His schooling was again interrupted and ended when Dickens was forced to return to work at age 15. He found employment and became a clerk in a law firm, then a shorthand reporter in the courts, and finally a parliamentary and newspaper reporter. His brief stint at the haunted him all of his life. He spoke of it only to his wife and to his closest friend, John Forster, but the dark secret became a source both of creative energy and betrayal most notably was in David Copperfield and in .
In 1829 he became a reporter at Doctor's Commons Courts and in 1830 he met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker. By 1832 he had become a very successful shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons, and began work as a reporter for a newspaper.
In 1833 his relationship with Maria Beadnell ended. Also in the same year Dickens began to write short stories and sketches. In 1834, still a newspaper reporter, he adopted the soon to be famous pseudonym "Boz." He then provided a comic narrative to accompany a series of engravings, which were published as the Pickwick Papers in 1836. Within several months, Dickens became internationally popular. He resigned from his position as a newspaper reporter and became editor of a monthly magazine entitled Bentley's Miscellany.
His father, who was the original of Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield, as Dickens's mother was the original Mrs. Nickleby, was once again arrested for debt, and Charles was forced to come to his aid. Later in his life both of his parents were frequently after him for money.
In 1835 he met and became engaged to Catherine Hogarth. On 2nd April 1836, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. Together, they had nine surviving children, before they separated in 1858.
After the success of Pickwick, Dickens embarked on a full-time career as a novelist. Oliver Twist was begun in 1837, and continued in monthly parts until April 1839. With Oliver Twist only half completed, Dickens began to publish monthly instalments of Nicholas Nickleby in 1838. It was in 1837 also that Catherine's younger sister Mary, whom Dickens idolised, died. She appeared in Dickens's later fiction. A son, Charles, the first of ten children, was born in the same year. After the completion of Twist and Nickleby, Dickens produced weekly instalments of The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge.
After a short working vacation in the United States in 1841, Dickens continued. He began to publish annual Christmas stories, beginning with A Christmas Carol in 1843. Dickens fought for social issues like education reform, sanitary measures, and slum clearance. He began to address social issues in novels such as Dombey and Son (1846-48).
In 1850, Dickens established a weekly journal, Household Words, to which he contributed the works of Child's History of England (1851-53), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860-61). Dickens carried on to work on his novels, including David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), Little Dorrit (1855-57), and Our Mutual Friend (1864-65).
In 1858, Dickens began readings, which became instantly popular and got paid for. Dickens had performed more than 400 times. The readings sometimes left him exhausted and ill, but they allowed him to increase his income and stay in touch with his audience.
His marriage broke up with Catherine, Dickens moved permanently to his country house called Gad's Hill, near Chatham in 1860. It was also around this time that Dickens became involved in an affair with a young actress named Ellen Ternan. The affair lasted until Dickens death, but it was kept quite secret.
Dickens was required to abandon his reading tours in 1869 because his health wasn’t good anymore. He moved to Gad's Hill and began to work on Edwin Drood, which was never completed. He died suddenly at home on June 9, 1870. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Dickens would go on to write 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles before his death on June 9, 1870.
The inscription on his tombstone in Poet's Corner, reads: "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".
Novel – Charles Dickens – Hard Times
