查尔斯·狄更斯是19世纪英国批判现实主义小说家，属于马克思所称赞的“英国的一批杰出的小说家”，他在“自己的卓越的、描写生动的书籍中向世界揭示的政治和社会真理，比一切职业政客、政论家和道德家加在一起所揭示的还要多”。狄更斯特别注意描写生活在英国社会底层的“小人物”的生活遭遇，深刻地反映了当时英国复杂的社会现实，为英国批判现实主义文学的开拓和发展做出了卓越的贡献。

狄更斯一生中共创作了十余部长篇小说，其中《老古玩店》、《董贝父子》、《艰难时世》、《双城记》等为我国读者所熟知。这部介绍狄更斯的传记按照时间顺序，较为详细介绍了狄更斯的生平和创作。除此之外，编者还在书中配有许多具有史料价值的图片，为我们深入研究狄更斯的个人生活、作品手稿、出版情况、风土人情、社会风貌等提供了宝贵的视觉资料。

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is probably Britain's best-known and best-loved author. His novels, such as Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol, have delighted generations of readers with their warmth and gentle humour, and his own colourihl and hectic life helped to shape some of his most vibrant scenes and famous characters.

His impoverished childhood - dogged by his father's debts and imprisonment in London - and years as a parliamentary journalist and legal clerk, brought Dickens first-hand experience of city life, enabling him to expose its realities, injustices and hardships in works such as Oliver Twist, Bleak House and Little Dorrit. He was often disillusioned with society and championed the welfare of the common man through social, education and housing reforms, which found some of their widest expression in over a hundred articles he wrote for his weekly magazine, Household Words. Father of ten children, Dickens struggled with an unhappy marriage, but he worked untiringly all his life, achieving great fame and fortune. His reading tours, which indulged his love of the stage, enabled him to reach his audiences in Britain and America, and his editing and writing have produced an abundant legacy which continues to inform and delight readers to this day.

Illustrated throughout with letters, manuscripts, engravings and photographs, Elizabeth ]ames's concise biography provides a revealing portrait of a prolific, talented and highly esteemed literary genius.

EARLY CHILDHOOD 1812-1822

LONDON 1822-1827

APPRENTICE YEARS 1827-1836

THE INIMITABLE BOZ 1837-1842

AMERICA 1842-1844

EUROPE 1844-1846

DOMBEY AND SON AND

DAVID COPPERFIELD 1847-1851

DARKENING DAYS 1852-1856

THE END OF HIS MARRIAGE 1857-1858

CELEBRATED AUTHOR 1859-1865

FINAL YEARS 1865-1870

CHRONOLOGY

FURTHER READING

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS