FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF CHARLES DICKENS
By Glynn Burrows

What does the word "Dickensian" mean to you?

For most English people, it throws up a picture of a narrow lane, with timber-framed, bow-fronted shops and lots of houses all crammed in on top of each other, people in early Victorian costumes and probably wrapped up against the weather. (As "Christmas Carol" is one of the most popular films at Christmas time and that is the picture many of us think of when we hear about Charles Dickens.)

The main thing about cities and towns during the period when Charles Dickens lived, is that they were terribly over-crowded and the living conditions were awful. The pictures conjured up in the novel "Oliver Twist" are of begging and stealing, with a massive gap between the rich and the poor. The "haves" and the "have nots".

The depiction of the workhouse and the way Oliver Twist was treated really shows how the poor were downcast and ostracised. They were provided for, but only just.

Dickens tells very true to life stories in his novels, as much of his writing is based on personal experience, including his very unconventional childhood, with Dickens being away at school at times and work at other times while his father was in debtor's prison.

Watch the Big Blend Radio “English Connection” Podcast episode with Glynn Burrows covering Charles Dickens below, or listen/download it on Podbean:

The life of Dickens is to be found all over the web, but, to give a brief outline here, we start at the beginning:

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth, on February 7, 1812, the son of John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, and his wife Elizabeth. When young Charles was only two, the family moved to London and two years later to Chatham, Kent, where he spent the early years of his childhood. When he was ten, the family found themselves in financial difficulties and they moved back to London, where they settled in Camden Town, which was, at that time, a very poor neighbourhood.

In 1824, financial problems were still troubling the family and his father found himself imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor's prison. Charles was taken out of school and sent out to work in a 'blacking' warehouse to help support the family. This gave him firsthand experience of poverty and he saw how the working class poor were living.

His father was released from prison after a few months and Charles was allowed to go back to school. He started working as an office boy while he studied shorthand at night and he soon became a reporter, in the courts and as a parliamentary and newspaper reporter.

By the early 1830's Dickens was contributing short stories and essays to periodicals and, in 1834, he started to use the pseudonym Boz.

1836 was an eventful year, as Dickens' first book, a collection of stories titled Sketches by Boz, was published and he also married Catherine Hogarth, whose father was the editor of the Evening Chronicle. Charles and Catherine had 10 children before they separated in 1858.

Although his main profession was as a novelist, he continued his journalistic work until the end of his life, editing The Daily News, Household Words, and All the Year Round.

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was published in monthly parts from April 1836 to November 1837 and Pickwick became one of the most popular works of the time, continuing to be so after it was published in book form in 1837.

After the success of Pickwick, Dickens embarked on a full-time career as a novelist, but all of his books were published in monthly instalments before they were sold in book form. This was a very clever way to make extra money and this was also the first time that the serial came into popularity, with his stories appearing in periodicals and the use of cliffhangers to keep the reader coming back for more. This method is still used today, in the modern day soap opera, which always leaves the audience needing to watch the next episode because some question has been left unanswered, or one of the major characters is in a dangerous position.

He wrote very quickly, producing masterpieces in a year or two: Oliver Twist (1837-39), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge as part of the Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840-41).

In 1842 he visited the United States and Canada with his wife and wrote American Notes. The five Christmas Books were soon to follow; A Christmas Carol (1843), The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man (1848). I think everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol and most have seen at least one tv or film version. Even The Muppets did their own take on it! One of the figures in the book came into the English language and being called a Scrooge is not a compliment. There was even a pop singer called Tiny Tim in the seventies!

Dickens enjoyed time in Italy and Switzerland but returned to England, where his prolific writing continued with Dombey and Son (1848), David Copperfield (1849-50), (This novel is one which tells us a bit more about the man himself as much of it is autobiographical. Many of his novels show us that Dickens was a man who wrote a lot about personal experiences because they are so detailed and true to life.) Bleak House (1852-53), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1861). Edwin Drood (1870, incomplete).

Gad's Hill Place, an estate he had admired since childhood, was purchased by Dickens in 1856 and, in 1858, he started to do public readings, which were very popular and brought in a tidy sum too. Between 1858 and 1870, he gave around 470 readings in total.

In 1858, he also separated from his wife and became friends with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. I won't speculate on that, I will leave that to others.

In 1869 he collapsed during a performance and passed away on June 9 1870 after suffering a stroke. He had requested that he was to be buried in Rochester Cathedral, but he was buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. His memorial reads:
"He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and in death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."

A Dickens Tour
There are so many places to visit, which are connected to the life and times of Charles Dickens.

Many are in and around London and these include Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and the George and Vulture, which are both pubs frequented by Dickens, Westminster Abbey where Dickens' grave can be found in Poets' Corner and the Charles Dickens Museum, on the road where he lived from 1837-1839. There are original manuscripts, letters to friends and family and rare first editions of his most famous works. There are also some of his personal possessions, from his hairbrush, walking stick and a suit, to portraits and photographs.

To get to know the real man, the best places to visit are the places where he grew up and the sorts of places he wrote about in his books, so a visit to Rochester is a must. 'The Making of Mr Dickens' in Rochester Guildhall Museum. Eastgate House with Dickens' Swiss Chalet in the grounds and Gad's Hill Place, where he lived until he died. Gad's Hill Place is now a private school, but the house can be seen from the road.

Higham Church was his local place of worship and Cooling marshes, the inspiration and setting for much of Great Expectations. Chatham, which was his childhood home and Chatham Dockyards, where Dickens' father worked.

The pretty village of Cobham with the historic Leather Bottle Pub, where Dickens is said to have written The Pickwick Papers.

Medieval Canterbury, which he knew well and which influenced David Copperfield. Broadstairs and Bleak House, his holiday home overlooking the sea, where he wrote many of his works including Bleak House itself.

Portsmouth has the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum where, among other things, you can see the couch he died on, photographs and paintings of Charles Dickens and illustrations of the characters who appear in his books. (I don't know how I feel about seeing the couch he died on as an exhibit!)

There is also a trail around Portsmouth, where he was born, the font he was baptised in and his homes, churches and places he gave readings. There is a large Charles Dickens statue in Guildhall Square, the cemetery with graves of many people known to Dickens - including his mistress. The Portsmouth History Centre has 1500 volumes of Dickens' works.

Other places worth visiting to get an idea about the life and times of Charles Dickens and the stories behind the books, are towns and villages where you can still see the architecture and, with some museums, actually see inside the cottages and houses of the period.

York has some well preserved streets, as does Canterbury and Norwich has Elm Hill, which is a narrow, cobbled street of tiny cottages and some larger houses, showing how some people lived in overcrowded and cramped conditions as depicted in A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist.

There are many larger houses which are now open to the public, so to get an idea of the life of Dickens when he was well off is much easier. In 1861, Dickens was living in Dorset Square in Marylebone on census night, with a daughter, two sons, his wife's sister and three servants, so he was probably doing some work in the city at the time.

There are several workhouse museums, one is not far from where I live and shows what the Victorian Workhouse was like. There are prison museums too, so you can see what conditions were like for Charles' father during his time incarcerated.

Seeing the places connected to the man as well as experiencing the sorts of things and places he wrote about, would make a very immersive and interesting experience.

As the founder of Norfolk Tours, Glynn Burrows creates immersive, custom journeys through the heart of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. He also specializes in helping his clients trace their English ancestry and to visit historic familial sites. Learn more at https://www.englishconnection.uk/.

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