Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on February 7, 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine was short-lived because his father, was sent to prison for bad debt. All the family, except Charles, were sent to Marshalsea Prison. Charles was sent to work in a factory.

After three years in the factory he went back to school but he never forgot his experience in the factory and he wrote about it in two of his novels - David Copperfield and Great Expectations. Charles began writing when he became a journalist. In April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth.

He left his wife in 1858 after the birth of their ten children. He died of a stroke in 1870. He is buried at Westminster Abbey.