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
Charles Kent (English writer) in the forties, fifties, and sixties, provided the materials for his collected "Poems" (1870). In later years he gave himself largely to editorial work—chiefly complete editions of the greater English writers, memoirs, and critiques, and notably Burns (1874), Lamb (1875 and 1893), Moore (1879), Father Prout (1881), and Lord Lytton (1875, 1883, and 1898). He also wrote "Leigh Hunt as an Essayist" (1888), "The Wit and Wisdom of Lord Lytton" (1883), and "The Humour and Pathos of Charles Dickens" (1884). Charles Kent (English writer) Charles (William Charles Mark) Kent (1823-1902) was an English poet, biographer, and journalist, born in London.