Writers through the centuries - 19th Century authors part 1
episode 9
"What Is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul."
Victor Hugo
"Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy."
Alexandre Dumas
"Where words fail, music speaks."
Hans Christian Andersen
"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
Herman Melville
"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."
Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."
Charles Dickens
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
He was born as the son of Napoleon's former general, in 1802, Besancon, France. Victor Hugo, being born in a family with so much political involvement, his childhood was quite tumultuous. And with a constant change of the victorious side and the fact that his father was a military man, the family often moved, which allowed Victor Hugo to travel, see the mountains from Naples, or the Mediterranean sea on a journey to Rome.
Sophie Trebuchet (his mother), a devoted Catholic, tried to raise the children with religious belief. She educated him in this view, although she often mixed the religion with the royalist political thought, which would have a consequence on Hugo’s change of heart. After the 1848 creation of the second French republic, Hugo started to shift not only on his royalist principles but also on the religious ones. Still, the catholic seed pursued him all his life to fight for the abolition of the death penalty as all life is sacred.
He became secretly involved with his childhood friend Adele Foucher and married her in 1821, a year after his mother died. These personal events went concomitant with the start of his publishing. 1823 is the year when the first novel Han d’Islande, followed by Bug-Jargal, in 1826 and then, between 1829 and 1840, published five volumes of poetry.
Between 1823 and 1830, the couple had five children, but the firstborn boy died in infancy.
In 1829 he wrote and published the novel: “The last day of a condemned man” (“Le dernier jour d’un condamne”), which will influence greatly: Albert Camus, Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Hugo was a huge admirer of the Romantic Movement in literature and was seen as a significant leader of this literature era. His emblematic work: “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”, was published in 1831. As soon as it was released in France, it reached so much success that it was immediately translated into many other languages. Besides being a novel of outstanding literature quality, the book also had achieved a desired socio-political effect. A revival of the Renaissance effect. In itself, the romantic movement was a stance for a Renaissance continuity and getting passed the glim days of the Enlightenment age, when machine production and philosophy unfortunately dominated. Hugo’s desired effect of bringing renaissance way of thinking back in his presence was seen as the Cathedral of Notre Dame, that was left to crash in the past decades by the enlightened philosophers, now was part of a full-scale rehabilitation program, among other of the extraordinary renaissance buildings of Paris, grabbing another chance to shine.
After seeing his books' positive impact, his thoughts went into the work for another novel of great importance that will depict the harsh real-life condition in romanticised characters. This will become after seventeen years of work: “Les Miserables”, published in 1862.
In 1841 he was accepted by the Academie Francaise (French academy) after his inclusion was rejected multiple times before. Mainly the reason invoked for this declines was that Hugo was an explicit exponent of the Romantic literary movement. At the time, the French academy still had many people devoted to the thought of the “Age of Enlightenment”, somebody that would put sentiments above intellect in their work, was not seen as someone brilliant enough to join them.
The death of his eldest child: Leopoldine, in 1843, drowning in the Seine at the age of 19, left such a deep scar on Hugo’s soul that he will write multiple poetry for her revealing how profound her death affected him.
In 1845, he will start more fervent the titanic work on writing: “Les Miserables”. Believing in the book's potential, the publisher underwent a pre-publishing campaign, which was unusual for the time. The book got published in 1862.
Elected in 1848 into the second republic's National assembly, he was a firm believer in abolishing the death penalty. Also, his thought was that by increasing the education level of the masses, ensuring that children have more facile, easy, free access to study, books and school participation would diminish the poverty levels and, consequently, progress could be achieved.
In 1851 after the coup that brought Napoleon III in full power, Hugo left France to live in Brussels and then in the Channel Islands, until 1870 when Napoleon III was dethroned.
After the Republic's political power change to Napoleon III control, Victor Hugo often associated the Catholic belief with the monarchy. By trying to distance himself from the regal supporters, he was also distancing from the Catholic faith. But he was still praying every single morning and evening, believing that: “Your prayer knows its way better than you do”.
