Why dickens is important

But one phrase that does not come from a name is "What the dickens? Rather than coming from the author, it is believed to be a slang term for the devil and though its actual origins are unknown, it first appeared prominently in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, over years before Dickens was born. Bleak House, taking place as it does in the Court of Chancery before legal reforms in , is a thinly veiled attack on the judicial system of the time.

The current view of lawyers - less than a quarter of people in the UK trust them - seems to be at least partly inspired by characters such as the novel's Mr Tulkinghorn.

Legal historian Sir William Holdsworth noted the importance of Dickensian record in a lecture given in But how much do the issues that Dickens highlighted still remain today? Life and times of Charles Dickens. Dickens on the BBC. A white Christmas. Dickens was an outspoken critic of slavery and wrote extensively against social inequality.

The labour houses of Bethnal Green in East London were not the nicest places to be. And this was an area in which he had some experience. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

February 5, : An authorized stage production of A Christmas Carol opens. Within weeks there are seven more unauthorized plays based on the novel in theaters throughout London. Deal At Bleecker Street. A Christmas Carol Oct 5, : During a evening walk after a fundraiser for the Manchester Athenaeum, Dickens begins to hatch the idea for a new novel, one that will touch on the ill effects of industrialization and the fate of children in such a world. David Copperfield was the first work of its kind: No one had ever written a novel that simply followed a character through his everyday life.

From May to November , Dickens published the book in monthly installations, with the full novel form published in November In writing it, Dickens tapped into his own personal experiences, from his difficult childhood to his work as a journalist.

In Bleak House , published in installments from to , he deals with the hypocrisy of British society. It was considered his most complex novel to date.

Hard Times takes place in an industrial town at the peak of economic expansion. Published in , the book focuses on the shortcomings of employers as well as those who seek change. He published it in a periodical he founded, All the Year Round. The story focuses on themes of the need for sacrifice, the struggle between the evils inherent in oppression and revolution, and the possibility of resurrection and rebirth.

After the publication of Oliver Twist , Dickens struggled to match the level of its success. In , Dickens and his wife, Catherine, embarked on a five-month lecture tour of the United States. Upon their return, Dickens penned American Notes for General Circulation , a sarcastic travelogue criticizing American culture and materialism.

During his first U. His lectures, which began in Virginia and ended in Missouri, were so widely attended that ticket scalpers gathered outside his events.

Biographer J. Priestley wrote that during the tour, Dickens enjoyed "the greatest welcome that probably any visitor to America has ever had. Although he enjoyed the attention at first, he eventually resented the invasion of privacy. After his criticism of the American people during his first tour, Dickens launched a second U.

They are, like all of us, cut from the same cloth, and at the same time as individual as their unforgettable aptronyms suggest. They are the assurances that Dickens, whether I am reading him or not, is shining a light on who I am during the best and worst of times.

Why are we still reading Dickens? The great Victorian is probably even more ubiquitous now than he was in his lifetime. How he remains such vital reading is an intriguing question. Shining a light on his audience Dickens giving a reading.

Photograph: Corbis. Then a hand shot up in the middle of the room.