The Old Curiosity Shop

CHARLES DICKENS was born in Hampshire on February 7, 1812. His father was a clerk in the navy pay office, who was well paid but often ended up in financial troubles. When Dickens was twelve years old he was sent to work in a shoe polish factory because his family had be taken to the debtors' prison. His career as a writer of fiction started in 1833 when his short stories and essays began to appear in periodicals.The Pickwick Papers, his first commercial success, was published in 1836. In the same year he married the daughter of his friend George Hogarth, Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation ofOliver Twistbegan in 1837 whileThe Pickwick Paperswas still running. Many other novels followed andThe Old Curiosity Shopbrought Dickens international fame and he became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. He separated from his wife in 1858. Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870, leaving his last novel,The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.


From the Trade Paperback edition.