Charles Dickens Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of
Catherine Dickens Catherine Dickens Catherine Thomson "Kate" Dickens ("née" Hogarth; 19 May 1815 – 22 November 1879) was the wife of English novelist Charles Dickens, and the mother of his ten children. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1815, Catherine came to England with her family in 1824. She was the eldest daughter of 10 children to George Hogarth. Her father was a journalist for the "Edinburgh Courant", and later became a writer and music critic for the "Morning Chronicle", where Dickens was a young journalist, and later the editor of the "Evening Chronicle". Catherine and Dickens became engaged in 1835 and were