Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations
all his life Charles Dickens would remember a particular day when he was nine years old and something his father said They were out walking together and had stopped as they often did to admire a handsome rose brick house called Gad's Hill Place With its lovely bay windows and sweeping lawn it seemed as grand as a palace to them Then John Dickens told his son that if he worked very hard someday he might live in that house The thought took Charles's breath away The sort of person who would live in Gad's Hill Place would be a distinguished man of taste and education His father believed that Charles could someday be like that All he had to do was work hard He could not have known on that day how far he would fall and how high he would rise and that he really would live in that house and that he would die there
When Charles looked back on his childhood these were the happy years They lived in a snug brick row house in Chatham east of London It had a little garden and across the road there was a meadow where the children could play He was in the care of his beloved nursemaid Mary Weller who comforted his childish sorrows She also terrified him with blood curdling horror stories that he adored though they gave him nightmares He spent wonderful hours in his little attic room reading from his father's set of novels He went for days imagining himself to be one of his storybook heroes Robinson Crusoe Roderick Random or Peregrine Pickle He and his older sister Fanny went to a day school run by a scholar named William Giles who recognized Charles's intelligence and imagination and gave him special attention He had a group of school friends who all wore white beaver hats and called themselves Giles's Cats Together they played carefree boisterous games and explored Chatham and nearby Rochester with its grand cathedral and ruined castle They went rowing in the summer and skating in the winter
But when Charles was ten his father was transferred to London and his happy childhood came to a sudden end John Dickens had many wonderful qualities He worked hard at his job in the Navy Pay Office and was loving to his wife Elizabeth and to his children He had many friends and loved to invite them to the house in the evening for a bowl of steaming punch and lively conversation But he had one terrible fault He spent more money than he made
