Editing Charles Dickens (section)

== Career ==

===Journalism and writing===
[[File:Catherine Dickens.jpg|thumb|upright|Catherine Hogarth Dickens by [[Samuel Laurence]] (1838). She met the author in 1834, and they became engaged the following year before marrying in April 1836.]]
In 1832, at the age of 20, Dickens was energetic and increasingly self-confident.<ref name=Callow2009p48>{{harvnb|Callow|2009|p=48}}</ref> He enjoyed mimicry and popular entertainment, lacked a clear, specific sense of what he wanted to become, and yet knew he wanted fame. Drawn to the theatre—he became an early member of the [[Garrick Club]]<ref name=Tomalin1992p7>{{harvnb|Tomalin|1992|p=7}}</ref>—he landed an acting audition at Covent Garden, where the manager [[George Bartley (comedian)|George Bartley]] and the actor [[Charles Kemble]] were to see him. Dickens prepared meticulously and decided to imitate the comedian Charles Mathews, but ultimately he missed the audition because of a cold. Before another opportunity arose, he had set out on his career as a writer.<ref name=Tomalin1992p76>{{harvnb|Tomalin|1992|p=76}}</ref>

In 1833, Dickens submitted his first story, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk", to the London periodical ''[[Monthly Magazine]]''.<ref name="Patten(2001)16ff">{{harvnb|Patten|2001|pp=16–18}}.</ref> His uncle William Barrow offered him a job on ''The Mirror of Parliament'' and he worked in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] for the first time early in 1832. He rented rooms at [[Furnival's Inn]] and worked as a political journalist, reporting on [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliamentary]] debates, and he travelled across Britain to cover election campaigns for the ''[[Morning Chronicle]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Tomalin, Claire|author-link=Claire Tomalin|title=Charles Dickens: A Life|year=2011|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9781594203091 |url=https://archive.org/details/charlesdickensli0000toma|url-access=registration}}</ref>

[[File:Sketches by Boz illustrated by George Cruikshank 1837.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Book frontispiece|Frontispiece]], ''Sketches by Boz''—Boz being a family nickname—written by Dickens with illustrations by [[George Cruikshank]], 1837]]
His journalism, in the form of sketches in periodicals, formed his first collection of pieces, published in 1836: ''[[Sketches by Boz]]''—Boz being a family nickname he employed as a pseudonym for some years.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=174–176}}.</ref><ref name="Glancy 1999 6">{{harvnb|Glancy|1999|p=6}}.</ref> Dickens apparently adopted it from the nickname 'Moses', which he had given to his youngest brother [[Augustus Dickens]], after a character in Oliver Goldsmith's ''[[The Vicar of Wakefield]]''. When pronounced by anyone with a head cold, "Moses" became "Boses"—later shortened to ''Boz''.<ref name="Glancy 1999 6"/><ref>{{harvnb|Van De Linde|1917|p=75}}.</ref> Dickens's own name was considered "queer" by a contemporary critic, who wrote in 1849: "Mr Dickens, as if in revenge for his own queer name, does bestow still queerer ones upon his fictitious creations." Dickens contributed to and edited journals throughout his literary career.<ref name="Patten(2001)16ff"/> In January 1835, the ''Morning Chronicle'' launched an evening edition, under the editorship of the ''Chronicle''{{'}}s music critic, [[George Hogarth]]. Hogarth invited him to contribute ''Street Sketches'' and Dickens became a regular visitor to his Fulham house—excited by Hogarth's friendship with [[Walter Scott]] (whom Dickens greatly admired) and enjoying the company of Hogarth's three daughters: Georgina, Mary and 19-year-old Catherine.<ref name=Callow2009p54>{{harvnb|Callow|2009|p=54}}</ref>

[[File:Sam-weller-kyd.jpeg|thumb|upright|The wise-cracking, warm-hearted servant [[Sam Weller (character)|Sam Weller]] from ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''—a publishing phenomenon that sparked numerous spin-offs and ''Pickwick'' merchandise—made the 24-year-old Dickens famous.<ref name="Paris Review">{{cite news |title=The Sam Weller Bump |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/14/the-sam-weller-bump/ |access-date=26 June 2021 |magazine=The Paris Review |archive-date=26 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626210342/https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/14/the-sam-weller-bump/ |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

