Charles Dickens

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2012 was the Charles Dickens bicentenary year. These pages guide you to some of the best sites where you can find out about his life and works.

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7th February 1812.

• Dickens's life
• Charles Dickens in The Times Digital Archive and Images
• Dickens's works, characters and quotations
• Places connected with Dickens and Dickens's world

Dickens's life

• The Dickens page on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) is freely available online without logging in
• Also freely available is an ODNB special themed page about Dickens, with links to a selection of ODNB biographies of men and women with close ties to him
• You can read all other ODNB biographies and themed pages by logging in to the ODNB
• A very concise timeline of Dickens's life is at the Charles Dickens page of Portcities London
• BBC News Magazine, Charles Dickens - Six things he gave the modern world A summary of Dickens's legacy relating to Christmas, views on poverty, comedy, cinema and more
• BBC Historic Figures, Charles Dickens (1812 -1970) A concise summary of his life and works
• National Archives podcast, Charles Dickens, Warren's Blacking and the Chancery Court An account of how "At the age of 12, the delicate and genteelly brought up Charles Dickens was plunged into employment in a boot-blacking factory, while his father was incarcerated in Marshalsea debtors' prison. These events traumatised the young Dickens, and greatly influenced his future work."
• Dickens died on 9th June 1870 and was buried at Westminster Abbey

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Page last updated: 3rd December 2013