The work of Dickens opened the eyes of the middle and upper classes, and several of them went on to push for the British Parliamentary Papers in 1842 (aka the British Blue Books). They were a series of investigative inquiries and reports on multiple issues in Victorian Britain, including child labour, coal mine and factory conditions, sanitation, living conditions, etc. I had to reference them quite a bit in my fourth year history thesis, and the interviews with children are utterly heartbreaking.
"“I, The Inimitable, holding this office of mine, and firmly believing that I hold it by the permission of Heaven and not by the appointment of Satan, have the honor to inform you Hindoo gentry that it is my intention, with all possible avoidance of unnecessary cruelty and with all merciful swiftness of execution, to exterminate the Race from the face of the earth, which disfigured the earth with the late abominable atrocities" - Charles Dickens
@@kaceym6903 That is a appalling thing to write, but I believe it was written at the time of the Indian Mutiny, when large numbers of European women and children and their Indian servants were brutally murdered.
Wow, interesting... I didn't know any of that, or at least don't remember any of that. I'm actually watching this because I don't know anything about Charles Dickens except for he is an author, and also that the saying, "What the dickins??" or other quotes using the term "Dickens" comes from him 💯 I know he is a legend, that's for sure‼️💯
Charles Dickens has been my favorite author since I was six. His books helpled to make so many positive changes for the downtrodden, while entertaining readers at the same time. That is the mark of a great writer!
"“I, The Inimitable, holding this office of mine, and firmly believing that I hold it by the permission of Heaven and not by the appointment of Satan, have the honor to inform you Hindoo gentry that it is my intention, with all possible avoidance of unnecessary cruelty and with all merciful swiftness of execution, to exterminate the Race from the face of the earth, which disfigured the earth with the late abominable atrocities" - Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens lived a few years in his youth on Bayham Street in Camden, London. It was and still is a rough place. I lived on the same street for a year a few doors down from where his old place would have been. His old home was demolished and is now a block of council flats. Found this out from the local library. 😉
0:45 - Chapter 1 - Early life 5:05 - Chapter 2 - Writing career 9:50 - Chapter 3 - On the road & making a difference 11:45 - Chapter 4 - A new chapter 15:05 - Chapter 5 - Death & legacy
One of my favorite writers. As a teen I walked around at home carrying one of his books reading dramatically out loud until someone in my family would tell me to go away....God I was a geek.
Don’t worry my dad makes fun of me (in a good way) of being the nerdiest guy he has ever seen and that he was lucky to not be my classmate for I’d have made time in school extremely boring. (he was the popular guy in school)
@deekat3279 For sure, you said you'll have to read it... so I just helped you. :) I remembered the movie version definitely being "I want some more," but wasn't certain myself what was in the original until I looked it up for you.
Thank You for this bio. Good work. I've been a Dickens fan since childhood. When my children were small, I would read A Christmas Carol to them every year. I am happy to say that they loved it so much that they in turn have continued the tradition with their own children.
If anything this amazing man proves that someone “being a product of their time” is NEVER an excuse for turning a blind eye to social injustice. He was very forward thinking and beyond his years,
Tbh, the man wanted the ethnic cleansing of Hindus or 'HINDOOS' as he called it. So yeah no matter how much you try you will still have some prejudices of your times.
I never knew about his early life. It's heartbreaking. Now I understand why some of his works are so dark. Bleak House is a favorite of mine. As for his relationship with an 18 year old....no one can really know what was going on, so I won't judge. I especially loved this one, Simon and Shell! Thank you! 👍🏻❤🤗
Dickens was very attracted to unintelligent, rather flighty women like Dolly Varden from one of his books. However, he was an intelligent man so he lost respect for his wife. Also he was very frenetic because he was haunted by awful memories so that made his wife feel over-anxious. They were trapped in their unhappy marriage which brought out the worst in him. Thank goodness we can more easily get divorces these days.
I know this family who has flowers from his funeral pressed in a book and funeral program. A Christmas Story or Great Expectations the book was printed 1839 or 1843. I held them with gloves on. The things you remember. And the things forget!