Dickens made rapid progress both professionally and socially. He began a friendship with [[William Harrison Ainsworth]], the author of the highwayman novel ''[[Rookwood (novel)|Rookwood]]'' (1834), whose bachelor salon in [[Harrow Road]] had become the meeting place for a set that included [[Daniel Maclise]], [[Benjamin Disraeli]], [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]] and [[George Cruikshank]]. All these became his friends and collaborators, with the exception of Disraeli, and he met his first publisher, John Macrone, at the house.<ref name=Callow2012p56>{{harvnb|Callow|2012|p=56}}</ref> The success of ''Sketches by Boz'' led to a proposal from publishers [[Chapman and Hall]] for Dickens to supply text to match [[Robert Seymour (illustrator)|Robert Seymour]]'s engraved illustrations in a monthly [[Letterpress printing|letterpress]]. Seymour committed suicide after the second instalment and Dickens, who wanted to write a connected series of sketches, hired "[[Hablot Knight Browne|Phiz]]" to provide the engravings (which were reduced from four to two per instalment) for the story. The resulting story became ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]'' and, although the first few episodes were not successful, the introduction of the Cockney character [[Sam Weller (character)|Sam Weller]] in the fourth episode (the first to be illustrated by Phiz) marked a sharp climb in its popularity.<ref name=Callow2012p60>{{harvnb|Callow|2012|p=60}}</ref> The final instalment sold 40,000 copies.<ref name="Patten(2001)16ff"/> On the impact of the character, ''[[The Paris Review]]'' stated, "arguably the most historic bump in English publishing is the Sam Weller Bump."<ref name="Paris Review"/> A publishing phenomenon, [[John Sutherland (author)|John Sutherland]], Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London, called ''The Pickwick Papers'' "[t]he most important single novel of the Victorian era".<ref>{{cite news |title=Chapter One – The Pickwick Phenomenon |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/plagiarizing-the-victorian-novel/pickwick-phenomenon/D6F9FF564AD9BDD6865963E107255374 |access-date=26 June 2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |archive-date=26 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626213458/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/plagiarizing-the-victorian-novel/pickwick-phenomenon/D6F9FF564AD9BDD6865963E107255374 |url-status=live}}</ref> The unprecedented success led to numerous spin-offs and merchandise including ''Pickwick'' cigars, playing cards, china figurines, Sam Weller puzzles, Weller boot polish and joke books.<ref name="Paris Review"/>

{{blockquote|The Sam Weller Bump testifies not merely to Dickens's comic genius but to his acumen as an "authorpreneur", a portmanteau he inhabited long before ''The Economist'' took it up. For a writer who made his reputation crusading against the squalor of the [[Industrial Revolution]], Dickens was a creature of capitalism; he used everything from the powerful new printing presses to the enhanced advertising revenues to the expansion of railroads to sell more books. Dickens ensured that his books were available in cheap bindings for the lower orders as well as in morocco-and-gilt for people of quality; his ideal readership included everyone from the pickpockets who read ''Oliver Twist'' to Queen Victoria, who found it "exceedingly interesting".
| source = How ''The Pickwick Papers'' Launched Charles Dickens's Career, ''The Paris Review''.<ref name="Paris Review"/>}}
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On its impact on mass culture, Nicholas Dames in ''[[The Atlantic]]'' writes, {{"'}}Literature' is not a big enough category for ''Pickwick''. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call 'entertainment'."<ref>{{cite news |last=Dames |first=Nicholas |title=Was Dickens a Thief? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/was-dickens-a-thief/392072/ |access-date=27 June 2021 |magazine=The Atlantic |date=June 2015 |archive-date=17 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817111558/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/was-dickens-a-thief/392072/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In November 1836, Dickens accepted the position of editor of ''[[Bentley's Miscellany]]'', a position he held for three years, until he fell out with the owner.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=201, 278–279}}.</ref> In 1836, as he finished the last instalments of ''The Pickwick Papers'', he began writing the beginning instalments of ''[[Oliver Twist]]''—writing as many as 90 pages a month—while continuing work on ''Bentley's'' and also writing four plays, the production of which he oversaw. ''Oliver Twist'', published in 1838, became one of Dickens's better known stories and was the first Victorian novel with a child [[protagonist]].<ref name="Smiley12ff">{{harvnb|Smiley|2002|pp=12–14}}.</ref>

