25 Interesting Facts About Charles Dickens

The fame of Charles Dickens resonated throughout the English-speaking world even during the lifetime of this renowned writer. His work did not go unnoticed elsewhere either—Dickens’s works have been translated into numerous languages, and even today, new editions are regularly published.

Classics never age, and throughout his life, Dickens created many magnificent, profound, and well-crafted novels, not to mention all the other works that emerged from his pen.

Facts About Charles Dickens

1. Large Family: The future author was born into a large family. His parents had eight children, of which he was almost the eldest.
2. Early Education: In his childhood, Charles Dickens attended a Baptist school.
3. First Job: The first job of the future writer, even in his youth, was at a wax factory, specifically a paraffin factory.
4. Move to London and Father’s Imprisonment: When Dickens was still a child, his family moved to London. However, life in the capital proved expensive, which ultimately led to Charles’s father being imprisoned for debts (interesting facts about London). Moreover, his mother was arrested along with him.
5. Living with Parents in Prison: Since his parents were in prison, Charles Dickens lived there with them on his days off. The rest of the time, he lived at work.
6. Inheritance and Freedom: It is unknown how Dickens’s life would have turned out if not for the inheritance he received from his father during his imprisonment. This allowed him to gain his freedom and later find a decent job as a reporter for a newspaper.
7. Continued Factory Work: Despite his family gaining freedom, at his mother’s insistence, Charles Dickens was left to live and work at the factory where he was employed. Judging by his biography, this fact deeply hurt him and left a mark on his entire subsequent life.
8. Career Shift to Clerk and Law Firm: After working at the factory, he trained to be a clerk and worked in a law firm. However, Charles Dickens’s first job related to literature was working as a newspaper reporter.
9. Early Writings: His first works were essays in the newspaper.
10. First Successful Novel: The novel “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club,” the first written by Dickens, brought him great fame and overwhelming success.
11. Oscar Wilde’s Opinion: The famous writer Oscar Wilde did not hold Dickens’s work in high regard (interesting facts about Oscar Wilde).
12. Literary Readings: Possessing excellent diction and acting skills, Dickens once earned extra money at literary evenings, where he read his works to the audience.
13. Global Popularity: During his lifetime, Charles Dickens became the most popular English-language writer in the world.
14. Trance Episodes: Dickens had a rather strange trait that accompanied him throughout his life—he sometimes fell into a trance and stopped reacting to everything happening around him.
15. Reception in the USA: In the USA, Charles Dickens’s books were also very popular, but the novel “Martin Chuzzlewit,” which mocked American society, caused a storm of indignation against him.
16. Deja Vu Habit: Dickens had a habit of fiddling with his hat when he experienced a feeling of déjà vu. This happened to him often, and hats in his wardrobe did not last long. Tired of constantly buying new headgear, he eventually stopped wearing them altogether.
17. Portrait on Currency: In the late 20th century, a portrait of this writer was even placed on a 10-pound English note (interesting facts about money).
18. Literary Output: Charles Dickens wrote a total of 16 full-length novels and numerous shorter works.
19. Superstitions: Superstitions were an integral part of Dickens’s life. In particular, he always went to bed with his head strictly to the north, and he touched all objects three times.
20. Love for Children: Born into a large family, Charles Dickens loved children. He had as many as 10 of them.
21. Strange Work Habit: Another strange habit of the writer was to drink a little warm water during work, after every 50 lines of written text.
22. Home Turned Museum: The London house in which he lived is now a museum bearing his name.
23. Last Wish for No Monuments: In his will, Charles Dickens asked not to erect monuments to him. However, his wish was disregarded, and monuments to him now exist in four countries.
24. Hallucinations of Characters: During his lifetime, Dickens often said that he saw and heard characters from his books when he was describing them in manuscripts.
25. Adaptations: Dickens’s works have been adapted many times. In total, about one hundred and eighty films, cartoons, and TV series based on his works have been made.