The next book, published in 1866: “Toilers of the sea”, still benefited from the enormous success of the previous novel: “Les Miserables” (1862). Its impact can be observed by the new words introduced into the French language “pieuvre” as referring to the squid (octopus), primarily used in this novel: “Toilers of the sea”. He did not precisely invent the word pieuvre / squid, but he popularized it, hearing it first in the Channel Islands of Guernsey, where he was located at the time.
After 1873 he returned to France permanently. In 1874 he published his last novel: “Ninety-three”, which dealt with the Reign of terror's delicate subject in the midst of the French revolution.
In the last years of his life, Hugo witnessed his two sons' death and the fact that his daughter Adele was admitted to an insane asylum finalized this series of terrible blows with his wife's death in 1868. With all these tragedies, he still gathered all his powers to pursue a political career. In 1876 he was elected into the Senate but did not manage to achieve much in this position.
In 1881 he received one of the largest parades in French history, and a boulevard got named in his honour.
In 1885, aged 83, he died of pneumonia, with more than two million people attending his funeral procession in Paris. He is buried in the Pantheon, sharing the crypt with Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola.
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)
The real name of Alexandre Dumas is Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, born in 1802 in Picardy, France. His father was a military general and paternal grandson of marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie.
He used as a surname: Dumas from early days when his career started as a play writer around the age of 27. In 1829 he wrote: “Henry III and his courts” and in 1830: “Christine”.
The revolution of 1830 that overthrown Charles X replaced him with the Duke of Orleans – Louis-Philippe, Dumas’s former employer. The decreasing press censor started to increase Alexandre Dumas’s appetite for literature, and he switched from writing plays (that were quite well received) to writing novels.
At these times, newspapers started to increase their marketing appeal by including novels or fragments of it. In 1838 Dumas rewrote: “Le Capitaine Paul” (initially a play) to a story and published it in the newspaper.
In 1840, Dumas married actress Ida Ferrier, but he had multiple other mistresses. He is known to be the father of at least four children. One of which was: Alexandre Dumas fils (1824–1895), also a great author, son of Marie-Laure-Catherine Labay.
Between 1839 and 1841, his literary career included a compilation of Celebrated Crimes, in 8 volumes that depicted famous criminals and their crimes. Beatrice Cenci, Lucrezia Borgia, Karl Ludwig Sand were included in this listing, among others.
After that, Dumas wrote the novel: “Fencing master”, which depicts the Russian revolution of 1825 (The December revolution). The book was completed in 1840 and was banned in Russia almost immediately after publication by Tzar Nicholas I.
Dumas had success with his novels, which started to spread outside of France, translated into English and other languages, this started to bring home a good income, but he was often spending much more than earning on a lavish life. A constant outgoing on multiple women also increased his expenditure.
1844 one of the books that are today world-renowned (his works, in general, were translated in more than 100 languages) sees the publishing press: “The three musketeers”. In 1845 the sequel: “Twenty years after”, followed by: “The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten years later” published, serialized from 1847 till 1850, define the complete series of introducing us to “The three musketeers”, D’Artagnan as a character and the whole stories that are remembered, loved and read today.
“La Reine Margot”, published in 1845, was based on real characters, and facts became widely popular soon after publication.
From 1844 to 1846, he published in a series of fragments: “The count of Monte Cristo”.
In 1846, he had built a country house, famously now, named the Château de Monte-Cristo, where he would host for many acquaintances and often strangers that benefited from his generosity. In 1848 not being able to afford it anymore, he had to sell it.
“La Dame de Monsoreau” also sees the printing press in 1846.
In total, his works have been today turned into more than 200 movie depictions.
Dumas continued to write all his life, not just in the literary genre. Taking advantage of the fact he was quite well-travelled, he even published travel guides for countries like England, Germany, Spain or Italy.
After Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte came into power, the ruler disregarded Dumas that was eventually forced to flee to Brussels in 1851.
Russia was a centre for intellectuality, and French was the second language spoken by the elite, making Dumas choose this intellectual location an easy option. He lived in Russia from 1859 till 1861.
