Charles Dickens

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens, born in 1812 in Portsmouth, England, was the second of eight children. His early years seem to have been idyllic. Then, in 1824, Dickens’s father was forced into a London debtors’ prison, and Dickens’s mother and the youngest children joined him there, as was the practice at the time.

From David Copperfield:

“You are too young to know how the world changes every day,” said Mrs. Creakle, “and how the people in it pass away. But we all have to learn it, David; some of us when we are young, some of us when we are old…”

Charles, then twelve, was sent to board with an impoverished family friend and forced to work ten-hour days pasting labels on pots of boot blacking. After a few months, a small inheritance freed the family, but Dickens’s mother did not immediately bring him home. He said, “I never afterwards forgot, I never shall forget, I never can forget, that my mother was warm for my being sent back.” In his favorite, most autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, he wrote: “I had no advice, no counsel, no encouragement, no consolation, no assistance, no support, of any kind, from anyone…!”

He went back to school, worked briefly in a law office, then became a journalist. In 1836 he married Catherine Hogarth and together they had ten children. As well as a huge list of novels, he published an autobiographical fragment, edited weekly periodicals, and wrote travel books and plays. By 1858 he was estranged from his wife and had a relationship with the actress Ellen Ternan. He died in 1870 and is buried at Westminster Abbey in London.

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A Tale of Two Cities. A classic novel about the plight of the French peasants before and during the French Revolution, and their demoralization by the French aristocracy.

Mr. Micawber’s Hot Gin Punch

Wilkins Micawber was a fictional character in Dicken’s 1850 novel David Copperfield, based on Dickens’s own father, who was extremely fond of hot gin punch.

3 cups gin

3 cups Madeira wine

4 cloves

Pinch of grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon brown sugar

6 lemon twists

3 big chunks of pineapple

4 teaspoons honey

Juice of one lemon

Dash of water

Orange slices for garnish

Mix all the ingredients, except the orange slices, in a pot. Bring to a simmer for twenty minutes. Pour into a teapot, serve warm, and garnish with orange slices. Serves 6.