I always write the end first, editing as needed, and then tell the story, I figure that an ending without any beginning isn't very engaging, but the beginning and climax absent the conclusion, will drive you insane.
Dickens, like many well-meaninged people, misdiagnosed the problem with the society. They believed that poverty is caused by greed and cruelty of the upper class. That's entirely untrue. Poverty was the natural consequence of early industrialization. In an agricultural economy, everyone is self employed, everyone is poor, so there is no poverty to talk about. In industry economy, there is employment and unemployment. The industries were not enough to hire everyone. Welfare? If you have more people unemployed, can you afford welfare? It is not because the up class are cruel, there is not much they can do. Allow Dickens in power, what could he do? Nothing. He can only write stories complain about it, he didn't have solution for it. Nobody did. Good intention often go with ignorance.
@@seanleith5312 bro, chill, its a story about the giving spirit of christmas and love for your fellow person using the issues of the time as a familiar backdrop, its not a fucking economics treatise
Charles Dickens on his travels stayed in Barnard Castle, County Durham. It is reported he visited Schools and Work Houses in the area included one in Bowes a few miles from Barnard Castle. Can I also mention, it is a Train Guard who would have tried to apply the brakes, the U.K. don’t have conductors on the Railway.
@deekat3279 you like russian lit i would recommend nobakovs lolita or dostoevskys the brothers karmazarov vonneguts slaughter house five is amazing as well
I hated Dickens, but I can't deny the influence his works have left on literature. Hell, I use the same methods he did to talk about social issues in my own stories. And I've been lucky enough that a few have been published.
There's a film about Dickens called "The Man Who Invented Christmas" (2017). Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" changed the way the world celebrates the holiday, from a somber, holy time of fasting and meditation, to a time for family get-togethers, with joy and merriment.
Excuse my ignorance or naivety but.... Does RU-vid practice such an indirect censorship policy? Because I watch quite a few YT videos without any beeping off "foul" language - I don''t f***g mind :). People like Bill Maher, Chelsea Handler, even Samanrha Bee: are they demonetized on YT? Because if so, and if based on the frequency of usage, very little $$$ must be left for them at the end of the day..... Which would be a pity with all the hypocritical beeping off on nat'l network TV....
@deekat3279 It is from Vintage Classics, I believe. One of the best novels I've read this year is "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. If you haven't read it, I so recommend it.
"He is my favorite author at the moment." May you never lose this moment then. I found him 20 years ago and he still remains my favorite author. I have all of his books and I read them all once every few years.
I was Scrooge in a play at my elementary school. All I remember was that most of us couldn't memorise all of our lines and we had teachers just beyond the set whispering them to us.
John Stroud well I'm interested. The reason being is that he was Bruce Lee's wing chun teacher. A fictionalized movie franchise with Donnie Yen about Ip Man is really cool. First two were good anyways, third was garbage. We will see how the 4th does. Anyways, there's my reason 🙂
@@norgepalm7315 He was a real person, and Bruce Lee's teacher. However, there's the possibility that his true story isn't as interesting as the dramatised films. You never know though, he did exist in pretty turbulent times
This and Poe are one of my favorites. Can you please do one on Mark Twain,Alexandre Dumas, Hans Christian Anderson, and the Grimm brothers? Please and thank you in advance if you! 🤗
13:53 What a coincidence! I grew up in Langley (about 15mins in the car from Staplehurst), went to Cornwallis School, caught the train from Staplehurst to Tonbridge for college for three years and worked at DK Holdings (on the estate next to the train station) for a short while. I have several friends (including a couple of ex-bandmates) who lived in Staplehurst at one time or another, and I know the place well!
I thought this story about Charles Dickens was simply marvellous and thoughtfully put together. And because Simon is a witty intelligent fellow with a quick state of mind, he can also quicken us with his unique style of narration. Excellent work indeed.
