the books could change as the story proceeded at the whim of the public. Good examples of this are the American episodes in
Martin Chuzzlewit which Dickens included in response to lower-than-normal sales of the earlier chapters. In
Our Mutual Friend, the inclusion of the character of Riah was a positive portrayal of a
Jewish character after he was criticised for the depiction of
Fagin in
Oliver Twist.
Although his popularity has waned little since his death, he continues to be one of the best known and most read of English authors. At least 180 motion pictures and TV adaptations based on Dickens's works help confirm his success. Many of his works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime and as early as 1913 a silent film of
The Pickwick Papers was made. His characters were often so memorable that they took on a life of their own outside his books. Gamp became a slang expression for an umbrella from the character
Mrs Gamp and Pickwickian, Pecksniffian, and Gradgrind all entered dictionaries due to Dickens's original portraits of such characters who were
quixotic, hypocritical, or emotionlessly logical.
Sam Weller, the carefree and irreverent
valet of
The Pickwick Papers, was an early superstar, perhaps better known than his author at first. It is likely that
A Christmas Carol stands as his best-known story, with new adaptations almost every year. It is also the most-filmed of Dickens's stories, with many versions dating from the early years of cinema. This simple
morality tale with both
pathos and its theme of redemption, sums up (for many) the true meaning of
Christmas. Indeed, it eclipses all other
Yuletide stories in not only popularity, but in adding archetypal figures (Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the Christmas ghosts) to the Western cultural consciousness. Some historians consider this book to have played a major factor in redefining the holiday and its major sentiments.
A Christmas Carol was written by Dickens in an attempt to forestall financial disaster as a result of flagging sales of his novel
Martin Chuzzlewit. Years later, Dickens shared that he was "deeply affected" in writing
A Christmas Carol and the novel rejuvenated his career as a renowned author.
At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged at the heart of
empire. Through his journalism he campaigned on specific issues — such as
sanitation and the
workhouse — but his fiction probably demonstrated its greatest prowess in changing public opinion in regard to class inequalities. He often depicted the exploitation and repression of the poor and condemned the public officials and institutions that not only allowed such abuses to exist, but flourished as a result. His most strident indictment of this condition is in
Hard Times (1854), Dickens's only novel-length treatment of the industrial working class. In this work, he uses both vitriol and satire to illustrate how this marginalised social stratum was termed "Hands" by the factory owners; that is, not really "people" but rather only appendages of the machines that they operated. His writings inspired others, in particular journalists and political figures, to address such problems of class oppression. For example, the prison scenes in
Little Dorrit and
The Pickwick Papers were prime movers in having the
Marshalsea and
Fleet Prisons shut down. As
Karl Marx said, Dickens, and the other novelists of Victorian England, "…issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together…". The exceptional popularity of his novels, even those with socially oppositional themes (
Bleak House, 1853;
Little Dorrit, 1857;
Our Mutual Friend, 1865) underscored not only his almost preternatural ability to create compelling storylines and unforgettable characters, but also insured that the Victorian public confronted issues of social justice that had commonly been ignored.
His fiction, with often vivid descriptions of life in
nineteenth century England, has inaccurately and anachronistically come to symbolise on a global level Victorian society (1837 – 1901) as uniformly "Dickensian," when in fact, his novels' time span spanned from the 1770s to the 1860s. In the decade following his death in 1870, a more intense degree of socially and philosophically pessimistic perspectives invested British fiction; such themes stood in marked contrast to the religious
faith that ultimately held together even the bleakest of Dickens's novels. Dickens clearly influenced later Victorian novelists such as
Thomas Hardy and
George Gissing, however their works display a greater willingness to confront and challenge the Victorian institution of religion. They also portray characters caught up by social forces (primarily via
lower-class conditions), but they usually steered them to tragic ends beyond their control.
Novelists continue to be influenced by his books; for example, such disparate current writers as
Anne Rice,
Tom Wolfe, and
John Irving evidence direct Dickensian connections. Humorist
James Finn Garner even wrote a tongue-in-cheek "politically correct" version of
A Christmas Carol, and other affectionate parodies include the
Radio 4 comedy
Bleak Expectations.
Although Dickens's life has been the subject of at least two TV miniseries and two famous
one-man shows, he's never been the subject of a
Hollywood "big screen" biography.
Name 'Dickens'
Charles Dickens had, as a contemporary critic put it, a "queer name". The name Dickens was used in interjective exclamations like "What the Dickens!" as a substitute for "
devil". It was recorded in the
OED as originating from Shakespeare's
The Merry Wives of Windsor. It was also used as a substitute for "
deuce" as in the phrase "to play the Dickens" in the meaning "to play havoc/mischief".
Adaptations of readings
There have been several performances of Dickens readings by
Emlyn Williams,
Bransby Williams and also
Simon Callow in the
Mystery of Charles Dickens by
Peter Ackroyd.
