When you think of Charles Dickens you immediately think of A Christmas Carol. However he was more than that, and actually lived a bad childhood. He overcame his past and ended up writing many great books. One of Charles Dickens" best friends after watching him work said, "It was interesting to watch the mind and muscles working or you could even say playing as new thoughts were being put on his paper." Dickens is one of the best authors of all-time. In a life that only lasted fifty-eight years, Dickens wrote fifteen novels, in addition to many stories, articles, sketches, and letters. Literary critic Nelson Harland says, "It's necessary to think big. A big life filled with big books, full of great characters, an extensive amounts of plots, with bursts of great language." .
Dickens" youth and childhood played a major role in his writing and many stories seem to be semi-autobiographical. Charles Dickens was born in 1812, in Portsmouth, England. By the early 1820's, Charles was living with six siblings and his parents in a four-room house, with not a lot of money. T o try and help, Charles decided to work in a shoe polish factory, where he worked long hours. The job seemed to teach Dickens that due to events in our lives dreams and ambitions can easily be wiped away. Things got worse when his father was thrown into prison for people who had a lot of debts.
Years later Charles decided he wanted to become successful at whatever he did. So, he taught himself to write well and he became a reporter. He then began to resume his education. After resuming his learning some of his character sketches began to be put into some magazines. These would end up in his books. Dickens then started his career as a writer of books. Most of his books were published in magazines. His more popular works included Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol.
Charles Dickens was mostly happy but his marriage was basically a waste.