Charles Dickens was one of the most popular English writers of all time. He created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period.
Born in Portsmouth, England, on 7 February, 1812, Dickens was the second of eight children. He was forced to leave school after his father's imprisonment, to work at a boot-blacking factory. His early childhood experiences were much like those depicted in his novel--David Copperfield. He felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take care of him. These sentiments later became a recurring theme in his writings.
In 1865, Dickens was involved in a train accident and never fully recovered. On June 9, 1870, Dickens suffered a stroke and, at the age of 58, died at Gad's Hill Place, his country home in Kent, England, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.
