Charles Dickens

Dickens grew up in an impoverished household and had to leave school at 12 to work in a factory after his father was sent to debtors’ prison. At 15, he started working as a legal clerk, which led to court reporting and journalism. Eventually, Dickens began writing fiction and by age 24, he was a celebrated author, thanks to the serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Dickens went on to write many more celebrated pieces of narrative fiction, including David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and Our Mutual Friend, becoming the literary great of his age.