Charles Dickens-English show

Charles Dickens was a famous English critical realism novelist in the 19th century.He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. With time going by, his novels and short stories continue to be widely popular. He had a well-off family in his early years and was once educated in a private school for a period of time,but his parents often banqueted guests and used money without restraint.At the age of 15, he graduated from Wellington College, and then worked into a lawyer line. Later he turned to newspaper, becoming a reporter at the age of 20.Like many others, he began his literary career as a journalist.Dickens wrote many works in his life，such as the Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, David Copperfield,The Old Curiosity Shop and so on. Pickwick Papers was Dickens‟ first big pop ular success, written when he was only twenty-four years old.His literary style is a mixture of fantasy and realism.。

Charles DickensCharles Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was a famous English critical realism novelist in the 19th century. “He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars.” With time going by, his novels and short stories continue to be widely popular. In his works, he paid special attention to the life of "little guy" at the bottom of society in the UK, which deeply reflected the complex social reality at that time.LIFE AND CAREERCharles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on 7 February 1812, the second son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. He had a well-off family in his early years and was once educated in a private school for a period of time, but his parents often banqueted guests and used money without restraint. As a result, his father, inspiration for the character of Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield, was imprisoned for bad debt when Charles Dickens was 10 years old. “The entire family, apart from Charles, was sent to Marshalsea along with their patriarch. Charles was sent to work in Warren's blacking factory and endured appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair.” He worked over 10 hours every day. After three years, luckily, his father inherited a legacy of the family, so their economic conditions were improved. He was returned to school, but the experience was never forgotten and became fictionalized in two of his better-known novels David Copperfield and Great Expectations.At the age of 15, he graduated from Wellington College, and then worked into a lawyer line. Later he turned to newspaper, becoming a reporter at the age of 20.“Like many others, he began his literary career as a journalist. His own father became a reporter and Charles began with the journals The Mirror of Parliament and The True Sun. Then in 1833 he became parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. With new contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym 'Boz'. In April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth who edited Sketches by Boz. Within the same month, came the publication of the highly successful Pickwick Papers, and from that point on there was no looking back for Dickens.”Besides a huge list of novels, “he published autobiography, edited weekly periodicals including Household Words and All Year Round, wrote travel books and administered charitable organizations. He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed before Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad - for example lecturing against slavery in the United States and touring Italy with companions Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, a contemporary writer who inspired Dickens' final unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood.He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the birth of their ten children, but maintained relations with his mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan.” However, too much hard work and disappointment at reform seriously impaired his health. He died of astroke in 1870 and buried at Westminster Abbey. His tombstone wrote:“He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world.”MAJOR WORKSDickens wrote many works in his life, and the followings are some of his most important novels. They can be divided into different periods.From 1836 to 1841, it was the first period of youthful optimism. The major works are Sketches by Boz, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist,Nichols Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and so on. “Pickwick Papers(1836-37) was Dickens’ first big popular success, written when he was only twenty-four years old. It was issued in twenty monthly parts and is not so much a novel as a series of loosely linked sketches and changing characters featured in reports to the Pickwick Club. These episodes narrate comic excursions to Rochester, Dingley Dell, and Bath; duels and elopements; Christmas festivities; Mr Pickwick inadvertently entering the bedroom of a middle-aged lady at night; and in the end a happy marriage. Much light-hearted fun and a host of memorable characters are filled in this work. Oliver Twist(1837-38) expresses Dickens’ sense of the vulnerability of children. Oliver is a foundling, raised in a workhouse, who escapes suffering by running off to London. There he falls into the hands of a gang of thieves controlled by the