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Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at the age of 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years he returned to school, before he began his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, for education, and for other social ref ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Weller (character)
Sam Weller is a fictional character in ''The Pickwick Papers'' (1836), the first novel by Charles Dickens, and the character that made Dickens famous. A humorous Cockney bootblack, Sam Weller first appeared in the fourth serialised episode. Previously the monthly parts of the book had been doing badly, selling only about 1,000 copies a month — but the humour of the character transformed the book into a publishing phenomenon, raising the sales by late autumn of 1837 to 40,000 a month.Baer, Florence EWellerisms in ''The Pickwick Papers'' ''Folklore'', Published by Taylor & Francis, Ltd, Vol. 94, No. 2 (1983), pp. 173-183 On the impact of the character, ''The Paris Review'' stated, "arguably the most historic bump in English publishing is the Sam Weller Bump." Such was the popularity of the character that William Thomas Moncrieff named his 1837 burletta '' Samuel Weller, or, The Pickwickians'' after the main comic character in the novel, rather than on Samuel Pickwick himself. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kate Perugini
Catherine Elizabeth Macready Perugini (''née'' Dickens; 29 October 1839 – 9 May 1929) was an English painter of the Victorian era and the daughter of Catherine Dickens and Charles Dickens. Biography Born Catherine Dickens and nicknamed Kate or Katey, she was Charles Dickens's youngest surviving daughter, and according to her siblings her father's favourite child. Dickens reportedly named her after his friend, the actor William Macready. As a girl, she also bore the nickname "Lucifer Box" for her hot temper. She travelled widely with her family as a child, and performed in her father's elaborate amateur theatrical productions – including the 1857 performance of Wilkie Collins's '' The Frozen Deep'' before Queen Victoria. In 1858, her parents separated and the children remained with their father. The reason for the separation remains unclear, though rumours have focused on the close relationship between Charles Dickens and Ellen Ternan, an actress many years his junior, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Children's Rights
Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors."Children's Rights" , Amnesty International. Retrieved 2/23/08. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as "any human being below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, is attained earlier." [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penny Reading
The penny reading was a form of popular public entertainment that arose in the United Kingdom in the middle of the 19th century, consisting of readings and other performances, for which the admission charged was one penny. Impact Under the heading of "rational recreation", the penny reading proved to be accessible and was taken up by working class audiences. It built on the tradition of the penny gaff and "singing saloon". Writing in the mid-1860s, Thomas Wright as itinerant social observer found penny readings "exceedingly popular all over the country". Australian historian Joy Damousi documented the criticism by Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin of this passive consumption of literature through reading aloud, fitting as it did into Victorian culture and in particular poetry recitation. Penny readings, however, appealed for a period in both urban and country settings. They were significant as a way forward for the Mechanics' Institutes set up in the early Victorian period, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novellas
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. Definition The Italian term is a feminine of ''novello'', which means ''new'', similarly to the English word ''news''. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". No official definition exists regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words. History The novella as a literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance, principally Giovanni Boccaccio, author of ''The Decameron'' (1353). ''The Decameron'' featured 100 tales (named nove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Debtors' Prison
A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.Cory, Lucinda"A Historical Perspective on Bankruptcy" , ''On the Docket'', Volume 2, Issue 2, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Rhode Island, April/May/June 2000, retrieved December 20, 2007. Destitute people who were unable to pay a court-ordered judgment would be incarcerated in these prisons until they had worked off their debt via labour or secured outside funds to pay the balance. The product of their labour went towards both the costs of their incarceration and their accrued debt. Increasing access and lenience throughout the history of bankruptcy law have made prison terms for unaggravated indigence obsolete over most of the world. Since the late 20th century, the term ''debtors' prison'' has also sometimes been applied by critics to criminal justice sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dickens
