Writer, Great Expectations

British writer Charles Dickens is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. Born in Portsmouth into poverty, Dickens received little formal education and left school early to work in a factory. The work, settings and people he encountered there would later fuel his novels. The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and the novella A Christmas Carol are perhaps the best-known of his 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles. He edited a weekly journal for 20 years, published autobiography, performed extensively and campaigned vigorously for social reforms, including lecturing against slavery in the United States. Dickens pioneered the format of serial publication of fiction. The monthly installments of his novels in magazines whet the readers’ appetite for more, and huge crowds would gather around docks in the U.S. when ships bearing the latest installment would arrive. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humor, satire, vivid characters and exhaustive depiction of social classes, contemporary mores and values.