Russian tzars like Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander I or Nicholas I understood the importance of having Sankt Petersburg a centre of intellectuality. In fact, starting from Tzar Peter the Great, Russia was a country that underwent enormous steps in forming its nobility based on intellectual and academic capacity, often inspired by French or English model, the grand cities become places desired by writers, opera or academy members where culture was steaming through the Russian cities streets devouring any person that wanted to increase its cultural desires.
During his stay in the Russian Empire, he did not station just in Moscow, or St. Petersburg, the main cultural cities, but also: Astrakhan and Tbilisi. His journey here was published in yet another travel guide.
From 1861 till 1864, he was actively implicated in the Unification of Italy. Travelling to Italy, he became friends with Giuseppe Garibaldi. Upon his return to Paris, he published the guide for Italy.
Dumas was met sometimes with racial discrimination, being descendant of mixed race, a more often practice in those days, which often triggered racial remarks. Slavery was still practice, and as such mixed racial descendants were not always seen with civilized behaviour. His response as an intellectual was something that today makes an excellent quote:
“My father was a mulatto, and my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.”
He died in 1870, and after the loss of the France-Prussian war, his literary fame came to diminish as the shift was turning away from him.
His works would be re-discovered and gained back the importance they deserved at the beginning of the next century (20th). His burial place is in the Pantheon, in the same crypt as Victor Hugo.
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)
From French authors, we are now moving to Denmark. Hans Christian Andersen, born in 1805, Odense, Denmark, was passionate from childhood about literature, mainly started as his father was reading him: “Arabian Nights”.
H.C. Andersen came from a family living in severe poverty and received his primary education at a local school destined for needy children. He had to work during his school years as an apprentice to a tailor.
His desire at this time was to become an actor, and aged 14, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment. Because of his gifted voice, he was accepted to the Royal Danish Theatre. However, because he was passing through puberty, his voice changed from that of a soprano to a deeper tone, which would imply to relinquish his actor career. Luck smiled as some colleagues admired his poetry skills. Pushed by this admirers, he began to focus on the probability that he might become an author, which eventually drove him to publish his first story: “The Ghost at Palnatoke’s Grave”, in 1822. In his school years, not being able to afford accommodation, he had to stay at various benefactors, one of which was his headmaster. This case, though, proved to be with a negative effect, as the headmaster being a rigid person, physically abused him, saying that this will build up Andersen’s character.
This harmful effects turned Andersen towards depression, and one of his early fairy tales: “The tallow candle”, comes to show just that. The plot revolves around a candle that did not feel worthy, was not appreciated, and came to put on paper the depression sentiments Andersen was feeling.
This was accentuated even more by his personal love life, and he was continually falling in love for women that did not return his sentiments. For example, Riborg Voigt was a love from his youth that left a bitter taste on his soul.
Other unreturned loves were: Sophie Ørsted, Louise Collin or Jenny Lind, for which he wrote the story “The Nightingale” Andersen’s shyness around women’s caused this perpetual romantic failure.
1829 brought success from the story: "A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager". Although received well, it was not gaining a lot of income. However, he did receive a small amount of money as a travel grant in 1833. With this grant, he started his journeys across Europe: Switzerland, where he wrote the story "Agnete and the Merman". Italy (the village Sestri Levante) is what provided the inspiration for "The Bay of Fables".
While in Rome: “The Improvisatore” published in 1835 which now brought immediate success.
“Fairy Tales Told for Children”. The first Collection of 9 fairy tales published in series grouped by three between 1835 and 1837 will be just the start of the genre that consecrated H.C. Andersen (Fairy tales for children).
In the first instalment, stories like: “The Tinderbox” or “The Princess and the Pea” were folktales that Andersen beautified and translated into a literary novel and yet very reachable for children understanding. The second instalment included stories like: “Thumbelina”, which was a complete creation of Andersen, while the third instalment had in its pages: “The Little Mermaid” and “The Emperor's New Clothes”. While the first was once more Andersen imaginative creation, the second did have some inspiration from a Spanish folk tale.
Although the readers enjoyed this books, the critics believed that children books are meant to educate, not to amuse or entertain and discouraged Andersen from pursuing this style.
