Biographie

Is said to have been inspired to create possibly his most famous character Ebenezer Scrooge by 18th-century MP John Elwes. At one point Elwes was worth 800,000 pounds (about $100 million in 2010 money). Despite being set for life, he refused to spend a penny on luxuries like candles, a fireplace, or a roof for his bedroom (to the horror of relatives visiting when it rained). He even refused to buy clothes regularly and often wore ones that had been discarded by the homeless. Unlike Scrooge, Elwes was known for being extremely generous with his money, often loaning it to friends and never asking for it back unless they volunteered it.

For many historians, the success of the classic story "A Christmas Carol" directly redefined the modern Western conception of Christmas and its sentiments, in effect creating the modern version of the holiday itself.

He and his wife, Catherine Hogarth, had ten children: Charles Culliford Boz Dickens, born 1837; Mary Dickens, born 1838; Kate Macready Dickens, born 1839; Walter Savage Landor Dickens, born 1841; Francis Jeffrey "Frank" Dickens, born 1844; Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, born 1845; Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens, born 1847; Henry Fielding Dickens, born 1849; Dora Annie Dickens, born 1850; and Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, born 1852.

Suffered from asthma. He found relief from his "chest troubles" only with opium, a popular asthma remedy of his day. Mr. Omer, one of the asthmatic characters in his autobiographical novel "David Copperfield", reflects Dickens' own suffering.

Owned a pet raven named Grip. He introduced the loquacious raven into his serialized mystery novel "Barnaby Rudge" (1841). Edgar Allan Poe, who would later meet Dickens when he traveled to America, reviewed "Barnaby Rudge" and commented on the use of the talking raven, saying the bird should have loomed larger in the plot. Literary experts surmise that the talking raven of "Barnaby Rudge" inspired Poe's most famous poem, "The Raven", published in 1845. After Grip died in 1841, Dickens had the bird mounted. It now resides at the Free Library on Logan Circle in Philadelphia, PA.

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which of all men have some.

[on babies] Every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

[on choice] We forge the chains we wear in life.