Thank you for your visit today to The Circumlocution Office. At the Circumlocution Office we look at the life and times of one of history’s great writers, Charles Dickens who lived from 1812 – 1870.

Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelist of the Victorian Era and the creator of some of the world’s most memorable fictional characters and campaigner for social injustice.

Even though he was born over two centuries ago, Dickens’s work transcends his time, language and culture. To this day, his work continue to inspire popular culture, including television, film, art and literature and he remains a massive contemporary influence throughout the world.

Characters.

Charles Dickens created some of the world’s most memorable fictional characters such as Fagin, the leader of the gang of child thieves who teach Oliver Twist how to pick pockets; Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly focal character of A Christmas Carol; Wilkins Micawber, the feckless, struggling but charming and eternally optimistic man who works with the greedy Uriah Heep in David Copperfield and Samuel Pickwick, the retired businessman and founder of the Pickwick Club who embarks on a series of adventures with friends Snodgrass, Tupman, Winkle and servant Sam Weller.

Quotations.

Looking for a quote to fit your mood? Dickens covered a wide range of subjects. From flirting through to food to foreign aid. We have over 500 fully referenced quotations in our archive with over 150 different themes.

Discover Dickens works

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Charles Dickens produced 15 major novels plus numerous short stories and articles.

At the Circumlocution Office we aim to publish not only all of Dickens works but lots of information about the times, characters and places involved.

Trail.

Explore over 250 places that the Victorian author Charles Dickens visited or influenced him during his lifetime in our Dickens Trail. We also have a number of individual trails for key areas that Dickens visited a number of times including Bath, Birmingham, Exeter, Ireland, Kent, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield.

Blog.

Slide THE SONG
OF THE SHIRT

Read our carefully researched and written articles about the world in which Charles Dickens lived. From his life, the background to his works or a look at some of the more forgotten side of the Victorian period.

In our latest feature, The Song of the Shirt: Mrs Biddell and an early victory in Victorian court of public opinion we look at the tragic case of a young widow and seamstress from the East End of London prosecuted for pawning clothes to feed her starving children. The case of Mrs Biddell would touch hearts and shed a light of the plight of a forgotten and desperate group of workers.

Featured Work.

Our featured Charles Dickens work is his shortest novel, Hard Times. The tenth novel by Charles Dickens, it was written and published in 1854. The book appraises English society and is aimed at highlighting the social and economic pressures of the times. It was Charles Dickens’s only novel about the industrial working class.

Discover Hard Times
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