[[File:Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Portrait of Charles Dickens]]'' by [[Daniel Maclise]], 1839]]

On 2 April 1836, after a one-year engagement, and between episodes two and three of ''The Pickwick Papers'', Dickens married [[Catherine Dickens|Catherine Thomson Hogarth]] (1815–1879), the daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the ''[[Evening Chronicle]]''.<ref name="Schlicke1999">{{harvnb|Schlicke|1999|p=160}}</ref> They were married in [[St Luke's Church, Chelsea|St Luke's Church]], [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], London.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chelseaparish.org/stlukes.htm |work=St Luke's and Christ Church |title=Notable people connected with St Luke's |location=Chelsea |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=27 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181027061548/https://www.chelseaparish.org/stlukes.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> After a brief honeymoon in [[Chalk, Kent|Chalk]] in Kent, the couple returned to lodgings at [[Furnival's Inn]].<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=162, 181–182}}.</ref> The first of their [[Dickens family|ten children]], Charles, was born in January 1837 and a few months later the family set up [[Charles Dickens Museum, London|home in Bloomsbury]] at 48 Doughty Street, London (on which Charles had a three-year lease at £80 a year) from 25 March 1837 until December 1839.<ref name="Schlicke1999"/><ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|p=221}}.</ref> Dickens's younger brother [[Frederick Dickens|Frederick]] and Catherine's 17-year-old sister [[Mary Hogarth]] moved in with them. Dickens became very attached to Mary, and she died in his arms after a brief illness in 1837. Unusually for Dickens, as a consequence of his shock, he stopped working, and he and Catherine stayed at a little farm on [[Hampstead Heath]] for a fortnight. Dickens idealised Mary; the character he fashioned after her, [[Rose Maylie]], he found he could not now kill, as he had planned, in his fiction,<ref name=Callow2012p74>{{harvnb|Callow|2012|p=74}}</ref> and, according to Ackroyd, he drew on memories of her for his later descriptions of [[Little Nell (Dickens)|Little Nell]] and Florence Dombey.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=225–229:p=227}}.</ref> His grief was so great that he was unable to meet the deadline for the June instalment of ''The Pickwick Papers'' and had to cancel the ''Oliver Twist'' instalment that month as well.<ref name="Smiley12ff"/> The time in Hampstead was the occasion for a growing bond between Dickens and John Forster to develop; Forster soon became his unofficial business manager and the first to read his work.<ref name=Callow2012p77>{{harvnb|Callow|2012|pp=77, 78}}</ref>

[[File:Dolly Varden by William Powell Frith.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Barnaby Rudge'' was Dickens's first popular failure but the character of Dolly Varden—pictured in an [[Dolly Varden (painting)|1842 oil painting]] by [[William Powell Frith]]—"pretty, witty, sexy, became central to numerous theatrical adaptations".<ref name=Callow2012p97>{{harvnb|Callow|2012|p=97}}</ref>]]

His success as a novelist continued. The young [[Queen Victoria]] read both ''Oliver Twist'' and ''The Pickwick Papers'', staying up until midnight to discuss them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org/search/displayItem.do?FormatType=fulltextimgsrc&QueryType=articles&ResultsID=2738809599926&filterSequence=1&PageNumber=1&ItemNumber=3&ItemID=qvj02315&volumeType=ESHER |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130705001110/http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org/search/displayItem.do?FormatType=fulltextimgsrc&QueryType=articles&ResultsID=2738809599926&filterSequence=1&PageNumber=1&ItemNumber=3&ItemID=qvj02315&volumeType=ESHER |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 July 2013 |title=Queen Victoria's Journals |date=26 December 1838 |publisher=RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) |access-date=24 May 2013 }}</ref> ''[[Nicholas Nickleby]]'' (1838–39), ''[[The Old Curiosity Shop]]'' (1840–41) and, finally, his first historical novel, ''[[Barnaby Rudge|Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty]]'', as part of the ''[[Master Humphrey's Clock]]'' series (1840–41), were all published in monthly instalments before being made into books.<ref>{{harvnb|Schlicke|1999|p=514}}.</ref> Dickens biographer [[Peter Ackroyd]] has called ''Barnaby Rudge'' "one of Dickens's most neglected, but most rewarding, novels".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/286307/barnaby-rudge-by-charles-dickens/9780140437287 |title=Barnaby Rudge |last1=Dickens |first1=Charles |last2=Spence |first2=Gordon W |publisher=Penguin Random House Canada |year=2003 |isbn=978-0140437287 |chapter=Introduction }}</ref> The poet [[Edgar Allan Poe]] read ''Barnaby Rudge'', and the talking raven that featured in the novel inspired in part Poe's 1845 poem "[[The Raven]]".<ref>Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume{{'"}}, collected in ''The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe'', edited by Kevin J. Hayes. New York: [[Cambridge University Press]], 2002. p. 192</ref>