infamous Fagin. He is pursued by the sinister figure of Monks who has secret information about him. The plot centres on the twin issues of personal identity and a secret inheritance (which surface again in Great Expectations). Emigration, prison, and violent death punctuate a cascade of dramatic events. This is the early Victorian novel in fine melodramatic form. It is recommended for beginners to Dickens.”The second period of excitement and irritation expose the corrupting influence of wealth and power, optimism turned into dissatisfaction and irritation.David Copperfield (1849-50) is a thinly veiled autobiography, of which Dickens said ‘Of all my books, I like this the best’. As a child David suffers the loss of both his father and mother. He endures bullying at school and a life of poverty when he goes to work. he soon runs away to his Aunt Betsey Trotwood in Dover. Aunt Betsey adopts him and sends him to Dr. Strong's private school in Canterbury, where David meets his best friend Agnes Wickfield, as well as the slimy Uriah Heep.David grew up and became a lawyer, he fall in love with beautiful but childish Dora Spenlow. He marries Dora, despite her uselessness in household chores. However, Dora Spenlow soon falls ill and dies, leaving David single and heartbroken. David is very sad, and left his country. He travels throughout Europe, during which time he publishes his first novel with the help of old school-friend Thomas Traddles, and during this odyssey realizes he loves Agnes Wickfield. Upon his return he proposes to her, and the two quickly marry. They later move into a house in London along with their young children. The book is packed with memorable characters such as Mr. Micawber, the fawning Uriah Heep, and the earth-mother figure Clara Peggotty. The plot involves Dickens’ recurrent topics of thwarted romance, financial insecurity and misdoings, and the terrible force of the legal system which haunted him all his life.The third period of intensifying (increasing) pessimism, showed underlying tone of bitterness, loss of hope for English bourgeois society. “A Tale of Two Cities (1859) was Dickens’ account of the French Revolution – with the story switching between London and Paris. It views the causes and effects of the Revolution from an essentially private point of view, showing how personal experience relates to public history. The characters are fictional, and their political activity is minimal, yet all are drawn towards the Paris of the Terror, and all become caught up in its web of suffering and human sacrifice. The novel features the famous scene in which wastrel barrister Sydney Carton redeems himself by smuggling the hero out of prison and taking his place on the scaffold.” The novel ends with the memorable lines: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known." Great Expectations(1860-61) traces the adventures and moral development of the young hero Pip as he rises from humble beginnings in a village blacksmith’s. Eventually, via good connections and a secret benefactor, he becomes a gentleman in fashionable London – but loses his way morally in the process and disowns his family. Fortunately he is surrounded by good and loyal friends who help him to redeem himself. Plenty of drama is provided by a spectacular fire, a strange quasi-sexual attack, and the chase of an escaped convict on the river Thames. There are a number of strange psycho-sexual features to the characters and events, and the novel has two subtly different endings – both adding ambiguity to the love interest between Pip and the beautiful Stella. There are other famous works in this period, such as Bleak House(1852-1853), Hard Times(1854) and so on. STYLESHe has different writing styles in different periods. In his early period, the works are of gentle social criticism, Fantastic optimism, La novela picaresca and Exaggeration. In his middle period, the works are of vigorously criticizing on bourgeois and his morality, gentle moralism, humor and satire. At the same time, The plot and structure are more complete and unified. In his later period, the works are of social criticism, gentle reformism and strong humanitarian, exploration of man’s inner conflicts and symbolismHis literary style is also a mixture of fantasy and realism. “Dickens was once a newspaper reporter so his descriptions show a wonderful eye for detail. Dickens loved words, and liked to produce a 'pretty piece of writing' in different styles. He included lots of powerful adjectives, and is famous for his use of metaphors and similes. His descriptions often present people, their surroundings, and even the weather, in ways which reinforce each other, so that certain 'feel' is built up through the passage. From the early 1850s, Dickens gave public readings of his novels. His writing is rhythmic and designed to be read out loud. He loved to make young women in his audience laugh or weep, so many of his characters are either hilariously comic or heart-broken sentimental. In addition, Dickens was also a master of dialect and used what is called 'substandard' speech to add to the picture of a character he was building up.”References1．《插图本英国文学史》2. /wiki/Charles_Dickens3/history/historic_figures/dickens_charles.shtml4/5-most-popular-Charles-Dicken-books/articleshow/11805466.cms5/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosegreatexpect/0prose_greatex pect_contrev3.shtml。

