Cricket in fiction was particularly true in the era before the Second World War, for example, during the Edwardian era, and in the 1920s and 1930s. An early chapter of Dickens's famous first novel "The Pickwick Papers", serialised as early as 1836, features a brief description of a cricket match between the All-Muggleton team and the Dingley Dell Cricket Club. Mr Pickwick watches as Mr Jingle provides a running commentary on the game (""Capital game—smart sport—fine exercise—very"" is a typical Jingle comment.) Cricket also plays a prominent part in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" (1857), Thomas Hughes' classic novel of life at Rugby. A century
Charles Dickens and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term "Dickensian" is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at 1 Mile End Terrace (now 393 Commercial Road), Landport in Portsea Island (Portsmouth), the second of eight children of Elizabeth Dickens (née Barrow; 1789–1863) and John Dickens (1785–1851). His father was a clerk in the