In the midst of all his activity during this period, there was discontent with his publishers and John Macrone was bought off, while [[Richard Bentley (publisher)|Richard Bentley]] signed over all his rights in ''Oliver Twist''. Other signs of a certain restlessness and discontent emerged; in [[Broadstairs]] he flirted with Eleanor Picken, the young fiancée of his solicitor's best friend and one night grabbed her and ran with her down to the sea. He declared they were both to drown there in the "sad sea waves". She finally got free, and afterwards kept her distance. In June 1841, he precipitously set out on a two-month tour of Scotland and then, in September 1841, telegraphed Forster that he had decided to go to America.<ref name=Callow2012p98>{{harvnb|Callow|2012|p=98}}</ref> His weekly periodical ''Master Humphrey's Clock'' ended, though Dickens was still keen on the idea of the weekly magazine, an appreciation that had begun with his childhood reading of [[Samuel Johnson]]'s ''[[The Idler (1758–1760)|The Idler]]'' and the 18th-century magazines ''[[Tatler (1709 journal)|Tatler]]'' and ''[[The Spectator]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chittick |first1=Kathryn |title=Dickens and the 1830s |date=1990 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=142}}</ref>

Dickens was perturbed by the return to power of the Tories, whom he described as "people whom, politically, I despise and abhor."<ref name=Slater2009p167>{{harvnb|Slater|2009|pp=167–168}}</ref> He had been tempted to stand for the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberals]] in Reading, but decided against it due to financial straits.<ref name=Slater2009p167/> He wrote three anti-Tory verse satires ("The Fine Old English Gentleman", "The Quack Doctor's Proclamation", and "Subjects for Painters") which were published in ''[[The Examiner (1808–86)|The Examiner]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schlicke |first=Paul |title=The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens |edition=Anniversary |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199640188 |pages=462–463}}</ref>
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===First visit to the United States===
On 22 January 1842, Dickens and his wife arrived in [[Boston]], Massachusetts, aboard the [[RMS Britannia|RMS ''Britannia'']] during their first trip to the United States and Canada.<ref>{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Sandra A. |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2012/03/17/when-charles-dickens-came-boston/LwCtpA83DGQWqFfVEoyfZL/story.html |title=When Charles Dickens came to Boston |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |date=18 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140214082528/http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2012/03/17/when-charles-dickens-came-boston/LwCtpA83DGQWqFfVEoyfZL/story.html |archive-date=14 February 2014 |access-date=22 January 2019}}</ref> At this time [[Georgina Hogarth]], another sister of Catherine, joined the Dickens household, now living at Devonshire Terrace, [[Marylebone]] to care for the young family they had left behind.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|2004|p=7}}</ref> She remained with them as housekeeper, organiser, adviser and friend until Dickens's death in 1870.<ref name="Smith10ff"/> Dickens modelled the character of [[Agnes Wickfield]] after Georgina and Mary.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=225–229}}</ref>
[[File:Charles Dickens sketch 1842.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Sketch of Dickens in 1842 during his first American tour. Sketch of Dickens's sister Fanny, bottom left]]

