Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London

by Warren, Andrea

• ISBN13: 9780547395746
• ISBN10: 0547395744
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-11-29
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

Charles Dickens is best-known for his contributions to the world of literature: Oliver Twist, Great Expectationsand A Christmas Carol. In Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London, acclaimed historical author Andrea Warren shares with readers the motivations behind Dickens' novels and then brings readers headlong into the poverty-stricken world of 19th century London. During his young life, Dickens witnessed terrible things: families starving in doorways, babies being "dropped" on streets by mothers too poor or too sick to care for them, and most of all he witnessed a stunning lack of compassion from the upper class. After hisfamily went into debt and he found himself working at a blacking factory (where boot polish was made), Dickens, who had been raised to believe that the lower classes were not only undeserving of anything better, but were so dirty that he could be contaminated by them, soon realized that they were no different than he, and even worse, they were given no chances to better themselves. It was at this blacking factory that he met a kind friend named Bob Fagin, who would go on to be named one of Dickens' most memorable (and villanous!) characters in Oliver Twist. At 25, Dickens became the toast of London with his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. People of all classes read it - the poor would pool together money to purchase this serial novel. But Dickens had more serious stories to tell: he wanted to tell of the workhouses were small children toiled for their entire lives; he wanted to tell of all the horrible things he had seen the upper class turn their back to. He wanted to tell one child's story, and that child became Oliver. With the runaway success of Oliver Twist, and it's memorable "Please sir, I want some more," Dickens was thrust into the public spotlight as a spokesman championing the rights of the deserving poor. His time as an instrument of social change was just beginning. Along with some contemporaries in the world of music, art and education, Dickens changed school systems, hospitals, and orphanages, all while representing the lowest class with the same respect as the upper class in his novels. Spirited, smart, and handsome, but not without his own demons and personal issues, Charles Dickens is an enigmatic character whose name is recognized the world over, but whose achievements outside the literary realm are not often discussed. Charles Dickens and the Street Children of Londonmelds these two legacies in an intriguing, compelling and fast-paced biography, filled with historical images and photographs.