Charles' father, John Dickens, worked as a clerk at a navy post office. In 1822 he was transferred to London. The family was very poor and the eighth of them crowded into four cheap rooms in Camden Town. Charles' schooling was pretty much at an end and he began running errands, pawning the family's silver spoons and selling off the family library to earn money. He also went to work at a bottling company, earning six shillings a week putting labels on bottles. He had just turned twelve. In 1824 his father was arrested and put in a debtor's jail. This had a large impact on Charles, and he later wrote about the experience in David Copperfield and Little Dorrit. The family liv

At the age of eighteen he obtained a reader's ticket at the British Museum and began supplementing his education. He went to the theater almost every night. His first story published was Mr. Mines and his Cousins, which appeared in the Old Monthly Magazine and was followed by nine other sketches. He received no pay for these, but with some luck a knew opening appeared at The Morning Chronicle as a reporter and he would also contribute sketches for extra pay. They were called "Sketches by Booze" and he was offered 150 pounds for the copyright these appeared as Dickens first work. For many years Dickens was known as "Booze". The Picklock Papers and Oliver Twist as a serial were written by "Booze", but as a book were written by Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers was a leap to fame for him, even though some criticized it as not having enough plot to be called a novel.

At the age of fourteen Dickens began to work as an attorney's clerk, what would be an office boy now days. He had this job for about two years and this is where the forms and surroundings of the law had a profound affect on him. He always saw the comic side of law and government. He didn't like politics and believed that the cabinet system was nonsense. He than began working as a reporter for the Morning Herald. He then began to teach himself shorthand and in a mechanical sense made himself a marvelous reporter. Just a year later in 1828 he became a freelance reporter for the proctors at Doctors' Commons. The law itself meant nothing to him he believed it was nothing but a task. He still lived with his parents and he had many friends and aqaintances. There at the Doctors Commons he met the love of his life Maria, but she was from the upper class and her family saw to it that Dickens was not encouraged and abcence and distance would end it all.

Dickens's early novels contained a lot of improvisation. They did not have a lot of well-ordered construction and had lots of coincidences, farce, and melodrama. He also had a sense of humor in his writings. He enjoyed satire and making social commentary. Even though his early works were brilliant and successful, it was only gradually that he learned to build more structured and effective plot lines. His whole career was very consistent in its success. He was able to maintain his love of humanity. He supported creativity and generosity. When he was involved with any type of reform efforts, he always weighed them with what real terms of human benefits they would create. He did not like self-righteousness or cruelty.

A Man who worked at the Morning Chronicle with Dickens, Mr. Hogarth let Dickens stay in his home along with his three daughters. Charles ended up marrying one of them Catherine who was the oldest at eighteen and Dickens was twenty. Dickens then set forth and set up his own living quarters in Furnival's

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1938
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)