ABUZZ, BUTTERFINGERS, CREEPS, SAWBONES/surgeons/, FLUFFY..etc.

Words, that we use quite often without noticing their origin. The person, who created them
had a really bad childhood, even later when he started to become famous, his works were also
strongly criticised. He is still one of the most known writers from the English Literature.

Charles Dickens
Short biography:
 Born in 1812
 One of the 8 children
 Only 6 of them survived the adulthood
o the sorrow about their loss can be felt in Dicken´s works
 Parents: John and Elizabeth Dickens/John=naval clerk
o clerk=a warrant officer working for the NAVY whose specialty is the
supervision of records, reports...etc.


 Charles father often SPENT BEYOND HIS MEANS=spent more than he had
o He borrowed huge amounts of money, that he later couldn´t pay back
o He was sent to the PRISON OF DEBTORS
 His son, Charles visited him once per week
 The young Charles had to work to earn some money for the family
o LABELLING POTS = HARD WORK = LONG WORKING HOURS
  Here he met the sad destiny of the poor, working class
 He was often bullied by the people from the higher classes
 This time also based his later writing style
 He also became a clerk for a SOLICITOR (lawyer/advocate)
o During his work he often wrote down the interesting names of the
solicitor´s clients / he also created his own names...
 He became a journalist = during the day he wrote articles/during the night he
was working on his own stories – he decided that he wants to deal with
WRITING
 His first stories were published in newspapers, which were transported by huge
ships to different parts of England. Dickens´ stories were so enjoyable and
interesting, that he soon became famous.
o The stories were published in sequels, so the readers never got the whole
story. They had to wait for the next newspaper to find out, what will
happen next.
 CLIFFHANGER TECHNIQUE
o It often happened (after Dickens became famous), that a huge mass of
people gathered together at the docks and they were waiting for the ship,
and yelled to the sailors to know if the characters die in the next chapter,
or not.
 Dickens was well known about his strange personality and writing style:
o He had a pet raven at home
o His characters were also pretty strange
 Scrooge, who is visited by 3 ghosts....
o His stories often start with a really sad event.
 E.g.: Christmas Carol: „Marley was dead to begin with.“
 E.g.: Great Expectations – see below:

 Dickens´ characters are mainly people from the working class. At his time these
characters were not so popular. The books were mainly dealing with the heroes
and the people from the upper class, and the poor workers were often hidden and
forgotten. Dickens has changed that, he turned the spotlight to these characters,
and by him they became known, and the upper class realised, that while they
have tea-parties, and enjoy the well being, the poor people are sweating blood in
factories to produce the products for them. They are starving, an suffering from
cold and illnesses.
 Dickens was not the only writer who was criticised by his style.
o Lewis Carroll – ALICE IN WONDERLAND
 Carroll often spent days with the children of the Decan. He also took
almost totally naked photos about these girls:

At that time it was called ART – but how would we call it nowadays?

Characters based on true people

MAD HATTER HEART QUEEN

HATTERS in LONDON QUEEN VICTORIA

ALICE EATS FROM MAGIC MUSHROOMS, DRINKS SOMETHING and

suddenly SHE SEES BEAUTIFUL MAGICAL THINGS: talking flowers,
running rabbits – propagating the usage of DRUGS/ALCOHOL???