"The most important thing in life is stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will'. Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities."
-Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was a famous English author and is considered to be the best of the Victorian timeline. He was born on the 7th of February, 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England and died at fifty-eight years old from a stroke on the 9th of June 1870 on Gadd's Hill near Chatham, Kent.
Life of Charles Dickens
Dickens had to teach himself the ways of literature. Being the eldest son, he was taken out of school to work, pasting labels on shoe polish bottles at Warren's Blacking Factory to provide for the family. Even though he only had two years of formal schooling he thoroughly studied fine points of Grammar and invented his style of writing which is now known as 'Dickensian'. This writing style involves the usage of satire, puns, wordplay, and characterizing that poked fun at his characters. He often wrote on the themes of want, exploitation, crime, abuse, and corruption, having witnessed and experienced these things throughout his younger years of poverty.
When he was not working, Dickens made all types of written works doing what he could to hone his talent. He published them in a monthly magazine however they never brought any pay. In the year 1836 a publisher who liked the magazine story gave him an opportunity to publish his first novel entitled 'The Pickwick Papers'. It sold four hundred copies that year then jumped to forty thousand copies by November 1837.
Most Famous Novel: A Christmas Carol
His most famous novel would have to be 'A Christmas Carol' which is still enjoyed my many up to the current era. The story introduces a sour old man named Ebenezer Scrooge who sits in his counting room on a bitterly cold Christmas Eve. He refused to spend his precious money on coal for a fire leaving his clerk Bob Cratchit to suffer. Scrooge's nephew and gentleman who asked him for a donation to their charity stopped by that day. Scrooge treats them all horribly and showed them to the door, furiously spitting the catchphrase "Christmas! Bah! Humbug!"
Later that evening he returns to his apartment and receives a spooky visit from his dead business partner Jacob Marley. As punishment for his greedy, selfish life Marley is doomed to roam the earth bound down by heavy chains. He warns Scrooge about his own ways and tells him that within that night he would be visited by three other ghost.
The ghost of Christmas past, present and future all visit the grump. During the engagement with the last ghost Scrooge's eyes were opened to the many wrong choices he made in his life. Desperately pleading with the spirit to change his fate he promised to change the way he lived and to honor the Christmas season with all his heart. He wakes abruptly to find himself safely wrapped in the covers of his bed.
Relieved and overjoyed by the chance to redeem his himself, Scrooge rushed onto the street spreading his Christmas spirit. Now longer was he mean and selfish. He went to his nephew's Christmas party, donated to the charity and sends a giant Christmas turkey to the Cratchit house. The experience he had changed him and how he lived his life forever.
The real name of 'A Christmas Carol' is 'Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'. Dickens called a carol because he hoped the story would be repeated and shared to bring people together just like singing Christmas carols do. This novel took only six weeks to write, was published on the 19th of December 1843 and sold out by Christmas Eve that year.
Charles Dickens is a prime example of hard work equals success. Don't let situations. qualifications or anything for that matter stop you from chasing your dreams. Surpass your limits and move onward.
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