His unsuccessful love life once more doubled this disappointment. Andersen gave Jenny Lind a proposal letter (for marriage) which was returned by her with a message in which she expresses her feelings for him more as a brother-sister than anything romantic.
In 1847 H.C. Andersen had the opportunity to travel to England, where he started to be recognized in literary circles. The Countess of Blessington invited him to social events, parties for the intellectual classes of society. It is at one of these events that he met Charles Dickens. This encounter is written in Andersen’s personal diary: “We were on the veranda, and I was so happy to see and speak to England's now-living writer whom I do love the most.” The sentiment was mutual as Dickens admired and respected Andersen; they expressed the poor's harsh current reality in their books. The Victorian era brought an increasing sympathy for children, and they took that requirement to preserve childhood innocence through their writing.
Because of the harsh critique opinions he got from reviewers on his fairy tales, Andersen published in 1851a travel guide filled with sketches. This non-fiction work was well received. As such, he went on to publish travel guides for Switzerland, Saxony or Portugal. However, he combined the factual descriptions and romantic writing of his personal experience and feelings among these places.
Although his popularity started to grow, and he did start more series in the fairy tales genre, in 1838 and 1845, being of Danish nationality limited his world spread popularity from growing even faster or further.
In 1875 he passed away in a house near Copenhagen after he has shown symptoms, for the past 2-3 years before his death, of liver cancer. Andersen knew that his primary audience were children, and he thought of this aspect even as he was preparing his funeral service. In this sense, shortly before his death, he spoke with a musician, asking him to compose March's funeral in a beat to which little children steps can follow.
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
One of the prominent American writers is why almost everyone had heard the expression: “Call me Ismail”. He was born in New York City in 1819. He was raised in a well-established, financial family that moved in 1828 to Broadway, but the source of their wealth was mainly on debt from Herman’s grandparents. This income source came to a stop in 1830, and at the time, the family debt was reaching about 20,000$ (which is the equivalent of half a million dollars in today’s money).
From 1824 Herman started his education at an all-Male school in New York. In 1826, he got ill with Scarlet Fever which meant he had to abandon his former school to restart education in 1829 at Columbia Grammar school. From 1830 till 1831, he studied at Albany academy: English grammar, history of diverse standards (Greek, Roman and English history), but had to leave this one (in 1831) as the tuition fee was now something the family could not support. Things got worse when his father died in 1832, after a series of events that gravely affected his health.
This caused Herman to have to pick up a job. Assisted by his uncle, he obtained a career as a bank clerk (for 150$ / year around 4,000 $ / year in today’s money) that proved insufficient but still providing some means of existence. Herman exceeded expectations in his role, and in 1834 he was sent to New York on an errand. In 1835 he was able to re-enrol in school at the Albany Classical School, studying Latin and taking a fond in reading Shakespeare. He had to withdraw once more in 1837.
Across 1838-1839 Melville did pick up some engineering studies, and he attempted to obtain a job as an Engineer for the Erie Canal, but of no success. The fail in his career pursues as an engineer was opposed by his first essay being published, his literary style reminding the publisher of Shakespeare, John Milton or Walter Scott.
When he started to try a merchant vessel career, he embarked on the ship: “St. Lawrence” with the route New York to Liverpool. In this sailor experience, he found out (from a magazine) that sailors worldwide are on the hunt for a giant great white whale named: Mocha Dick.
After a long voyage in 1842, he escaped the ship in the Hiva Bay and went to the mountains to run from his capturers, only to return at sea in an Australian whaler. The career as a seaman took till 1845.
Because of this experience, and under his family's impulse to put his sea stories to paper, he completed his first book: “Typee” in 1845, published in 1846 London. It became a bestseller almost overnight, and it got re-published in New York the following year.
After starting his career as a writer, Melville also got engaged, in 1847, to Elizabeth Shaw, with just a short dating period of 3 months. In 1849 the couple had their first child. 1849 Melville publishes one more novel: “Mardi” first in London and then in New York, and another one in the spawn of the same year: “Redburn”, continued by “White-jacket” in 1850.
