Charles Dickens scenes in "The Pickwick Papers" are claimed to have been influential in having the Fleet Prison shut down. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". George Bernard Shaw even remarked that "Great Expectations" was more seditious than Marx's "Das Kapital". The exceptional popularity of Dickens's novels, even those with socially oppositional themes ("Bleak House", 1853; "Little Dorrit", 1857; "Our Mutual Friend", 1865), not only underscored his almost preternatural ability to create compelling storylines and unforgettable characters, but also ensured
Charles Eugene Bentley Charles Eugene Bentley Reverend Charles Eugene Bentley (April 1841 – February 6, 1905) was a third party candidate for president of the United States in 1896. Bentley was born in Warners, New York, in April 1841. In 1863, Bentley married Persis Orilla Freeman. In 1866, they moved to Clinton, Iowa, where Bentley held several local offices. Later, they moved to Nebraska and settled near Surprise, where he started a Baptist church in 1880. Although a longtime Republican, Bentley split from the GOP in 1884 and joined the Prohibition Party, becoming chairman of the first Prohibition Party Convention held in Nebraska.