Good one. Thanks Simon and team. I *did* think, however that you’re rather naive to say that because Dickens helped the poor, and showed empathy for the unfortunate he would never have had his wife committed involuntarily. Unfortunately, just because someone is admirable in some ways doesn’t mean that applies to all their dealings. I’m here because I watched another vid about Catherine and was curious about the divorce because I know the restrictions in place at the time. If Dickens wanted out of the marriage, having his wife committed was one of the few ways he could do it. Maybe he went on that inspection tour and decided he couldn’t do that to her. It must have been some really shocking things in that marriage for either of them to want a divorce. It would have made them into social outcasts, and his sales and tours would have dropped precipitously. I think though that I’ve read his mistress accompanied him on the tours, so he had quite a compartmented life.
Wow! Just...wow! I desperately wish we could have been given an education that you and your team provide multiple times a week! My American education system sorely needs a rebuild from the ground up, and give young people information like Mr Dickens as positive role models to help inspire them be the best they can be, without grinding the same boring, dusty, out-dated, old-fashioned and oft-repeated textbook facts into our brains. We are not being educated to be enlightened, we are being educated simply to give a basic grasp of becoming the next minimum-wage earner....And as an adult, I am an absolute believer that you are never too old to learn or to find subjects that you discuss on your multiple channels utterly feel the thrill of learning something new. Thank you Simon and Team!
One of the first authors I discovered as a child. I read the Christmas Carols and David Copperfield around the age of 9-10, after Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo and Les Mille et Un Fanfômes. I immediately fell in love with Dickens, especially D. Copperfield, which made me cry (literally) at times. I wondered how a book could touch someone so deeply that elicits such emotions. So I decided to read more of his novels. The Pickwick Papers was especially page-turning. I loved its humor immensely and didn't find it dated at all. Although the style may strike some modern readers as "stiff" and, well, "Victorian", it's only a question of the slightly obsolete spelling and once you get over the small distance it may create, you can ultimately enter into Dickens' universe and be penetrated by it completely. To me, what makes his novels so unique and fascinating is his rare ability to speak to the heart directly. He could not only create immortal characters (so many of them!), but he had this rare faculty of translating emotions into writing almost without filters. He could depict poverty, solitude, hunger in such a way that one could feel these things without having any previous experience with them. That's the ability of creating a universal language, and few authors have managed to develop such a faculty at least not to that degree. Not having received an academic background in English (my mother tongue is French), I am wondering if millenials still read Dickens. Are his works still on the curriculum? Do they study him at all? I'm sure his books will still be read centuries from now (assuming we make it thst far as a species), but will he still be taught at school so that his name stays as well knoen as it still is today? I hope so from rhe bottom of my heart. David Copperfield would doubtlessly one of my 5 desert island books. Along with Notre-Dame de Paris (Hugo), Gargantua ,(Rabelais), Dumas (Coubt of Monte Cristo) and Les Misérables (Hugo again). Not too bad,: my only English language novel...
@martin corderoyNice words. I've read quite a few novels by Zola, some mandatory (L'Assommoir was required reading for college). I had my Zola period, but after a while, I started to find his style and approach a bit repetitive. I saw a "formula" at some point, and it sort of had the effect of making the reading duller. Which isn't exactly a quality you're looking for, is it? I liked Nana and La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (that was forbidden reading at the seminary where I studied ! Making the book far more interesting!). But I haven't read anything by him after I discovered Balzac. I didn't mention Balzac in my "desert island" books mostly because I wouldn't know which one to pick up and would end up packing the whole Conédie Humaine !! Seriously, Balzac and Flaubert, who may be comparable with Zola for many reasons, are far better authors of the 19th century. I can't say enough good about Balzac. I have read perhaps one quarter of La Comédie Humaine, and keep going through it little by little. Thanks for the Dickens tips. I agree with what you said about the works of a famous authors. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have known what to pick up (out of Dickens opus, so I went with the reputation first. I'm now able to read him in the original version (=in English) which took me a looong time as his vocabulary is quite extensive and I didn't master rarer words well enough to read him without looking a word up every 2 minutes... I don't like versions anymore. Well, except of course , for things like Dostoievsky or Tolstoy !!
@deekat3279 oh my cousin knew this famous person is like saying your gf goes to a different school everyone knows your lying and you look stupid doing so.
@@jessemcelroy2776 Rasputin was one of the many causes for the destruction of the Imperial Russian royal family. It wasn't just Lenin. The Russian Revolution was a direct result of World War One if anything.
