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Biography on Charles Dickens

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This greatest of Victorian writers was born in Landport, Portsmouth, on February 7, 1812. His father John worked as a clerk in the Navy Payroll Office in Portsmouth. The elder Dickens was transfered several times, first to London, then to Chatham, and finally, in 1822, back to London, where the family lived in Camden Town. John Dickens was constantly in debt, and in 1824 he was imprisoned in Marshalsea debtor's prison (Southwark). Charles was forced to leave school at the age of 12 and go to work in a bootblack factory to help support the Dickens family.It was his personal experience of factory work and the living conditions of the poor that created in Dickens the compassion which was to mark his literary works such as Oliver Twist. Dickens was released from the purgatory of Warren's Blacking Factory when his father received a legacy from a relative, and could finally pay his debts and be set free from Marshalsea. Charles went to Wellington House Academy for two years, then took work at Gray's Inn as a clerk. Dickens worked as a Parliamentary reporter before finally moving on to The Morning Chronicle in 1834. His first published work appeared in Monthly Magazine in December 1833, and he followed it with nine more, penning his name as "Boz" to the last two articles. The pseudonym "Boz" was drawn from a pet name for his younger brother when they were children. In 1836 his articles were compiled and published as "Sketches by Boz". Shortly after Boz was published, Dickens

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