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"Great Writers."
EDITED BY
ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A.,
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY INTHE
UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB, LAHORE.
LIFE OF DICKENS.
LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS
BY
FRANK T. MARZIALS
LONDON
WALTER SCOTT
24 WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW
1887
NOTE.
That I should have to acknowledge a fairly heavy debt to Forster's"Life of Charles Dickens," and "The Letters of Charles Dickens,"edited by his sister-in-law and his eldest daughter, is almost amatter of course; for these are books from which every present andfuture biographer of Dickens must perforce borrow in a more or lessdegree. My work, too, has been much lightened by Mr. Kitton'sexcellent "Dickensiana."
CONTENTS.
The lottery of education; Charles Dickens born February 7,1812; his pathetic feeling towards his own childhood;happy days at Chatham; family troubles; similarity betweenlittle Charles and David Copperfield; John Dickenstaken to the Marshalsea; his character; Charles employedin blacking business; over-sensitive in after years aboutthis episode in his career; isolation; is brought back intofamily and prison circle; family in comparative comfort atthe Marshalsea; father released; Charles leaves theblacking business; his mother; he is sent to WellingtonHouse Academy in 1824; character of that place of learning;Dickens masters its humours thoroughly. 11
Dickens becomes a solicitor's clerk in 1827; then a reporter;his experiences in that capacity; first story published inThe Old Monthly Magazine for January, 1834; writes more"Sketches"; power of minute observation thus earlyshown; masters the writer's art; is paid for his contributionsto the Chronicle; marries Miss Hogarth on April 2,1836; appearance at that date; power of physical endurance;admirable influence of his peculiar education;and its drawbacks 27
Origin of "Pickwick"; Seymour's part therein; first numberpublished on April 1, 1836; early numbers not a success;suddenly the book becomes the rage; English literaturejust then in want of its novelist; Dickens' kingshipacknowledged; causes of the book's popularity; its admirablehum