A presentation to introduce my students to Charles Dickens.

1. Charles Dickens: The Man Who
Had Great Expectations
by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema

2. Gad’
Gad’s Hill Place

3. Childhood
• born on February 7, 1812
• grew up in Chatham, east of London
• lived there until he was ten
• had a happy childhood
• liked to read and pretend to be the
heroes in his story books
• older sister named Fanny
• went to a respectable school

4. Charles’ Mother and Father
Charles’
Mother – Father –
Elizabeth John
Dickens Dickens

5. Childhood
• father (John Dickens) worked hard but
was always in debt
• had to move family of eight to London
• Charles couldn’t go to school anymore
because the family couldn’t afford it
• stayed home and help with the house
and children
• sold belongings to buy food

6. Warren’
Warren’s Blacking Factory

7. Childhood
• at age twelve, Charles was forced to
work in the factory
• worked from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

8. Marshalsea Prison

9. Childhood
• father was arrested for debt and sent
to Marshalsea Prison
• the whole family was there except for
Charles
• he lived alone in a boarding house
• wandered the city at night; felt lonely
• this experience affected him deeply

10. Wellington House Academy

11. Childhood
• father received an inheritance
• paid off his debts
• was released from prison
• Charles was finally allowed to leave
the factory and go back to school

12. Charles Dickens as a Young Man

13. Young Adulthood
• quit school at 15
• worked in various jobs

14. Maria Beadnell

15. Young Adulthood
• fell in love with Maria Beadnell, a
banker’s daughter
• did anything to gain her affection
• Maria’s parents didn’t approve of
Charles
• sent Maria to Paris
• Charles was heartbroken

16. Dickens’
Dickens’ London

17. Young Adulthood
• Dickens would wander the streets of
London and watch the people
• he began to write stories about the
people he saw

18. Depositing the Manuscript:
Walk”
“A Dinner at Poplar Walk”

19. Sketches by Boz

20. Young Adulthood
• submitted his first story to the Monthly
Magazine
• the magazine published his first story “A
Dinner at Poplar Walk”
• he started to write more stories for them
• took the pen name Boz
• published his first book – Sketches by
Boz

21. Catherine Hogarth

22. Young Adulthood
• Dickens married Catherine Hogarth
• they did not have a happy marriage
• they lived together for over twenty-two
years; stayed married until Dickens’
death

23. The Pickwick Papers

24. Young Adulthood
• at age 25, Charles became extremely
popular with the publication of The
Pickwick Papers
• people were crazy about him and his
stories

25. Mary Hogarth

26. Nell Lucy Manette Agnes Heep
from from from
The Old A Tale of Two David
Curiosity Shop Cities Copperfield

27. Young Adulthood
• Catherine’s sister, Mary, came to live
with them
• Charles had strong feelings for her
• when she died, he was very upset
• based many of his sympathetic female
story characters on her

28. Scenes from
movie versions
of
Oliver Twist

29. Young Adulthood
• Charles wrote the book Oliver Twist
• showed people the darker side of life in
London – the poverty, illness, and
dangerous living and working conditions
• his writing influenced people and society
• laws to help the poor and to provide
schools were passed

30. Fagin from
Oliver Twist

31. Uriah Heep from David Copperfield

32. Ebenezer
Scrooge
from A
Christmas
Carol

33. Miss Havisham
from Great Expectations

34. Little Nell Nell herher deathbedfrom
Little and on grandfather
The Old Curiosity Shop

35. Charles Dickens Before His
First Trip to America

36. Older Man
• Dickens popular in America
• visited when he was thirty
• left on January 4, 1842
• he was mobbed by fans everywhere he
went

37. Dickens in America
Portrait Done in Boston

38. Dickens in America

39. Older Man
• he liked Boston
• disliked spitting
• resented that people were publishing his
stories without paying him
• despised slavery
• became very disappointed with the U.S.

40. Dickens’
Dickens’
Former
Home
Decorated
for the
Holidays

41. “The
Sparkler of
Albion”
Albion”

42. A Christmas
Carol

43. Older Man
• Dickens loved to throw big parties
• would do magic tricks for his guests
• loved entertaining at Christmas
• wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843
• became his most popular work

44. Maria Beadnell ... again

45. Dickens Moves into
Gad’
Gad’s Hill Place
Dickens was finally was able to buy Gad’s Hill
Place on March 14, 1856.

46. Dickens in 1867

47. Charles Dickens Visits
America a Second Time

48. Older Man
• he began to do dramatic public readings
of his work
• decided to go back to the U.S. even
though he was ill
• the people were still excited to see him
• he liked the U.S. much better this time—
slavery had been abolished; the towns
were more civilized

49. The Swiss Chalet
at Gad’s Hill

50. The Couch Dickens Died on at
Gad’
Gad’s Hill

51. Older Man
• he had a stroke which weakened him
• stopped doing public performances
• retired to Gad’s Hill to write and get his
health back
• was working on a new novel
• had a massive stroke
• died on June 9, 1870
• age fifty-eight

52. Dickens’
Dickens’ Characters
Filled his Mind

53. Notebook Entry #30
1) Write the following sentence: In the biography
Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great
Expectations by Diane Stanley and Peter
Vennema, we learn that Charles Dickens was a
very ______(insert character trait word here)
man.
2) Now, without giving specific details or facts,
write a paragraph that summarizes your
impressions and generalizations about what kind
of man Dickens was based on what you learned in
the book. How would you introduce his life?