Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens At the age of 25, Charles Dickens was famous in his homeland for being the best "inimitable" contemporary novelist. His first novel The Pickwick Papers, a bright masterpiece of a comic prose, made him the favourite writer of the English-speaking world. And the second novel Oliver Twist only increased this reputation. It was for the first time in the history of English literature that the author made a boy, Oliver Twist the main character of the novel. The reader is overwhelmed with emotions by the story of the boy's life, hard times that he has.
Notable works by Charles Dickens: - The Pickwick Papers
- Oliver Twist
- Nicholas Nickleby
- A Christmas Carol
- David Copperfield
- Bleak House
- Little Dorrit
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Great Expectations
About the Author: Charles John Huffam Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius.
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers-from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton-for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterizations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathizer with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground," in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
--- Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
