Author

Charles Dickens was born on February 7th 1812 in Landport, Hampshire but later moved to London.  A few years later Charles's father, John Dickens, was imprisoned and scarred Charles for the rest of his life.  When John Dickens was released Charles was twelve and had a job at a factory.  His father encouraged Charles to go to a day school in London in 1824.  Charles later became a reporter for a newspaper, which is where he first began to publish his writings.  As Charles became more and more successful, his parents continued to badger him for money.  One of Dickens’s first writings accompanied illustrations by Robert Seymour who later committed suicide.  Dickens married Catherine Hogarth on April 2, 1836 and began a full time job as a novelist.  Soon after Charles became extremely productive, Catherine’s sister who idolized Charles, passed away.  That same year Charles and Catherine had their first out of ten children also named Charles.  Later in his life Dickens and his family went abroad and Dickens fell in love with a young actress named Ellen Ternan and he and his wife separated.  In 1859 his readings continued and in a time of retrospection he burned many of his personal letters.  Dickens was in poor health due to overwork and he and his wife were both psychologically and physically disturbed due to a railway accident.  Although is serious health conditions, Dickens went against his doctors advice and continued another series of public readings.  After non stop working Dickens experienced a mild stroke, and then another stroke later which ultimately caused him to pass away the next day. Charles shows re-occuring themes throughout Great Expectations that relate to his difficult and unique past.