After his death the success story continued. During the over 110-year period since then there have been times, of course, when his status among critical readers declined markedly, as during the decades following his death and during the early years of the twentieth century. Since 1950, however, the curve of his reputation has shot upward so high that recently there has been more written about Dickens each year than about any other author in the English language except Shakespeare.
In the history of novel writing, Dickens's early start stands out as especially unusual. Poets and musicians often create significant compositions in their youth. Novelists, contrariwise (at least major novelists), are generally late starters, perhaps because novel writing calls for perspectives of a special sort. The explanation for Dickens's early start is provided by the all-purpose word genius, with which the young man was evidently abundantly endowed. But genius in novel writing needs experiences to work with, painful experiences as well as pleasant ones.
This is a free page. This page contains 157 words. This
biography contains 17,117 words (approx. 57 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Charles (John Huffam) Dickens Access Pass.