Although it appears that the work on “Moby Dick” might have started even before 1850, in 1851, the book: “The Whale” (“Moby-Dick”) gets published in Britain in 3 volumes. By the end of the same year, it gets published in the US as a single volume. For this novel, Melville had high hopes of financial gain. So much so that he borrowed a large sum (from his father in law) to purchase a massive farm in Massachusetts. The book turned out to be deemed as a substantial literary failure at the time.
In 1852 “Pierre” (“The Ambiguities”) was received even worse than the previous one. In 1853, Melville's finished work on the book: “Isle of the Cross” but did not manage to reach an agreement with the publishers, and the manuscript got lost.
This lack of success meant that it was even more challenging to find a publisher willing to take another gamble for his novels, one of which was: “Israel Potter.” (Finally published in 1855).
Seeing that Melville struggles to reach success with his novels, he receives another financial assistance from his father in law to travel to Europe and the Holy land to relax and maybe gain some more inspiration. In the Holy Land, he did get inspired and started to shift his novel preference towards poetry. The last novel, published in 1857: “The Confidence-Man”, did not manage to convince his audience yet again.
To still stay afloat with his finances, he had multiple public lecturer roles. From 1857 to 1860, he was a public lecturer in Rome. But his observations were received with much criticism because of his mockery attitude.
In 1866 he published: “Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War”, composed of 72 poems, but this did not manage to have a good impact either.
This series of unfortunate events was followed, in 1867, by a personal tragedy: his son died of a self-inflicted gunshot. It remained unclear if it was suicide or an accident.
His career as a writer was ended, and in 1885 he retired after receiving further financial support from his wife’s family members.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
By the full name, Harriet Elisabeth Beecher was born in Connecticut in 1811 as the sixth child out of 11.
Her mother’s death at the age of five marked her childhood.
For her education, she enrolled in the Hartford Female Seminary, where her older sister Catharine was director. She was lucky to receive a good education focusing on the Classics, languages, and mathematics.
Aged 21, in 1832, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to join her father that became president of the Theological Seminary of Lane. Her interest in literature made her join the: “Semi-colon club”, a literary social club.
Cincinnati was buzzing with commerce and drawn there many escaped slaves along with the bounty hunters on their trail. The Irish immigrants would often come to a clash encounter with the escaped slaves, and they would often attack the Afro-American community that they saw as competitors for labour. Harriet met with many Afro-Americans survivors, survivors of their slave masters, and the common Irish attacks. This experiences will influence her writing and her views against slavery.
The debates between groups of pro and con slavery were often concluded in a violent riot. However, her father was afraid of more dangerous, violent attacks from the anti-abolitionist whites, prohibiting any large debating gatherings on this topic, which resulted in a vast number of Lane students leaving the seminary.
In the “Semi-colon club,” she met the reverend Calvin Ellis Stowe, professor of Biblical literature and a widower. The two fell in love and married in 1836. His views on slavery were similar to Harriet’s, and both were vigorous critiques of the pro-slavery ideology, actually offering to house to multiple escaped slaves.
Assisting fugitive slaves became prohibited by the 1850 “Fugitive slave law”, but when Stowe had a vision of a dying slave, it inspired her to write a book on the topic.
In 1851, the first draft of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was published in the newspaper: “The national era”. After which, it got published as a book in 1852, with an initial print run of 5,000 copies. In less than a year, the book had to be put to re-print multiple times, as it sold a staggering 300,000 copies, a number that was unseen or unheard before.
The book became an immediate success oversea as well. It sold very well in England, gaining Stowe some considerable popularity. Still, no extra earnings, as royalties for oversea selling was not a fact at the time. Stowe was writing in the Victorian literature style familiar there, and she is one of the few to do this, outside of the British Isles.
The book tackled a much-debated topic of slavery, and because of her excellent writing skills, it brought a lot of emotions to it, it quickly grabbed the attention of the whole US nation. The novel started debates about abolishing slavery and reached different sentiments in the North than in the South. While people were naming their babies in the books character’s name in the North, and a play was set in the New York Theatre depicting the stories plot. On the other hand, multiple “anti-Tom” short stories in the south tried to mask a much more humane face of the South slave masters, and people here were seeing Stowe as an arrogant slander person.