IntroductionCharles Dickens, the greatest representative of English critical realism ,was born in 1812 at Portsmouth. When he was four years old, his family moved to Chatham, and the five years he spent there were the happiest of all his boyhood. One day, he found a pile of English novels, which aroused his curiosity. Now the key to the treasure-house of literature had been put in his hand. When 15 years old , Dickens became an apprentice in a law firm and later a civil court judge clerk and then a newspaper reporter stationed in parliament. He had only a few years school life. But thanks to self-study he became a famous writer.Charles Dickens’s works portray social life from all aspect. He denounced the social system of England , disclosed the corruption and ugliness of the society, and reflected social conflicts and crisis .A tale of Two Cities is an important novel of Dickens in his late time .With the French Revolution as background ,it revealed Dickens’s view of the history and society. Based upon previous studies ,this thesis tries to explain Dickens’s attitude toward the French Revolution----approval of revolution but opposition to violence, an analyze his means of salvation.Today, I will introduces the two main novels of Charles Dickens. His novels were influences by his experiences. In his early period his writing styles were gentle social criticism, fantastic optimism, exaggeration. The middle period , his criticize bourgeois and their morality and the plot and structure are more complete unified. In the later period ,his writing styles were satire social criticism ,gentle reformism and strong humanitarian, exploration of man’s inner conflicts , symbolism.1. A Tale of Two CitiesIn 1859 ,Charles Dickens wrote the famous novel --- A Tale of Two Cities, which occupies an important place among the Dickens’s novel. Since its publication, A Tale of Two Cities has got both warm appraise and unkind criticism.A Tale of Two Cities perhaps has received more discordant and inconsistent criticism than any other of his novels . A Tale of Two Cities failed to please anyone, and this judgment had been handed down to the scholars who assessed the contemporary intellectual reviewers’ reception of the novel. Luckily, in 1979 David G. Tucker made the record straight when he disclosed a huge number of pretty favourable newspapers and journal comments to state that” beyond doubt ,the response to A Tale of Two Cities was overwhelmingly favourable enthusiastic ,indeed, laudatory.And A Tale of Two Cities is repeatedly criticized to be un-Dickensian which has mainly drawn its proofs from the argument of characterization. The humour and wide range of highly individual and unique characters compose a main characteristic of the other Dickens’s fictions and which are always referred to as Dickensian. However, A Tale of Two Cities has been continually criticized to lack humour and unique characters.2. Oliver TwistOliver Twist was Dickens’ second novel , which marked the beginning of Dickens’ literary life. It began to appear in a monthly magazine. “I had perhaps the best subject I have ever thought of , I have thrown my whole heart and soul into Oliver. ”That it s general purpose was clear in his mind was evident from his later - written preface : “I wished to show , in little Oliver , the principle of Good Surviving through every adverse circumstance and t triumphing at last ”. The companions among whom he was to betried were the criminals of London’s under2world. The author depicted it not in a romantic mood just as hiscontemporary novels , but showed much miserable reality. That reality was the great and enduring strength of the book. Dickens knew it a lot by close observation , which he had already demonst rated in , had newspaper sketches of London street s and criminal court . Also , there was another reason , that is , he knew it by his own experience. He was born in a provident way ; so even when he was very young , he suffered a lot . He knew those kinds of feeling and of course he could share the solitary child’s pain , for he bew ildered in those years when he hand labored hopelessly in the blacking - warehouse. As he said much later , himself might have become a little robber or a little vagabond. That period of time was so bitter and galling to this sensitive boy that many years later , when he was very successful , he could not look back upon it without tears in his eyes. Maybe it was the main reason that why he took much more attention to common people’s lives and their feelings.3、Oliver Twist’s influence and literary valueOli ver Twist was one of the most important social novels in Dickens’ early works. Also , it was the first time that Dickens led readers into a very sad world. The description of the criminal slums of London that little Oliver lived brought Dickens a new class of serious readers interested in social reform. People started to think about social reasons for all of those criminal phenomena. And in this novel , Dickens advocates his view of world charitable person will have good recompense. Oliver Twist was famous for exposing the dark sides of people lived out that time. It exposed the hypocritical and cruelty of parish workhouse through depicting the little orphan boy Oliver Twist’s childhood in it . He gave realistic pictures of the horrible existence in workhous e. One of the important characteristics of Oliver Twist was the real and specific description of people who lived in the bottom of society. Their miserable lives , including all the details , gave the readers a real feeling : these were fictions. Also ,it was the first time that many small potatoes appeared in English literature. Dickens carried the good t radiations of realism novels since 18th century of England and also developed it . He created his unique technique and formed his own style. Dickens’ wor ks axe very important in English literary history. They established the base of critical realism and had effect upon the development of the whole European realism novels. Oliver Twist was Charles Dickens’ first authentic novel and also was the first time t hat he led readers into a real but terrible life of underworld. This novel was a vivid picture and Charles Dickens was an excellent realist .。

