Dickens never really had a pen name, he was too original for that. And for what we know about a name, we know very little. He had been a figure who almost everybody who speak English would at least have heard of, a furniture in the living room of the English language. Yet, most people know very little about his life, as most readers are unfamiliar with the authors of the books they cherish. And for someone who reads prolifically, I didn’t know Dickens all that well.
Up to this point, I’ve only had a handful of Dickens novels left for me to complete, and then what? My relationship with Charles Dickens as a reader is lukewarm at best. Personally, I think Dickens overrated — his characters are caricatures, his prolific writing means that many of his plots are reused and thus feel too familiar, his writing can be too verbose at times and none of his books really dive deep to the crevices of humanity as his Russian compatriots from the same era had done. Yet, I still read his books because I enjoy them.
Dickens had written some of the most beautiful extracts written in English, passages which would floor the shit out of you, some of his stories are genuinely heartbreaking and he was a beacon in an England too content to put profit over people. He was undeniably an important voice in an England becoming more constrictive to social changes, which makes his books, no matter how flawed, to speak volumes on real changes which occurred in the era.
After having read Callow’s biography of the bard, I have all the more respect for him. Dickens is a much flawed man, but he is a fountain of energy who was terrifyingly efficient with each waking minute. This will cost him much later on. He had touched upon poverty when he was young, though he had come from a middle-class beginning, he is a staunch Christian and preaches these values and at heart, he is a voracious performer.
These were the things that I got right about the man, and here are the things that surprised me after having read Callow’s biography of the inimitable man:
- Dickens’ experience with poverty at a young age was a core event
Dickens’ father had a somewhat cushy job as a naval administrator, but throughout his life, he had always had an issue with poverty. He was eleven when he worked on a “blacking warehouse” for sixty hours a week, covering layers of pots, and he was embarrassed of his poverty to have missed out of a year off school.
It is somewhat of a humble beginning, and it’s not helped by the fact that his father was a spendthrift who freely borrows money like New Zealand wins rugby games. Much later on Dickens would wander all over London to take notes on the poverty which plighted the city. But it shaped Dickens to be who he was: curious of the poor, empathetic to their plight, more than willing to give the underdogs a voice.
2. He had a complex and somewhat distant relationship with his parents
The experiences of John Dickens mirrors the fates of the father in Little Dorritt, who was imprisoned in Marshalsea for not being able to pay off his debts and thus was placed into the debtors prison. Even after his enormous success as an author, John Dickens was still often in financial trouble. At some point, Dickens had to smuggle him out of London for things to cool down, lest he goes back to prison or worse.
His relations with his mother fared no better. After his father took him out of the blacking warehouse, his mother put him back there almost immediately, back to his own personal hell. Dickens had resented her for this and an abrupt wall had risen between his parents and him. Much later, before his mother’s death when he was already a man of fortune, the first thing that she had asked him for was money, once again putting money as the drive and plight for the Dickens.
3. His love for literature was rivalled by his love for the theatre
I knew little that Dickens dabbled in the theatre, but he did and did so profusely. He perhaps had loved the theatre more than writing, but the two art forms feed each other, the former moreso for the latter. We don’t hear much of Dickens’ success in the theatre, but that is because his paper lasts longer. And if he had been a movie star in this day and age, it is likely that he would be known more for his screen presence than his works, much like Tom Hanks is today. Dickens was a hair’s breadth away from choosing theatre as a career at one point.
Some of the roles he had taken on had shaped his demeanour for the remainder of his life, such as when he played the protagonist Richard Wardour in Wilkie Collins’ The Frozen Deep, for whom he had grown a beard and developed a sullen presence. Most importantly, he made money from the performances of his own prose. This is well-known, but not many would have known to what degree he would prepare for these readings, that he would memorise his own words back to front, and foster and accentuate the ebbs and flows of his prose. Though he had a gruelling tour schedule, he still wrote profusely as he always had.
It would have been a privilege to watch an animated Dickens elocuting his own words. I don’t think audiobooks in this day and age would compare.
4. He had a hot and cold relationship with America
If you had read Martin Chuzzlewit, you would know that Dickens was not really a big fan of his transatlantic cousins. Dickens had glorified America in his mind, wishing that the values of liberty prevalent in America would catch on in England where the average person would suffer from the mind-forged manacles of the Industrial Revolution. But when he spoke about intellectual property and how Americans should stop ripping off his stories, then he was met with staunch opposition, booed in halls and ridiculed in newspapers.
He reconciled his differences with America in his latter years, when he had become far more successful and they still hungered for him and his famous readings. He had the hero’s welcome and he was more gracious of the reception of his American friends. Yet, the awkward episode of America in Martin Chuzzlewit remains for us in English literature, for better or worse.
5. He was hung up by his early romances
Everybody fell in love, Dickens included, and perhaps on more than a few occasions. Dickens had always had an awkward relationship with women, though he had stayed married with his wife Catherine for 22 years and they had ten children together. I guess that’s a pretty good batting average, and intentionally or not, Dickens was true as his partial surname.
Yet, it was not Catherine Hogarth that he was infatuated with, but instead, Catherine’s deceased sister in Mary who had abruptly died in his arms after a night of deep conversation. The suddenness of the loss of this companion, who had been the essential third prong to his marriage damaged him, and to some extent shaped his writing. All the ideal versions of maidens in his novels are somewhat reincarnations of the young Mary Hogarth.
Before Dickens married Catherine, he was also infatuated with a Maria Beadnell when he was an upcoming reporter, though unsatisfied with his career. There was strong opposition from Maria’s father which caused the relationship to fall apart. Years later, when Dickens was rolling in cash, Maria got in touch with him and they agreed to meet covertly, away from their respective spouses. When Dickens saw her again, the chemistry was gone, and Maria became the exemplary Flora Finching in David Copperfield, a fallen flower beaten by the passing of time.
—
Callow’s biography is a good introduction to most beginners to Dickens, like me. There are perhaps more in-depth books on Dickens out there in the market, such as Dickens’ mate Forster, who was commissioned to write his biography. But what it reveals of Dickens life to newcomers is fascinating. For those who wanted to analyse Dickens’ writing deeper, what influenced his style, his characters and that fine thread of humanity ever-present and ever-oppressive in books we label literature, there are some traces of those knowledge here. I have much more respect for Dickens the man after having read Callow’s depiction of the man, regardless of what I think about his imperfect work.
