CHARLES DICKENS. 1 7 3 



formerly hidden in what was formerly known as low life ; and 

 by their sunny humour and the development of odd and 

 grotesque characters, he has created a body of literature by 

 which the world has been amused and enriched. The faults 

 and weaknesses of his books may be traceable to the faults 

 and weaknesses in his character. Yet his life is one of deep 

 and abiding interest to the student of biography. 



The father of the popular novelist, John Dickens, was 

 engaged as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth. 

 His wife's name was Elizabeth Barrow ; she bore him eight 

 children, two of whom died in infancy. Charles was the 

 second youngest of the family, and was born at Landport, in 

 Portsea, on Friday, 7th February 181 2. Like Thomas de 

 Quincey, reason dawned early, and his memory went back to 

 the time when he was but two years of age. His father's 

 duties caused the removal of the family to London in 18 14, 

 and shortly thereafter to Chatham. Young Dickens was at 

 this time between four and five years of age. A house called 

 Gadshill Place, between Rochester and Gravesend, took his 

 attention and admiration, when his father told him that if he 

 worked hard enough he might himself Hve in such a house. 

 As a boy he was never strong ; one good his early sicknesses 

 did hira, he believed, was the fact that they nourished an 

 inclination for reading. To Washington Irving he afterwards 

 spoke of himself as a ' very small and not-over-particularly- 

 taken-care-of boy.' From his mother were received his first 

 instructions in the art of reading. When the time came, along 

 with his sister Fanny, he was sent to a preparatory day school. 

 In this connection there is a passage in his novel, David 

 Copperfield, which his biographer, Mr. John Forster, tells us is 

 distinctly autobiographical 