He described his impressions in a [[Travel literature|travelogue]], ''[[American Notes|American Notes for General Circulation]]''. In ''Notes'', Dickens includes a powerful condemnation of slavery which he had attacked as early as ''The Pickwick Papers'', correlating the emancipation of the poor in England with the abolition of slavery abroad<ref>{{harvnb|Moore|2004|pp=44–45}}</ref> citing newspaper accounts of runaway slaves disfigured by their masters. In spite of the abolitionist sentiments gleaned from his trip to America, some modern commentators have pointed out inconsistencies in Dickens's views on racial inequality. For instance, he has been criticised for his subsequent acquiescence in Governor [[Edward John Eyre|Eyre]]'s harsh crackdown during the 1860s [[Morant Bay rebellion]] in Jamaica and his failure to join other British progressives in condemning it.<ref>{{cite news |title=Marlon James and Charles Dickens: Embrace the art, not the racist artist |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/10/marlon-james-and-charles-dickens |access-date=21 October 2015 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=20 October 2015 |archive-date=21 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151021125219/http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/10/marlon-james-and-charles-dickens |url-status=live}}</ref> From [[Richmond, Virginia]], Dickens returned to Washington, D.C., and started a trek westward, with brief pauses in Cincinnati and Louisville, to St. Louis, Missouri. While there, he expressed a desire to see an American prairie before returning east. A group of 13 men then set out with Dickens to visit Looking Glass Prairie, a trip 30 miles into [[Illinois]].

During his American visit, Dickens spent a month in New York City, giving lectures, raising [[History of copyright law|the question of international copyright laws]] and the pirating of his work in America.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=345–346}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Tomalin|2011|p=127}}.</ref> He persuaded a group of 25 writers, headed by [[Washington Irving]], to sign a petition for him to take to Congress, but the press were generally hostile to this, saying that he should be grateful for his popularity and that it was mercenary to complain about his work being pirated.<ref>{{harvnb|Tomalin|2011|pp=128–132}}.</ref>

The popularity he gained caused a shift in his self-perception according to critic Kate Flint, who writes that he "found himself a cultural commodity, and its circulation had passed out his control", causing him to become interested in and delve into themes of public and personal personas in the next novels.<ref name="flint35">{{harvnb|Flint|2001|p=35}}.</ref> She writes that he assumed a role of "influential commentator", publicly and in his fiction, evident in his next few books.<ref name="flint35"/> His trip to the US ended with a trip to Canada—Niagara Falls, Toronto, Kingston and Montreal—where he appeared on stage in light comedies.<ref>{{cite news |title=Charles Dickens in Toronto |url=https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/sites/fisher.library.utoronto.ca/files/halcyon_nov_1992.pdf |work=Halcyon: The Newsletter of the Friends of the [[Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library]] |publisher=University of Toronto |date=November 1992 |access-date=13 October 2017 |archive-date=14 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014034207/https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/sites/fisher.library.utoronto.ca/files/halcyon_nov_1992.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Return to England ===
[[File:Portrait of Charles John Huffman Dickens.png|thumb|upright|Dickens's portrait by [[Margaret Gillies]], 1843. Painted during the period when he was writing ''A Christmas Carol'', it was in the [[Royal Academy of Arts]]' 1844 summer exhibition. After viewing it there, [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]] said that it showed Dickens with "the dust and mud of humanity about him, notwithstanding those eagle eyes".<ref name="Brown"/>]]

Soon after his return to England, Dickens began work on the first of his Christmas stories, ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', written in 1843, which was followed by ''[[The Chimes]]'' in 1844 and ''[[The Cricket on the Hearth]]'' in 1845. Of these, ''A Christmas Carol'' was most popular and, tapping into an old tradition, did much to promote a renewed enthusiasm for the joys of Christmas in Britain and America.<ref>{{harvnb|Callow|2009|pp=146–148}}</ref> The seeds for the story became planted in Dickens's mind during a trip to Manchester to witness the conditions of the manufacturing workers there. This, along with scenes he had recently witnessed at the Field Lane [[Ragged School]], caused Dickens to resolve to "strike a sledge hammer blow" for the poor. As the idea for the story took shape and the writing began in earnest, Dickens became engrossed in the book. He later wrote that as the tale unfolded he "wept and laughed, and wept again" as he "walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed".<ref>{{harvnb|Schlicke|1999|p=98}}.</ref>

