Editing Charles Dickens (section)

===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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