The Old Curiosity Shop, novel by Charles Dickens, first printed sequentially in 1840-41 in Dickens's own weekly, Master Humphrey's Clock; it was later published in book form in 1841. The novel was exceptionally praised in its early days but later it was contempted for its embarrassed emotionality. The Old Curiosity Shop is the story of Little Nell Trent and the evil dwarf Quilp. When Little Nell's grandfather lost his curiosity shop to his lender Quilp, the girl and the old man run away London. Nell's friend Kit Nubbles and a mysterious Single Gentleman (who turns out to be the wealthy brother of Nell's grandfather) try to seek out them but are impeded by Quilp, who deluges while escaping the law. Little Nell passes away before Kit and the Single Gentleman arrive, and her dishearted grandfather expired later. The story depicts the escape of two from gloomy and corrupted life of city to countryside in seek of calm and happiness.
The famous English writer, Charles Dickens, was born in the Landport area of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom on February 7, 1812. He was the second of eight children to John Dickens. Early in his life, he became a representative in the Navy Pay Office. The Dickens family moved to London in 1814. After two years, they shifted to Chatham, Kent, where Charles spent his youth days. Due to the monetary challenges, they moved back to London in 1822.
The year 1824 was one of the crucial phases of Dicken's life as his father got arrested because of debt and was imprisoned in the jail of Marshalsea. Father being jailed, made Charles quit his school at the age of 12 and he started working in the blacking factory where his job was to stick labels on bottles. This experience left a significant impact on him. It gave him the enthusiasm to become the voice of the other common laborers of his age.
At the age of fifteen, he finished his training in a lawyer's office and started working there. He practiced shorthand during the evening. In 1830, he started working as a shorthand columnist in the courts and subsequently in the parliamentary as a journalist.
In 1833 Dickens started to contribute brief tales and articles to periodicals. 'A Dinner at Poplar Walk' was Dickens' was his first-ever story that got distributed. It showed up in the Monthly Magazine in December 1833. Dickens's first book was an assortment of stories named 'Sketches by Boz' which was distributed in the year 1836. Around the same time, he got married to Catherine Hogarth who was the daughter of the manager of the Evening Chronicle. Together they had 10 children before their isolation in 1858.
Even though the primary profession of Dickens was being an author yet he worked as an editor in several journal houses like The Daily News, Household Words, and All the Year Round. His associations with different magazines and papers offered him the chance to distribute his fiction during the initial stage of his vocation.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club were distributed in the month-to-month parts from April 1836 to November 1837. Pickwick became one of the most well-known works of his time. Hence, proceedings were done to get it distributed as a book in the year 1837. After the progress of 'Pickwick', Dickens dedicated himself as a professional full-time writer, creating work of expanding intricacy at an unimaginable rate. Some of his celebrated works are 'Oliver Twist' (1837-39), 'Nicholas Nickleby' (1838-39), 'The Old Curiosity Shop' and 'Barnaby Rudge' as a feature of the Master Humphrey's Clock series (1840-41), all being distributed in regularly scheduled payments before they got made into books.
In 1842, he went with his better half to Canada in the United States which prompted his disputable American Notes (1842) and is included in the episodes of Martin Chuzzlewit. Dickens later wrote a series of five Christmas books which are mentioned here in the chronological order: A Christmas Carol (1843), The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man (1848). After residing momentarily in Italy (1844) and Switzerland (1846), Dickens proceeded with his novel, Dombey and Son (1848), David Copperfield (1849-50), Bleak House (1852-53), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1861).
In 1856, he finally purchased Gad's Hill Place, a bequest he had appreciated since his youth. In 1858, Dickens started a progression of paid readings which turned out to be popular in a very short period. In that year, after an innumerable stretch of challenges, he separated himself from his better half. It was around that time when Dickens became associated with a young entertainer named Ellen Ternan. The bond shared by them is not clearly known but it was crucial to Dickens's personal life.
During the last few years of his life, his health deteriorated. During his readings in 1869, he fell due to a stroke. He was taken back to Gad's Hill and started to chip away at Edwin Drood, which was rarely finished.
Charles Dickens died at his home on June 9, 1870.
