CHARLES DICKENS.

CHARLES JOHN HOFFMAN DICKENS was born at Landport, near Portsmouth, on the 7th of February, 1812, and was baptized, as the register shows, on the 8th of May following. His father, the late Mr. Dickens, was a comedian, who had held in the earlier portion of his life a post in the Navy Pay Department, the duties of which office required his residence in different stations at Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheerness, Chatham, etc. During the war with France, the father of our popular novelist became thus the witness of much stirring life, and was fond of describing the strange scenes and characters with which and whom he had become acquainted. Mr. Dickens from his birth, therefore, found himself enveloped in an atmosphere of mingled humour, jollity, and tragedy, which have, through the force of his genius,-the very product, probably, of these surroundings,-incorporated themselves with our popular literature.

At the close of the war Mr. Dickens, senior, retired from this branch of the public service, and received a pension. He subsequently took up his residence in London, and became a parliamentary reporter.

It has been remarked of his son Charles, "that acute, observant, genial, brimful of talent of the most versatile and available kind, enjoying life and loving his fellow-creatures, young Dickens was peculiarly fitted for the life of cities, as well as for achieving success in whatever path of life he might choose to select." The study of the law was first selected for him, and he became a clerk in an attorney's office; but, feeling that the life of a reporter for the daily press offered more scope for his literary tendencies, he

soon abandoned the law, and obtained an engagement as a reporter for the 'True Sun,' an ultra-liberal paper then struggling for existence. He passed from the 'True Sun' to the staff of reporters for the Morning Chronicle.' On this paper he soon obtained the reputation of a first-rate reporter, his reports being not only rapid but correct.

It was in the columns of the evening edition of the Morning Chronicle' that Dickens first appeared as an author. His 'Sketches of English Life and Character,' together with others which appeared in the Old Monthly Magazine,' were, in 1836, collected and published in two volumes, entitled 'Sketches by Boz.' With reference to this singular pseudonym, Mr. Dickens has told us, "that he had a little brother who resembled so much Moses in the Vicar of Wakefield' that he used to call him Moses; but that a younger girl, who could not then articulate plainly, was in the habit of calling him Bozie or Boz. This simple circumstance it was therefore which made him assume that name in the first article which he offered to the public, and that article having been approved of, he continued to employ it.” The Sketches by Boz,' having become popular, Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the publishers of Piccadilly, recognizing their fresh and humorous power, suggested to their author to commence the adventures of a party of cockney sportsmen, to be illustrated by the comic pencil of Seymour. In this way originated the inimitable Papers of the Pickwick Club,' which raised their author at once into his full blaze of popularity, and brought him before the public eye under his own name. Seymour's clever illustrations of the 'Pickwick Papers,' which in the commencement had conduced no little to the popularity of the publication, having been abruptly stopped through the lamentable suicide of the artist, the illustration of the work was continued by Mr. Hablot K. Browne, then, under the signature of Phiz,' just commencing his career. The success of the 'Pickwick Papers' may be regarded not only as an era in the life of its author, but in the history of modern English literature. It is very interesting to observe the immediate reponse to this remarkable book, not only amongst the public of readers but of critics; we will here give an extract from the Quarterly Review' of October, 1837:

"The popularity of this writer," remarks the reviewer, "is one of the most remarkable literary phenomena of recent times, for it

has been fairly earned without resorting to any of the means by which most other writers have succeeded in attracting the attention of their contemporaries. He has flattered no popular prejudice, and profited by no passing folly; he has attempted no caricature sketches of the manners or conversation of the aristocracy; and there are very few political or personal allusions in his works. Moreover, his class of subjects are such as to expose him at the outset to the fatal objection of vulgarity; and, with the exception of occasional extracts in the newspapers, he received little or no assistance from the press. Yet, in less than six months from the appearance of the first number of the Pickwick Papers,' the whole reading public were talking about them; the names of Winkle, Wardle, Weller, Snodgrass, Dodson and Fogg had become familiar in our mouths as household words, and Mr. Dickens was the grand object of interest to the whole tribe of Leohunters,' male and female, of the Metropolis. Nay, Pickwick chintzes figured in linendrapers' windows, and Weller corduroys in breeches-makers' advertisements; Boz cabs might be seen rattling through the streets, and the portrait of the author of 'Pelham' or 'Crichton' was scraped down or pasted over, to make room for that of the new popular favourite in the omnibuses. This is only to be accounted for on the supposition that a fresh vein of humour had been opened; that a new and decidedly original genius had sprung up."