查尔斯·约翰·赫芬姆·狄更斯，1812年2月7日生于朴次茅斯市郊，1870年6月9日卒于罗切斯特附近的盖茨山庄。

19世纪英国批判现实主义小说家。

狄更斯特别注意描写生活在英国社会底层的“小人物”的生活遭遇，深刻地反映了当时英国复杂的社会现实，为英国批判现实主义文学的开拓和发展做出了卓越的贡献。

他的作品至今依然盛行，对英国文学发展起到了深远的影响。

主要作品《匹克威克外传》《雾都孤儿》《老古玩店》《艰难时世》《我们共同的朋友》《双城记》等。

艺术上以妙趣横生的幽默、细致入微的心理分析，以及现实主义描写与浪漫主义气氛的有机结合著称。

狄更斯1812年出生于英国朴次茅斯（Portsmouth），是海军职员约翰·狄更斯和伊丽莎白·巴洛所生的第二个孩子12岁时，狄更斯的父亲就因债务问题而入狱，一家人随著父亲迁至牢房居住，狄更斯也因此被送到伦敦一家鞋油场当学徒，每天工作10个小时。

或许是由于这段经历，备尝艰辛、屈辱，看尽人情冷暖，使得狄更斯的作品更关注底层社会劳动人民的生活状态。

小说《大卫·科波菲尔》中，就是描写了自己这一段遭遇。

15岁时他从威灵顿学院毕业，随后进入一家律师行工作，后来又转入报馆，20岁时成为一名新闻记者。

狄更斯并没有接受很多的正规教育，基本上是靠自学成材。

狄更斯后来成为一名《晨报》的国会记者但真正使他成名的是1836年出版的《匹克威克外传》（The Pickwick Papers）正是19世纪中叶维多利亚女王时代前期。

狄更斯毕生的活动和创作，始终与时代潮流同步。

他主要以写实笔法揭露社会上层和资产阶级的虚伪、贪婪、卑琐、凶残，满怀激愤和深切的同情展示下层社会，特别是妇女、儿童和老人的悲惨处境，并以严肃、慎重的态度描写开始觉醒的劳苦大众的抗争。

He lived in the mid-nineteenth century, in which the upper class was hypocritical, greedy, ferocious and brutal. All the notorious were revealed in Dickens’s novels and essays. Therefore, he show great sympathy to the miserable conditions of thrlower class, especially the women, children and the elderly,狄更斯早期的小说，气势宏伟、通俗流畅、幽默泼辣而又充满感伤情调，其中对社会的揭露批判，一般只限于局部的制度和领域。

great expectations 远大前程charles dickens 狄更斯my first name was Philip,but when i was a small child i could only manage to say Pip.教名so Pip was what everybody called me.i lived in a small village in Essex with my sister,who was over 20 years older than me.my parents had died when i was a baby,so i could not remember them at all. quite often i used to visit the churchyard,about a mile from the village,to look at their names on the gravestones.经常，教堂墓地，墓碑sit on a gravestone in the churchyard one cold,grey,December afternoon.十二月份的一个寒冷阴沉的下午listen to the rushing sound of the sea in the distance.听着远处大海刮出的嗖嗖呼啸声don't say a word！别出声！a man jumped up from among the graves and caught hold of me.墓地里跳出一个人，一把抓住了我if you shout i will cut your throat. 敢叫就割断你的喉咙he was a big man,dressed all in black,with an iron chain on his leg.身材高大,一身黑衣服，腿上拴着铁链his clothes were wet and torn.衣服湿淋淋的，并且破破烂烂he looked exhausted,and hungry,and very fierce.筋疲力竭，饥饿，凶残。