Charles Dickens was born near Portsmouth on February 7, 1812. He was the second child of John and Elizabeth Dickens. John made a living in the payroll office of the Navy. He moved his family to Chatham and worked in the naval dockyard, where Charles experienced his happiest childhood memories (Purdue, David). His father would always spend more money than he earned. John Dickens could not keep his style of living without small loans, most of which, came from trades-people in the currency of goods and services. The loans were to be paid for in part or in full at the next payday. He began to find himself with more debts and anticipated expenses than cash (Kaplan 31). John also borrowed money from his mother, which was deducted from his share of her small estate. In June 1822, unexpectedly, he was transferred back to London. The family was on the move again, and it was even harder to find a home with the strain of unpaid bills and almost no cash (Kaplan 32). Charles started school at the age of nine, but dropped out when his father was imprisoned for debt in 1824. He was then forced to support himself by working in a shoe-polish factory, earning six shillings a week (Cody, David). The boy considered this period to be "the most terrible time in his life," resulting in a sense of humiliation and abandonment ("Charles Dickens"). "How could I have been so easily cast away at such .
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an age (Purdue, David)?" He went back to school a year later, but was mostly self-educated. In 1827, Charles took a day job as a legal clerk, while doing his studies at night. After learning shorthand, he began working as a reporter in the courts and Parliament (Dickens, Charles John Huffam). Charles" first love affair began at the age of eighteen, with Maria Bednell. Although it lasted for three years, they had many social differences. She was three years older than Charles and was a daughter of a bank clerk (Ackroyd 130).