Charles Dickens

Born in Portsmouth in 1812, Dickens was pulled from school at twelve when his father landed in debtors' prison; he spent three years in a boot-blacking factory before returning to finish his education. He started as a journalist, then edited a weekly journal for two decades while writing fifteen novels, five novellas, and hundreds of stories and articles. The 1836 serial launch of The Pickwick Papers—supercharged by the character Sam Weller in episode four—made him an international celebrity almost overnight. He pioneered serialised narrative fiction, the dominant Victorian publishing mode, ho…