After the civil war started, Stowe actually met with President Lincoln in 1862 in Washington, D.C.
After the civil war ended, she bought a property in Florida. In 1868 Stowe started her career as an editor for one of the publications that focused mainly on women and feminism (although the concept of feminism was merely in its infancy). The magazine was called: “Hearth and Home”, and in 1869 she advocated for the expansion of the married women rights. At the time, women were not allowed to make contracts in their name or have any property.
She eventually became one of the Art School's leading promoters in Hartford that ultimately became part of Hartford's University. In 1886 her husband Calvin Stowe died, the distress which caused her a rapid health decline. In 1888 the Washington Post reports that Stowe now has dementia.
This was also confirmed in his autobiography by her famous neighbour: Mark Twain.
Eight years later, in 1896, she died in Hartford, Connecticut.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
In 1812 Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England. This was a temporary location for the family, as his father was a clerk in the navy pay office and was stationed there. But was soon (in 1815) called back to London and then the next year to Chatham, Kent.
Charles read literature from a very early age, stories like: “Arabian nights” or “Robinson Crusoe”, and in the first years of his life, because his family could afford it, he benefited from private school education. However, the family did stretch the financial resources, and they were starting to pile up debt. Eventually, the debtors imprisoned his father in 1824.
Charles had to stay with Elizabeth Roylance, an old lady, poor by financial status, which Dickens immortalised in one of his book characters.
Their finances became so scarce that he had to bring some money into the family regardless of his youth. He had to leave school and work at Warren’s blacking warehouse, a staggering 10 hours/day, pasting labels on pots. During the hard labour, one of the boys he met was: Bob Fagin that would become a character in: “Oliver Twist”. All of these events influenced Charles’s views on what hard labour meant for the poor; as such, he decided to change this with his novels.
The death of his grandmother, and under the money left behind after her death, Charles’s father, John Dickens, arranged a deal to pay off his debtors and left the prison at Marshalsea for Elizabeth's home Roylance. Regardless of their increase in their finance pots, Charles's mother did not approve at first that Charles should stop working, an action that will influence his view that a family should be governed by paternal decision instead of maternal.
From 1825 till 1827, he studied at Wellington house academy in Camden Town, which was not one of the best school, but it was yet a return to education. And from 1827 to 1828, he worked once more, this time as a junior clerk at a law office.
1830 brought with it the encounter with Maria Beadnell, Dickens first love, but to which her parents disapprove, the reason for which the relationship was abruptly ended with Maria being sent to a school in Paris.
Two years later, Dickens was already a mature person and did not have a clear perspective on what he wants to become, but he had a clear sense of his desire for fame. At the time, Theatre actors could enjoy something that would resemble this, and as such, he started a career in this path. Fate will take its turn, and a missed audition was now changing his mind in the career path, taking a turn for writer profession than a theatre actor. In 1833 he was already submitting his first finished story: “A dinner at Poplar walk” to a London magazine. Through an uncle, he obtained a job as a political journalist. Charles was now travelling all across Britain to report on the electoral campaign.
The “Morning Chronicle” launched an evening edition with George Hogarth as a chief editor, and he engaged Dickens as a regular contributor. He visited Hogarth’s home on several occasions, where he met his daughters, one of which was Catherine Hogarth. In 1836 after the two were engaged for one year, he married the twenty years old Catherine.
He also befriended William Ainsworth, author of: “Rookwood” which introduced him to a broader literary circle at his salon in Harrow Road, where he met his first publisher: John Macrone.
From 1836 till 1839, Charles was editor of: “Bentley’s Miscellany”, and in 1836 he finished the final draft for: “The Pickwick papers” and started to write the plot for: “Oliver Twist”, which was published in 1838.
In 1837 Catherine’s sister, Mary (that had recently moved in with them), died in Charles’s arms, and the shock stopped him from writing for several weeks.
Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist were read with much interest by Queen Victoria. But this goog audience was concomitant with some difficult times with his publishers.
Dickens, disturbed by the fact that the Tories were returning to power, wrote three satires targeted to be anti-Tory: “The Fine Old English Gentleman”, “The Quack Doctor's Proclamation”, and “Subjects for Painters”.
