Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)

Charles Dickens, a famous English writer, was born in Landsport, a small town near the sea, in a middle-class family. But the family was poor and and the age of 10 he started to work at a factory. Later the boy went to school for three years and when he was 15 he went to work in a lawyer’s office. He continued to educate himself, mainly by reading books. At the age of 18 he became a reporter in Parliament.

In 1833 he began to write his first short stories about London life. Three years later those stories were published as a book under the title of “Sketches¹ by Boz”. Boz was the pen-name with which he signed his first work.

In 1937 Dickens became well-known to the English readers. His first big work appeared. It was “The Posthumous² Papers of the Pickwick Club”. From then Dickens became one of the best known and loved writers of the day.

In 1842 Charles Dickens made his first trip to America. He said that he wanted to see for himself what “real” democracy was like. He was rather disappointed with it. After that he travelled a lot. He visited France and Italy and later went again to America. At the same time he continued to write. In 1858 Dickens began to tour England, reading pieces of his works to the public. These readings were a great success, for Dickens was wonderful actor, but so much work and travelling was bad for his health. Death came when he was writing his novel “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”, which was left unfinished.

Dickens’ literary heritage is of world importance. He developed the English social novel. He wrote of the workhouses of England and the tragedy of the children who lived there (“Oliver Twist”); he wrote about the problem of education and showed how it crippled children (“Nickolas Nickleby”).

“David Copperfield”, one of the most lyrical works of the great novelist, was to some extent autobiographical. It reflected a young man’s life in bourgeois society. Dickens showed how David triumphed over all the evils of the society, like Dickens did himself.

The books by Dickens are published everywhere in the world and everybody who wants to read his novels can find his books either in the libraries or bookshops.

Liverpool and the Beatles

On Wednesday 24-th October 1962 the song “Love me do” entered the British Top Thirsty. It was the first single by an unknown group from Liverpool called the Beatles. It was the first of a number of big hits of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – the most successful pop group the world has ever known.

The Early Years

However, the road to success was not always easy. John and Paul had spent many afternoons listening to American Stars like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley before they were able to write the famous Lennon and McCartney songs.

Although the long evening spent playing in hot nightclubs in Liverpool and Hamburg in Germany had not earned them much money, they found the experience very useful when playing to huge audiences later on.

Not only was their style of singing new and exciting but their unusual haircuts – Beatle “mops” – and crazy sense of humor immediately became the latest fashion.