第1个回答 2013-12-05
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens, the greatest representative(代表) of English critical realism (批判现实主义),was born in 1812 at Portsmouth. When he was four years old, his family moved to Chatham, and the five years he spent there were the happiest of all his boyhood. One day, he found a pile of English novels, which aroused his curiosity. Now the key to the treasure-house of literature had been put in his hand.
In 1821 the Dickens family moved to a poor quarter in London. Mr. Dickens was heavily in debt and did not know which way to turn for money. Finally he was taken to the Marshalsea Prison, London, for debt. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Dickens and the younger children went to the prison, too, to join the father.
The 12-year-old Charles was sent to work in a factory in the East End of London. Work there began at eight in the morning and ended at eight at night. Sundays he spent at the prison, and during the week he was out working all day. His miserable life at the factory left an everlasting, painful brand on the boy’s mind. Years later, when he was a man, he would not walk by the place where the factory had lain. All this had a deep influence on Dickens’ thought and work in after years.
Charles Dickens visited American in the fall of 1867. Wherever he went, the reception was always the same. The night before tickets went on sale, crowds arrived and lined up before the door. By morning the streets became campgrounds with men, women, and children sitting or sleeping right there. Hustlers(票贩子) were asking $25 for $2 tickets and $50 for $5 seats. In New York City, over 5,000 people waited from nine o’clock in the morning for the evening performance. Everywhere the readings were successful, but audiences were surprised to hear their favorite novel characters speak with an English accent. After 76 readings, Dickens got on a ship for England. When his fellow passengers requested a reading, he replied that rather than read a word, he would assault(殴打) the captain and be put in prison.
The Critical Realism: The main stylistic feature of Dickens is his use of critical realism. Dickens’ novels are set in realistic environments such as in the factory or in the street. His characters represent all aspects of society from beggars, criminals and orphans to factory owners. This critically realistic description of Victorian working class life is perhaps the very essence(要素) which makes Dickens one of the greatest authors of all time.
第2个回答 2013-12-05
Dickens, Charles (John Huffam)
(born Feb. 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Eng.-died June 9, 1870, Gad's Hill, near Chatham, Kent) British novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. The defining moment of Dickens's life occurred when he was 12 years old. With his father in debtors' prison, he was withdrawn from school and forced to work in a factory. This deeply affected the sensitive boy. Though he returned to school at 13, his formal education ended at 15. As a young man, he worked as a reporter. His fiction career began with short pieces reprinted as Sketches by “Boz” (1836). He exhibited a great ability to spin a story in an entertaining manner and this quality, combined with the serialization of his comic novel The Pickwick Papers (1837), made him the most popular English author of his time. The serialization of such works as Oliver Twist (1838) and The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) followed. After a trip to America, he wrote A Christmas Carol (1843) in a few weeks. With Dombey and Son (1848), his novels began to express a heightened uneasiness about the evils of Victorian industrial society, which intensified in the semiautobiographical David Copperfield (1850), as well as in Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), Great Expectations (1861), and others. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) appeared in the period when he achieved great popularity for his public readings. Dickens's works are characterized by an encyclopaedic knowledge of London, pathos, a vein of the macabre, a pervasive spirit of benevolence and geniality, inexhaustible powers of character creation, an acute ear for characteristic speech, and a highly individual and inventive prose style.