— Sketches by Boz
Charles Dickens was an English writer and journalist who created some of literature's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity in his lifetime and are still widely read.
Born in Portsmouth, he left school at age 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was jailed in a debtors' prison. He later began his literary career as a journalist. He edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels and 5 novellas, and campaigned for children's rights, education and other social reforms. His success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities are among his most quoted works in our library.
Born in Portsmouth, he left school at age 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was jailed in a debtors' prison. He later began his literary career as a journalist. He edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels and 5 novellas, and campaigned for children's rights, education and other social reforms. His success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities are among his most quoted works in our library.
Christmas is a time in which, of all times in the year, the memory of every remediable sorrow, wrong, and trouble in the world around us, should be active with us, not less than our own experiences, for all good.
— The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
He was always so zealous and honorable in fulfilling his compact with me, that he made me zealous and honorable in fulfilling mine with him. If he had shown indifference as a master, I have no doubt I should have returned the compliment as a pupil. He gave me no such excuse, and each of us did the other justice.
— Great Expectations
But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!
— A Christmas Carol
You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?""I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.
— A Christmas Carol