Museums and festivals
There are museums and festivals celebrating Dickens's life and works in many of the towns with which he was associated.
The Charles Dickens Museum, in Doughty Street, Holborn is the only one of Dickens's London homes to survive. He lived there only two years but in that time wrote The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, and Nicholas Nickleby. It contains a major collection of manuscripts, original furniture and memorabilia.
Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum in Portsmouth is the house in which Dickens was born. It has been re-furnished in the likely style of 1812 and contains Dickens memorabilia.
The Dickens House Museum in Broadstairs is the house of Miss Mary Pearson Strong, the basis for Miss Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield. It is visible across the bay from the original Bleak House (also a museum until 2005) where David Copperfield was written. The museum contains memorabilia, general Victoriana and some of Dickens's letters. Broadstairs has held a Dickens Festival annually since 1937.
The Charles Dickens Centre in Eastgate House, Rochester, closed in 2004, but the garden containing the author's Swiss chalet is still open. The 16th century house, which appeared as Westgate House in The Pickwick Papers and the Nun's House in Edwin Drood, is now used as a wedding venue. The city's annual Dickens Festival (summer) and Dickensian Christmas celebrations continue unaffected.
The Dickens World themed attraction, covering, and including a cinema and restaurants, opened in Chatham on 25 May, 2007. It stands on a small part of the site of the former naval dockyard where Dickens's father had once worked in the Navy Pay Office.
Dickens Festival in Rochester, Kent. Summer Dickens is held at the end of May or in the first few days of June, it commences with an invitation only ball on the Thursday and then continues with street entertainment, and many costumed characters, on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.Christmas Dickens is the first weekend in December- Saturday and Sunday only.
Dickens festivals are also held across the world.
Four notable ones in the United States are:
The Riverside Dickens Festival in Riverside, California, includes literary studies as well as entertainments.
The Great Dickens Christmas Fair (http://www.dickensfair.com/) has been held in San Francisco, California, since the 1970s. During the four or five weekends before Christmas, over 500 costumed performers mingle with and entertain thousands of visitors amidst the recreated full-scale blocks of Dickensian London in over of public area. This is the oldest, largest, and most successful of the modern Dickens festivals outside England. Many (including the Martin Harris who acts in the Rochester festival and flies out from London to play Scrooge every year in SF) say it's the most impressive in the world.
Dickens on The Strand in Galveston, Texas, is a holiday festival held on the first weekend in December since 1974, where bobbies, Beefeaters and the "Queen" herself are on hand to recreate the Victorian London of Charles Dickens. Many festival volunteers and attendees dress in Victorian attire and bring the world of Dickens to life.
The Greater Port Jefferson-Northern Brookhaven Arts Council (http://www.gpjac.org) holds a Dickens Festival in the Village of Port Jefferson, NY each year. In 2007, the Dickens Festival is Nov. 30th, Dec. 1st, and Dec. 2nd. It includes many events, along with a troupe of street performers who bring an authentic Dickensian atmosphere to the town.
Notable works by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens published over a dozen major novels, a large number of short stories (including a number of Christmas-themed stories), a handful of plays, and several non-fiction books. Dickens's novels were initially serialised in weekly and monthly magazines, then reprinted in standard book formats.
Novels
The Pickwick Papers (Monthly serial, April 1836 to November 1837)
The Adventures of Oliver Twist (Monthly serial in Bentley's Miscellany, February 1837 to April 1839)
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Monthly serial, April 1838 to October 1839)
The Old Curiosity Shop (Weekly serial in Master Humphrey's Clock, April 25, 1840, to February 6, 1841)
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty (Weekly serial in Master Humphrey's Clock, February 13, 1841, to November 27, 1841)
The Christmas books:
The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (Monthly serial, January 1843 to July 1844)
Dombey and Son (Monthly serial, October 1846 to April 1848)
David Copperfield (Monthly serial, May 1849 to November 1850)
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Bleak House (Monthly serial, March 1852 to September 1853)
Hard Times: For These Times (Weekly serial in Household Words, April 1, 1854, to August 12, 1854)
Little Dorrit (Monthly serial, December 1855 to June 1857)
A Tale of Two Cities (Weekly serial in All the Year Round, April 30, 1859, to November 26, 1859)
Great Expectations (Weekly serial in All the Year Round, December 1, 1860 to August 3, 1861)
Our Mutual Friend (Monthly serial, May 1864 to November 1865)
No Thoroughfare (1867) (with Wilkie Collins)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Monthly serial, April 1870 to September 1870. Only six of twelve planned numbers completed)
The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices (1890)
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Short story collections
Selected non-fiction, poetry, and plays
Further Information
Get more info on 'Charles Dickens'.
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