Between 1843 and 1844, ''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]'', the last of his [[picaresque novel]]s, was serialised. It includes the character of [[Sarah Gamp]], a nurse who is dissolute, sloppy and generally drunk, and also features one of the first literary [[private detective]] characters, Mr Nadgett.<ref>{{cite book |first=LeRoy Lad |last=Panek |title=Before Sherlock Holmes: How Magazines and Newspapers Invented the Detective |page=97 |year=2011 |isbn=9780786488568 |publisher=McFarland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJ16ZfarZo0C }}</ref> After living briefly in Italy (1844), Dickens travelled to Switzerland (1846), where he began work on ''[[Dombey and Son]]'' (1846–48).<ref>{{cite book |first=George |last=Gissing |authorlink=George Gissing |chapter=VII — Dombey and Son |title=The Immortal Dickens |location=London |publisher=Cecil Palmer |date=1925 |chapter-url=http://victorian-studies.net/GG-Dickens.html#DS}}</ref>

At about this time, he was made aware of a large embezzlement at the firm where his brother, [[Augustus Dickens|Augustus]], worked (John Chapman & Co). It had been carried out by [[Thomas Powell (1809-1887)|Thomas Powell]], a clerk, who was on friendly terms with Dickens and who had acted as mentor to Augustus when he started work. Powell was also an author and poet and knew many of the famous writers of the day. After further fraudulent activities, Powell fled to New York and published a book called ''The Living Authors of England'' with a chapter on Charles Dickens, who was not amused by what Powell had written. One item that seemed to have annoyed him was the assertion that he had based the character of Paul Dombey (''Dombey and Son'') on Thomas Chapman, one of the principal partners at John Chapman & Co. Dickens immediately sent a letter to [[Lewis Gaylord Clark]], editor of the New York literary magazine ''[[The Knickerbocker]]'', saying that Powell was a forger and thief. Clark published the letter in the ''[[New-York Tribune]]'' and several other papers picked up on the story. Powell began proceedings to sue these publications and Clark was arrested. Dickens, realising that he had acted in haste, contacted John Chapman & Co to seek written confirmation of Powell's guilt. Dickens did receive a reply confirming Powell's embezzlement, but once the directors realised this information might have to be produced in court, they refused to make further disclosures. Owing to the difficulties of providing evidence in America to support his accusations, Dickens eventually made a private settlement with Powell out of court.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moss |first1=Sidney P. |last2=Moss |first2=Carolyn J. |title=The Charles Dickens-Thomas Powell Vendetta |date=1996 |publisher=The Whitston Publishing Company |location=Troy New York |pages=42–125}}</ref>

====Philanthropy====
[[File:Dulwich College Charity meeting at the Adelphi Theatre - ILN 1856.jpg|thumb|Dickens presiding over a charity meeting to discuss the future of the [[College of God's Gift]]; from ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'', March 1856]]

[[Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts|Angela Burdett Coutts]], heir to the Coutts banking fortune, approached Dickens in May 1846 about setting up a home for the redemption of [[Fallen woman|fallen women]] of the working class. Coutts envisioned a home that would replace the punitive regimes of existing institutions with a reformative environment conducive to education and proficiency in domestic household chores. After initially resisting, Dickens eventually founded the home, named [[Urania Cottage]], in the Lime Grove area of [[Shepherd's Bush]], which he managed for ten years,<ref>{{harvnb|Nayder|2011|p=148}}.</ref> setting the house rules, reviewing the accounts and interviewing prospective residents.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackroyd|1990|pp=249; 530–538; 549–550; 575}}</ref> Emigration and marriage were central to Dickens's agenda for the women on leaving Urania Cottage, from which it is estimated that about 100 women graduated between 1847 and 1859.<ref>{{harvnb|Hartley|2009|pp={{Pages needed|date=October 2017}}}}.</ref>

