Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations
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
In the ten years of Charles's life the family had lived in six different houses each poorer than the one before And as the number of mouths to feed kept growing there were eight children in all the family fell deeper and deeper into debt
When they reached London Charles was shocked to learn that he would not be sent to school they couldn't afford it Fanny was able to go to the Royal Academy of Music because she had won a scholarship there as a boarding student But Charles merely stayed at home and made himself useful by cleaning his father's boots and minding the younger children His parents seemed to have forgotten him and all his ambitions As their money problems worsened Elizabeth decided to help by opening a school So they moved again this time to a house large and respectable enough for Mrs Dickens's Establishment It was far grander than they could afford and since not one student ever came to the school their situation grew even worse Charles remembered later that we got on very badly with the butcher and the baker and that very often we had not too much for dinner To pay the butcher or baker the Dickens family was forced to sell things Charles would be sent to the pawnshop from time to time with an armload of books It made him sad to part with them for reading was now his only escape from drudgery But the books were soon followed out of the house by teaspoons chairs pictures and carpets Charles felt humiliated lonely and neglected And it got worse
