Biography british writers of the 19th

  • English authors 20th century

    • I Take Up My Pen: 19th Century British Women Writers

    *Many of these titles in bold are available in Internet Archive and Duke University Library Catalog. 

    “This which is the age of so many things – of enlightenment, of science, of progress – is quite as distinctly the age of female novelists… The vexed questions of social morality, the grand problems of human experience, are seldom so summarily discussed and settled as in the novels of this day which are written by women”
    (Margaret Oliphant, novelist, 1855).

    The list of pivotal nineteenth-century female novelists and poets is long. Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, Christina Rossetti and many other women took up their pens to become serious contributors to what had been a male-dominated literary scene. Not content with focusing only on the confined space of home, many of these women used writing to tackle complex political and social issues.

    Novels and poetry had long been popular genres for female writers, but many such works had been belittled as comparatively trivial and insignificant. Women continued to produce vast numbers of sentimental and sensationalist romance novels throughout the century in response to huge public demand, making it difficult for women as a group to achieve recognition as serious writers. Furthermore, strict gender roles made it difficult for women to justify a literary career.

    Prominent Women Writers

    Jane Austen is arguably the most significant nineteenth-century contributor to the literary canon; her six much-loved novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, continue to inspire twenty-first century readers. Austen’s combination of wry wit and social realism stood out against the traditional perceptions of women’s writing, and her strong-willed heroines challenged the image of the weak, effeminate, obedient heroine.

    The most prominent and respected women writers of the Victorian era inc

  • Famous 19th century writers

    • Notable Authors of the 19th Century

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was the most popular Victorian novelist and is still considered a titan of literature. He endured a notoriously difficult childhood yet developed work habits which allowed him to write lengthy yet brilliant novels. There is a myth that his books are so long because he was paid by the word, but rather he was paid by installment and his novels appeared serially over weeks or months.

    In classic books, including "Oliver Twist," "David Copperfield," "A Tale of Two Cities," and "Great Expectations," Dickens documented the social conditions of Victorian Britain. He wrote during the Industrial Revolution in London and his books often concern the class divide, poverty, and ambition.

    Walt Whitman

    Walt Whitman (1819–1892) was the greatest American poet and his classic volume "Leaves of Grass" was considered both a radical departure from convention and a literary masterpiece. Whitman, who had been a printer in his youth and worked as a journalist while also writing poetry, viewed himself as a new type of American artist. His free verse poems celebrated the individual, notably himself, and had a sweeping scope including joyful attention to mundane details of the world.

    Whitman worked as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War, and wrote movingly of the conflict and about his great devotion to Abraham Lincoln.

    Washington Irving

    Washington Irving (1783–1859), a native New Yorker, is considered to be the first American man of letters. He made his name with a satirical masterpiece, "A History of New York," and was acclaimed as a master of the American short story, for which he created such memorable characters as Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane.

    Irving's writings were highly influential in the early 19th century, and his collection "The Sketch Book" was widely read. And one of Irving's early essays gave New York City its end

    Biography of Charles Dickens

    Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in the Landport district of Portsmouth, the second of eight children of John and Elizabeth Dickens – charming but impecunious members of the struggling genteel class. From not particularly auspicious beginnings, he grew up to become one of the greatest, best known and most loved writers of the 19th century.

    His family moved almost constantly throughout his childhood, eventually confining their peregrinations to London and its immediate environs; Dickens came to know – and describe – the city so well that it is forever associated with him. He received little formal education, and in 1824 at the age of twelve was sent to work in a shoe blacking factory after his father was consigned to the Marshalsea debtors’ prison, along with his mother and most of his siblings. This childhood poverty and feelings of abandonment, although unknown to his readers until after his death, would heavily influence Dickens’ later views on social reform and forever haunt the world he would create through his fiction.

    After his father received a small inheritance, Charles was able to return to school for a short time and at 15 became a clerk in a solicitor’s office, then a shorthand reporter in the law courts (thus gaining a knowledge of the legal world often used in the novels), and finally, a parliamentary and newspaper reporter. These years left him with a lasting affection for journalism and contempt both for the law and for Parliament.

    In 1833 Dickens began contributing stories and descriptive essays to magazines and newspapers which were reprinted as Sketches by “Boz” in February of 1836. The same month, he was invited to provide a comic serial narrative to accompany engravings by a well-known artist and seven weeks later the first installment of “Pickwick Papers” appeared. Within a few months Pickwick was the rage and Dickens was soon the mos

  • 19th century authors and their works
  • 18th century british authors

    • Charles Dickens

    1812-1870

    Who Was Charles Dickens?

    Charles Dickens was a British author, journalist, editor, illustrator, and social commentator who wrote the beloved classics Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations. His books were first published in monthly serial installments, which became a lucrative source of income following a childhood of abject poverty. Dickens wrote 15 novels in total, including Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, and A Tale of Two Cities. His writing provided a stark portrait of poor and working class people in the Victorian era that helped to bring about social change. Dickens died in June 1870 at age 58 and is remembered as one of the most important and influential writers of the 19 century.

    Quick Facts

    FULL NAME: Charles John Huffam Dickens
    BORN: February 7, 1812
    DIED: June 9, 1870
    BIRTHPLACE: Portsmouth, England
    SPOUSE: Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1836-1870)
    CHILDREN: Charles Jr., Mary, Kate, Walter, Francis, Alfred, Sydney, Henry, Dora, and Edward
    ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

    Early Life and Education

    Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth on the southern coast of England. He was the second of eight children born to John Dickens, a naval clerk who dreamed of striking it rich, and Elizabeth Barrow, who aspired to be a teacher and school director. Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor but nevertheless happy in the early days.

    In 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent, where young Dickens and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore the old castle at Rochester. Dickens was a sickly child and prone to spasms, which prevented him from playing sports. He compensated by reading avidly, including such books as Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones, Peregrine Pickle, and The Arabian Nights, according to The World of Charles Dickens by Fido Martin.

    In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London. By t