During the publication of Pickwick' Mr. Dickens had married the daughter of Mr. George Hogarth, the well-known writer upon music. The great success of 'Pickwick' turned the eager regards of the public upon the young author, and he published, in twenty monthly parts, the story of Nicholas Nickleby,' the aim of this second work being not so much amusement as a moral purpose, that of exposing the cruelties practised in cheap Yorkshire schools. In 'Nicholas Nickleby' Dickens commenced that crusade against public and private abuses and oppressions which has formed so marked a feature in the later works from his pen.

The Edinburgh Review' of October, 1838, observes, in reference to Nicholas Nickleby,' and to 'Oliver Twist,' its immediate successor :

"There is no misanthropy in his satire, and no coarseness in his descriptions,-a merit enhanced by the nature of his subjects. The reader is led through scenes of poverty and crime, and all

the characters are made to discourse in the appropriate language of their respective classes; and yet we recollect no passage which ought to cause pain to the most sensitive delicacy if read aloud in female society. One of the qualities we the most admire in him is his comprehensive spirit of humanity. The tendency of his writings is to make us practically benevolent, to excite our sympathy in behalf of the aggrieved and suffering in all classes, and especially in those most removed from observation. He especially directs our attention to the helpless victims of untoward circumstances or a vicious system, to the imprisoned debtor, the orphan pauper, the parish apprentice, the juvenile criminal, and to the tyranny which, under the combination of parental neglect with the mercenary brutality of a pedagogue, may be exercised with impunity in schools. His humanity is plain, practical, and

manly."

'Oliver Twist' was originally published in 'Bentley's Miscellany,' of which Mr. Dickens was for some time the successful editor. It has been observed that, "in many respects Charles Dickens's works bear a resemblance to the fictions of the modern French authors, and in some degree partake of their strong, if not exaggerated colouring; but they excel them far, by their earnest purpose, by their deep pathos and tenderness, and by their humane love and pity, which are the essentials of true religion." From the publication of this work Mr. Dickens has taken rank amongst the reformers of the age. In various ways-not only by his pen, but by speeches at public meetings, and through other channels making use of his influence with the public-he has sought to forward social progress. He has, for instance, been a strong opponent to capital punishment.

In 1840 Mr. Dickens endeavoured to carry out a favourite idea, which he had long cherished, that of supplying the public with the best possible writing at the lowest possible price. This new undertaking, 'Master Humphrey's Clock,' was a serial work in weekly, as well as monthly parts, and contained a collection of tales joined by a connecting narrative. The first of these tales, "The Old Curiosity Shop,' in the pathetic and poetical character of Little Nell, revealed a new phase of the novelist's genius. 'Barnaby Rudge,' the second of the tales, is historical in its character, and full of vigorous descriptions of the Lord George Gordon riots in 1780. Nevertheless, it may be termed rather an

effort than a success, and has remained one of the author's least popular works. About the same period he published the 'Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi,' the celebrated clown, to which he succeeded in giving an interest scarcely less romantic, pathetic, and humorous, than that which has characterized its author's works of fiction.

Mr. Dickens next visited America, and upon his return, in 1842, published, as the result of his American experience, 'American Notes for General Circulation,' a work which gave considerable umbrage to our American cousins. Neither were his delineations of certain scenes and incidents of American life, given forth in his succeeding work of fiction, Martin Chuzzlewit,' more flattering to their amour-propre. For variety of character, tenderness of sentiment, and freshness and originality of humour, this work may probably maintain a more permanent hold upon public estimation than almost any of Mr. Dickens's writings, combining, as it does, a constructive skill not so observable in his earlier writings, with the freshness and originality which were their peculiar characteristics.

In 1844 Mr. Dickens visited Italy, where he remained a year, with his family. Upon his return was commenced one of the most arduous of our author's undertakings, the establishment of a new liberal morning newspaper, the Daily News.' Mr. Dickens was assisted by a staff of distinguished literary men. Its first number was issued on January 21, 1816, and contained the first of hisPictures of Italy,' which were afterwards collected into a volume. The incessant labour of so great an undertaking was, however, ill-suited to the nature and engagements of a purely literary man, and, having established the paper, Mr. Dickens soon withdrew from its editorship, and re-entered those fields of literature more peculiarly his own. In 1847-48 he gave to the world 'Dealings with Dombey and Son,' and in 1850 the Personal History of David Copperfield the Younger,' in which, it has been stated, "many of his own youthful experiences and early struggles are introduced." These two works have enjoyed, perhaps, a greater popularity than those by which they were immediately succeeded, viz.Bleak House' and 'Little Dorrit,' which appeared in 1853 and 1856.

In 1850, amidst all this wonderful literary activity, Charles Dickens found both energy and leisure to undertake the manage