@deekat3279 i don't even like bob marley of course I cant prove you wrong you haven't stated any reported facts i don't know your cousin im just going out on a limb to say you're lying and i cant prove your opinions on bob marley wrong it's your opinion. You're the quintessential keyboard intellectual my friend
@deekat3279 a smaller cause i would say of course his being close to the tsar and tsarina was a good reason for the public to turn on them but i would say most of the reason was lenin trotsky and the Bolsheviks led under marxist ideology as most historians would agree with me
Could you please profile Jane Addams, American social reformer and founder of Hull House in Chicago? She was one of my favorite role models growing up.
While William Shakespeare may be the greatest poet in English literature, Charles Dickens is its greatest writer of prose. I didn't learn to appreciate Dickens until I was in my late 50's, but since then, I've read almost all his works with great enjoyment. Dickens uses a lot of words because he has a lot to say. Unlike the dominant style of writing in the first half of the 19th century, his writing is remarkably free of excessive verbiage. When I read _David_Copperfield_, I would sometimes go back and reread the previous few paragraphs, not because I hadn't understood them, but for the sheer joy of reading those words to myself again. A friend who is a Professor of English at a local university summed it up best: "When I read Dickens, I know that I know all these words but I just can't arrange them on page the way he does." richard -- All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretense did I cheat myself. Surely a curious thing. That I should innocently take a bad half-crown of somebody else's manufacture is reasonable enough; but that I should knowingly reckon the spurious coin of my own make as good money! An obliging stranger, under pretense of compactly folding up my bank-notes for security's sake, abstracts the notes and gives me nutshells; but what is his sleight of hand to mine, when I fold up my own nutshells and pass them on myself as notes! - Charles Dickens, in _Great_Expectations_
Dickens put a spotlight on the societal problems of his day, and many issues improved through his influence. However, his stories also created problems for society. Many of his protagonists paths from rags to riches, or at least, comfort, was smoothed more by luck than hard work on their part. Yes, they universally had virtuous characters, even to an unrealistic extent, but their conditions improved mostly through the acts of outside saviors who took pity on them. The characters who were hard straights did work their own way to better lives. Readers, especially young ones, can get the idea that our destiny is controlled by others to a point that minimizes our own actual responsibility. Dickens is right that we should be virtuous, but part of virtue is to improve your earning value, and that takes hard work.
The very 1st book I ever read was an abbreviated version of Oliver twist with big glossy pictures published especially for children, gifted from my mother. I liked it so much that I decided I wanted to read the full version. I was 7 years old and it took me a while, but I read it all the way through. It was the book that encourage me to read from that point onward.
I love Charles Dickens. I read a Christmas Carol and watch the Alistair Sim version every Christmas. No other author instilled in me a love of books and reading.
It was amazing... I am a literature student from India and your video really helped to link various facts from the biography. Your style of presenting as story in impeccable.
That was a wonderful presentation. Dickens was a magnificent genius. Writers' biographies are always interesting because they suffer so much to produce such beautiful art. Could you do a presentation on the life of Dylan Thomas? John Clare would be a good one to do, too. Thank you for what you do.
Fantastic video @Biographics ! One of the best I can recall. You compellingly told the story of one of the greatest Brits of all time. Well done! Here's hoping you choose a few more renowned authors!
I remember "Oliver Twist " as a child, and later on, the other novels turned into TV series, and I saw the movie "The Invisible Woman " . They had a great effect on me. Along with Charlotte Bronte. Well done indeed again, Simon!
Thank you Simon. I teaching a literature class in Cambodia and our next book is The Tale of Two Cities. You've given me some interesting background information on the author I think the students will like. My goal is for them to immulate his rise from poverty and attempt to change society in such a unique way.
I met his great great great great? grandson Harry Lloyd a few times (I honestly don’t know how many generations it is). But he’s a direct descendant. He’s an actor. We have friends in common. The family still benefit heavily from Dickens legacy. He was a wonderful writer and a very empathetic/compassionate human being.
I went to Charles Dickens house in London. Inside of the House was big but outside of the house was small. Charles Dickens is my inspiration. I also write short stories.
