His success was also reflected in his earnings: in the 1850s Dickens was making as much as eleven hundred pounds for one of his novels, a figure to be contrasted with the mere six hundred pounds earned in a year by his eminent contemporary and fellow novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. After his death the success story continued. During the more than 120-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 William 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 allpurpose word genius, with which the young man was evidently abundantly endowed.
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