Oliver Twist

* Charles´ Dickens Biography
Charles Dickens was born in Portsea, England the 7th of February of 1812 and died in Kent, England the 9th of June of 1870. He was an English novelist and the most important writer of the Victorian period. His books are characterized by social criticism and humor, with a lot of characters from the low-class like orphans and homeless.
His family was from the lowermiddle class and his father was a clerk in the navy pay office. When he was nine he began to study in a school of Chatam after being taught by his mother. His family moved to London because his father was sent to a debtors’ prison and the rest of the family lived with Charles’ father in the prison because on that time was possible. During this time Charles lived without his family and worked a lotin a shoe-polish factory for very little money, he lived in a small quarter and he didn’t have enough food. When his parental grandmother died his father inherited a lot of money and he was able to get out from prison. Thanks to this Charles could leave his work and resume his studies.
After his studies he got a lot of jobs like an assistant in a lawyer’s office, a shorthand clerk or a freelancecourt reporter. After these jobs he became a parliamentary reporter in the Morning Chronicle newspaper. While he was working in the newspaper he was doing sketches signed by “Boz” that were published in two series which were about London life. He also published the first number of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club and he married Catherine Hogarth with whom he had ten children. He workedin a lot of newspapers like Bentley’s Miscellany, Household words or All the Year Round. He finished The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club and then he published monthly Oliver Twist which finished in September of 1838.
The most important books he published are Oliver Twist (1837-38), David Copperfield (1849-50) and A Tale of Two Cities (1859) but he also published well-known short storieslike A Christmas Carol (1843) and The Cricket on the Heart (1845).
Dickens’ life was busy, in addition to writing his books he had an active social life, he spent so many time with his family and he did a lot of exercise. He traveled to different countries like America, Italy and France. He had financial problems so he started to perform his own works at the theatre. After his successes Charles andhis wife Catherine got divorced because she couldn’t take care of the children. He also was very famous because Queen Victoria was very interested on his books.
The 8th of June of 1870, at dinner time, after Dickens had been working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood, he collapsed and sank into a coma, which caused him death the evening of the following day. He was buried in Westminster Abbey near hishouse.


* Early 19th Century England

* Historical facts of England at the time
The most important fact was the Industrial Revolution because it improved the agriculture, the mining and the transportation. This changed all the economy because with the new machines they could make the products faster. The Industrial Revolution also changed the agriculture because they made differentmachines in order to help the farmers do their tasks faster.
Another great invention was the steam locomotive which made easier the transport between cities and also improved the mining because they could transport the minerals outside the mine.
In this period took place many wars in Europe because of Napoleon, the emperor of France, who was trying to conquer all Europe. These are calledNapoleonic Wars and they finished with the Battle of Waterloo where England and his allies defeated definitely France.
Another important fact was the theory of evolution written by Charles Darwin, a very important biologist, which caused a lot of controversies.
During the early 19th century three kings governed England: George IV, William IV and Queen Victoria who was a very important woman since...