John Dickens (21 August 1785 – 31 March 1851) was the father of famous English novelist Charles Dickens and was the model for Mr Micawber in his son's semi-autobiographical novel '' David Copperfield''. Biography The son of William Dickens (1719–1785) and Elizabeth Ball (1745–1824), John Dickens was a clerk in the Royal Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth in Hampshire. On 13 June 1809 at St Mary le Strand, London, he married Elizabeth Barrow, with whom he had eight children. He was later transferred to London and then to Chatham, returning to live in Camden Town in London in 1822 to work in Somerset House. John Dickens found it difficult to provide for his growing family on his meagre income. Soon his debts had become so severe that all the household goods were sold in an attempt to pay his bills, including furniture and silverware. He had eight children in all and his oldest child was Frances Elizabeth Dickens whilst his second-oldest was Charles Dickens. John's debts be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorian Era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the '' Belle Époque'' era of Continental Europe. There was a strong religious drive for higher moral standards led by the nonconformist churches, such as the Methodists and the evangelical wing of the established Church of England. Ideologically, the Victorian era witnessed resistance to the rationalism that defined the Georgian period, and an increasing turn towards romanticism and even mysticism in religion, social values, and arts. This era saw a staggering amount of technological innovations that proved key to Britain's power and prosperity. Doctors started moving away from tradition and mysticism towards a science-based approach; medicine advanced thanks to the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Dickens
Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (13 March 1852 – 23 January 1902) was the youngest son of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. He emigrated to Australia at the age of 16, and eventually entered politics, serving as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1889 to 1894. He died in poverty at the age of 49. Early life Nicknamed "Plorn", Dickens was named after novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton and educated at Tunbridge Wells in Kent at a private school owned by the Reverend W. C. Sawyer, later Anglican bishop of Armidale and Grafton. He also attended lectures at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Move to Australia Charles Dickens encouraged Edward, along with his elder brother Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, to migrate to Australia, which he saw as a land of opportunity. Alfred migrated in 1865 and Edward in 1868. Edward arrived at Momba Station just before his sixteenth birthday. Dickens settled at Wilcannia, N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dora Annie Dickens
Dora Annie Dickens (16 August 1850 – 14 April 1851) was the infant daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. She was the ninth of their ten children, and the youngest of their three daughters. Life Born at 1 Devonshire Terrace, Dora Dickens was named after the character Dora Spenlow, the child-bride of David Copperfield in Charles' 1850 novel ''David Copperfield''. According to her oldest sister, Mary, on 14 April 1851 her father spent much of his time "playing with the children and carrying little Dora about the house and garden" of their Devonshire Terrace home.Mary Dickens, ''Cornhill Magazine'' January 1885Ackroyd, pg 627 He then changed and went to the London Tavern for an annual dinner, at which he was to give a speech. Shortly before he spoke, his friend John Forster was called out of the room by one of Charles' servants, who came with the news that Dora had suddenly died after convulsions. He kept this from Charles until the speech was done. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Fielding Dickens
Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, KC (16 January 1849 – 21 December 1933), was the eighth of ten children born to English author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The most successful of all of Dickens's children, he was a barrister, a KC and Common Serjeant of London, a senior legal office which he held for over 15 years. He was also the last surviving child of Dickens. Early life Baptised in St Marylebone Parish Church in London on 21 April 1849, Henry Fielding Dickens was named after Henry Fielding, one of his father's favourite authors. His father had originally thought to name him after Oliver Goldsmith, but thinking that his son would constantly be teased as " Oliver asking for more", he changed his mind. His family nicknames were 'H', 'Mr Harry', and 'Mr H'. While a boy living at Gads Hill Place, his father's country home, he, with his brother Edward, started the 'Gad's Hill Gazette', a family newspaper printed on a small printing press given to him by Mr Wills, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens
Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens (18 April 1847 – 2 May 1872) was a Royal Navy officer, the fifth son and seventh child of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. Biography An endearing child, nicknamed "The Ocean Spectre" and "The Admiral" by his father, Sydney Dickens was born at 3 Chester Place and baptized at the church of St. Mary in Marylebone in London on 24 June 1847, his godfathers being William Haldimand of Lausanne, and Henry Porter Smith (1797–1880), an actuary for the Eagle Life Assurance Company. He was educated at Brackenbury's Military School at Wimbledon and at Mr Gibson's boarding school in Boulogne-sur-Mer, with his brothers, Alfred and Henry. When Sydney was aged 3, and staying with the family at Broadstairs, his father asked him if he would walk to the railway station to meet John Forster, who was coming for a visit. Without hesitation Sydney answered "Yes" and set off through the garden gate and down the street until another of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