====Religious views====

As a young man, Dickens expressed a distaste for certain aspects of organised religion. In 1836, in a pamphlet titled ''Sunday Under Three Heads'', he defended the people's right to pleasure, opposing a plan to prohibit games on Sundays. "Look into your churches—diminished congregations and scanty attendance. People have grown sullen and obstinate, and are becoming disgusted with the faith which condemns them to such a day as this, once in every seven. They display their feeling by staying away [from church]. Turn into the streets [on a Sunday] and mark the rigid gloom that reigns over everything around."<ref name=Callow2012p63>{{harvnb|Callow|2012|p=63}}</ref><ref name=Dickens1836>{{cite web |url=http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/dickens/sun_3hea.pdf |last=Dickens |first=Charles |title=Sunday under Three Heads |publisher=Electronics Classics Series |year=2013 |orig-year=1836 |access-date=25 February 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140925203511/http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/dickens/sun_3hea.pdf |archive-date=25 September 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Portrait of Charles Dickens (4671094).jpg|thumb|175px|Portrait of Dickens, {{c.}} 1850, [[National Library of Wales]]]]
Dickens honoured the figure of [[Jesus Christ]].<ref>Simon Callow, 'Charles Dickens'. p.159</ref><!-- which Callow book is this? 2009 or 2012? --> He is regarded as a professing Christian.<ref>{{cite book |first=Gary |last=Colledge |year=2012 |title=God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author |page=24 |publisher=Brazos Press |isbn=978-1441247872}}</ref> His son, [[Henry Fielding Dickens]], described him as someone who "possessed deep religious convictions". In the early 1840s, he had shown an interest in [[Unitarianism|Unitarian Christianity]] and [[Robert Browning]] remarked that "Mr Dickens is an enlightened Unitarian."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Rost |first=Stephen |title=The Faith Behind the Famous: Charles Dickens |url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-27/faith-behind-famous-charles-dickens.html |magazine=Christianity Today |url-access=subscription |access-date=20 December 2016 |archive-date=31 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231051244/http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-27/faith-behind-famous-charles-dickens.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Professor Gary Colledge has written that he "never strayed from his attachment to popular lay [[Anglicanism]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Colledge|2009|p=87}}.</ref> Dickens authored a work called ''[[The Life of Our Lord]]'' (1846), a book about the life of Christ, written with the purpose of sharing his faith with his children and family.<ref>{{cite web |first=Stephen |last=Skelton |url=https://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/churchandministry/Skelton_Christmas_Carol_A.aspx |title=Reclaiming 'A Christmas Carol' |work=Christian Broadcasting Network |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=15 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115031402/https://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/churchandministry/Skelton_Christmas_Carol_A.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chucknorris.com/Christian/Christian/ebooks/dickens_life.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107040114/http://chucknorris.com/Christian/Christian/ebooks/dickens_life.pdf |url-status=dead |title=The Life Of Our Lord |archive-date=7 November 2012}}</ref> In a scene from ''David Copperfield'', Dickens echoed [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s use of [[Sayings of Jesus on the cross#Luke 23:34|Luke 23:34]] from ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]'' (Dickens held a copy in his library), with [[G. K. Chesterton]] writing, "among the great [[Gospel#Canonical gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John|canonical]] English authors, Chaucer and Dickens have the most in common."<ref>{{cite book |last=Besserman |first=Lawrence |title=The Chaucer Review |date=2006 |publisher=Penn State University Press |pages=100–103 |url=https://www.academia.edu/20310557}}</ref>

Dickens disapproved of [[Roman Catholicism]] and 19th-century [[evangelicalism]], seeing both as extremes of Christianity and likely to limit personal expression, and was critical of what he saw as the hypocrisy of religious institutions and philosophies like [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]], all of which he considered deviations from the true spirit of Christianity, as shown in the book he wrote for his family in 1846.<ref name="KSmith">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Karl |title=Dickens and the Unreal City: Searching for Spiritual Significance in Nineteenth-Century London |date=2008 |publisher=Springer |pages=11–12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/religion1.html |title=Dickens and Religion: ''The Life of Our Lord'' (1846) |date=June 2011 |publisher=Victorian Web |editor-first=Philip V |editor-last=Allingham |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=15 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190315073824/http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/religion1.html |url-status=live}}</ref> While Dickens advocated equal rights for Catholics in England, he strongly disliked how individual civil liberties were often threatened in countries where Catholicism predominated and referred to the Catholic Church as "that curse upon the world."<ref name="KSmith"/> Dickens also rejected the Evangelical conviction that the Bible was the infallible word of God. His ideas on Biblical interpretation were similar to the Liberal Anglican [[Arthur Penrhyn Stanley]]'s doctrine of "[[Progressive revelation (Christianity)|progressive revelation]]".<ref name="KSmith"/> [[Leo Tolstoy]] and [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] referred to Dickens as "that great Christian writer".<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=Sally |editor1-last=Ledger |editor2-first=Holly |editor2-last=Furneaux |year=2011 |title=Charles Dickens in Context |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=318 |isbn=978-0521887007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Cedric Thomas |last=Watts |year=1976 |title=The English novel |publisher=Sussex Books |page=55 |isbn=978-0905272023}}</ref>