Driven by a desire to visit the United States, Dickens and his wife arrived in Boston in 1842. His trip was written in a travel log, where he condemned slavery, among other reformist views. On this visit to America, he spent a month in New York, where he held lectures and was an active engine to enable more clear copyright laws, empowering the authors to fight off piracy and increase authors gain from their works.
In 1843 he wrote the first of his stories: “A Christmas Carol”, the idea for this novel was triggered by a trip to Manchester where he saw the manufacturing workers' conditions. Other stories followed this: “The Chimes” and “The Cricket on the Hearth”, written between 1844 and 1845.
Between 1846 and 1849, Dickens worked on the book: “The life of our Lord” (published only in 1934), which presented the life of Jesus Christ. Dickens was described by his son Henry as someone who “possessed deep religious convictions” and was of a deep Christian belief. Charles advocated for equal rights of the Catholics in England.
In his travel to Switzerland in 1846, he began his work on: “Dombey and Son”, which continued till 1848. A year later, from 1849 and till 1850, he worked on: “David Copperfield”, which was now starting to show a more precise planning structure of his books. This was published between 1849 and 1850.
He often travelled, and he could fluently speak French, which made him visit Paris quite frequently, where he met Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo.
In 1851 he moved into Tavistock house, and it is here, where between 1852 and 1853, he wrote: “Bleak House” and “Hard Times” in 1854.
In 1856 he managed to buy Gad’s Hill palace in Higham, Kent, his dream home that sparked his desire ever since he was a child, longing for it every time he passed it by.
His activity increased his income as an editor, publisher for major journals like: “Household Words” and “All the year-round”.
Dickens was also recognised for his philanthropy, and he aided whenever he could even assist in raising funds for the “Great Ormond Street Hospital”.
The play: “The Frozen Deep”, written by him, was about to start in 1857, bringing a spark in his personal life. He fell in love with one of the actresses: Ellen Ternan. A romantic passion that would continue for the rest of his life. But divorce was not an option in Victorian society, and there was a considerable age gap as Dickens was 45, Ellen just 18. In 1858 Catherine and Dickens did get separated, and she left her children to be raised by Georgina (her sister), all except one. However, Dickens tried to maintain a certain level of secrecy about this romantic relationship.
From 1858 till 1859, he took a reading tour that would increase his popularity and income but drain a lot of his energy.
“A tale of two cities” was published in 1859, followed two years later by “Great Expectations”. Both were bestsellers, hugely acclaimed, even today, and boosted his fame significantly.
A massive railroad accident occurred in 1865 when the train crashed from the iron bridge. The first seven first-class carriages fell and killed the passengers, the only carriage of first-class that remained on the rails was the one Dickens was in with Ellen Ternan. Dickens assisted the wounded and managed to save some of the passenger’s life. This incident was used in the ghost story: “The signal-man” he wrote after some time passed from the accident. Dickens travelled once more to the United States in 1867, Boston, where he met with authors and publishers from the states and gave a few public readings in New York.
Feeling his end is near, he gave a few “farewell reading” across England, Scotland and Ireland, almost 100 in the years between 1868 and 1869. The tour had to be stopped as in April 1869, he had a stroke. Next year, he resumed the tour to make back the losses for his sponsors, so in January-March 1870, he had another 12 readings arranged.
The last public appearance was at the Royal Academy Banquet, in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, in May 1870. The following month he had another stroke. His wish was that he gets buried in an inexpensive grave. He was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, at the poets’ corner.
Before his death, Dickens arranged for a sum of 8,000 £ (800,000 £ in today’s money) to be left to Georgina Hogarth and his two sons. Also, an annual income for his former wife: Catherine (600 £ yearly – 60,000 £ / year in today’s money) and established that Ellen Ternan will have an annual annuity, giving her some financial freedom.
He remains one of the most loved writers to this day. Numerous other great authors: H.C.A. Andersen, F. Dostoyevsky, L. Tolstoy, Virginia Wolf, Jules Verne admired him and desired to discuss with the great Charles Dickens. His works have not ever stopped from going on print till current times.
Nihil sine Deo
