Answering some important questions about the books written by one of best-known authors of all time.
You are about to embark on a journey back in time to find out for yourself just what Dickens was all about. Before we begin our reading of A Christmas Carol, it is imperative that you have some background knowledge on who he was, why he was important, what contributions he made, and just why we still read his great works in a day and age of computers, video games, and MTV. You might be pleasantly surprised with what you shall find. Below is a list of guided questions to help you on your journey. Sentence construction along with mechanics will be noted. Answer all questions completely. A link is provided for your journey.
What was the defining episode in Dickens’ life?
The episode in Dickens’ childhood when his father was imprisoned for debt and 12-year-old Charles was sent to work in a factory to help support the family is absolutely essential in knowing and understanding Dickens. This episode seemed to put a stain on the clever, sensitive boy that colored everything he accomplished, though he never told the story except obliquely through his fiction
What problem did John Dickens, Charles’ father, have in life that later brought embarrassment for Charles Dickens?
Dickens’ father, was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. In 1809 he married Elizabeth Barrow David Copperfield. with whom he had eight children. John loved to live the good life but was frequently unable to pay for it. He was imprisoned for debt in 1824 in the Marshalsea Debtor’s Prison. After his release from prison he returned to the Navy Pay Office, retired, and later worked as a reporter. His money problems continued and when Charles gained fame as a writer he frequently embarrassed his son by seeking loans from Charles’ friends and publishers behind his back. Charles retained a warm affection for his father while deploring his inability to manage money. John was the source of Charles’ character Mr. Micawber in the autobiographical novel,
What was unique about Dickens’ installments as opposed to his novels?
A full length novel was out of the price range of most of his readers ( a novel cost 31 shillings in 1836, average worker earned 6 to 20 shillings per week) but a monthly installment, 32 pages with 2 illustrations and advertisements, could be sold for a shilling.
Dickens wrote each installment with this type of publication in mind, many of the installments ended with a hook that kept the readers glued to the edge of their Victorian seats wondering what would happen next, thus ensuring the sales of the next installment. This type of arrangement worked perfectly for the workaholic Dickens, whose unbounded energy and inexhaustible supply of imagination enabled him to keep to the tight writing schedule required by serial publication for nearly 35 years, during which he missed only two deadlines: when his sister-in-law died during the writing of The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, and his own death in 1870 while writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Who was John Forster?
An accomplished journalist, biographer, and historian, Forster was Dickens’ best friend, literary advisor, and biographer. Forster proof-read nearly all of Dickens’ works in progress. A man of great common sense, Forster provided the frequently impetuous Dickens sound personal, literary, and business advise. Dickens relied heavily on Forster to take care of business during his frequent trips away from London. Forster was also one of the players in Dickens’ amateur acting troupe.
Forster was drama critic and later editor of the Examiner, putting him in the center of London literary life. After Dickens’ death in 1870, Forster published The Life of Charles Dickens, drawn heavily on hundreds of letters from Dickens through the years and still the definitive Dickens biography although some facts about Dickens’ life were suppressed. Forster also wrote biographys of Goldsmith, Defoe, and Swift among others.
What were the conditions of the poor in Victorian London?
The Victorian answer to dealing with the poor and indigent was the New Poor Law, enacted in 1834. Previously it had been the burden of the parishes to take care of the poor.
The new law required parishes to band together and create regional workhouses where aid could be applied for. The workhouse was little more than a prison for the poor. Civil liberties were denied, families were separated, and human dignity was destroyed. The true poor often went to great lengths to avoid this relief.
What is “fifteen bob a week?” Why is it significant to the character “Bob” in A Christmas Carol?
A Cockney slang for 15 shillings a week. Bob is significant because he is poor and bob can mean poor since shillings are not that much.
What were ragged schools?
The idea of ragged schools was developed by John Pounds, a Portsmouth shoemaker. In 1818 Pounds began teaching poor children without charging fees. Thomas Guthrie helped to promote Pounds’ idea of free schooling for working class children. Guthrie started a ragged school in Edinburgh and Sheriff Watson established another in Aberdeen.
What was one thing that Dickens wanted to accomplish on his first trip to America in 1842?
One of the things on Dickens’ agenda for the trip to America was to try to put forth the idea of international copyright. Dickens’ works were routinely pirated in America and for the most part he received not a penny for his writing there. Dickens argued that American authors would benefit also as they were pirated in Europe but these arguments generally fell on deaf ears. Indeed there would be no international copyright law for another 50 years. Dickens did not touch on the tempest caused by his argument for international copyright in American Notes but revealed the controversy in this letter to his friend John Forster. Dickens wanted to see the South and observe slavery first hand. His initial plan was to go to Charleston but because of the heat and the length of the trip he settled for Richmond, Virginia. He was revolted by what he saw in Richmond, both by the condition of the slaves themselves and by the white’s attitudes towards slavery. In American Notes, the book written after he returned to England describing his American visit, he wrote scathingly about the institution of slavery, citing newspaper accounts of runaway slaves horribly disfigured by their cruel masters.
Describe Dickens’ second trip to America in 1867?
He arrived in Boston on November 19, 1867. Though a few articles appeared in the press concerning Dickens’ comments made following his first American visit, more than a quarter of a century before, these were quickly forgotten and he was again adored by the American public. His health, however, was in rapid decline and he suffered greatly during this trip.
The original plan called for a visit to Chicago and as far west as St. Louis. Because of ill-health and bad weather this idea was scrapped and he did not venture from the eastern states, staying five months and giving 76 performances for which Dickens earned an incredible 19,000 pounds. Mark Twain saw Dickens perform in January, 1868 at the Steinway Hall in New York and gave this report.
At a dinner in his honor in New York on April 18, 1868 Dickens, alluding to negative aspects of the 1842 trip, noted that both he and America had undergone considerable change since his last visit. He commented on the excellent treatment he had received from everyone he came in contact with on this trip and vowed to include these words as an appendix to every copy of the two books in which he refers to America.
