Charles Dickens, bust portrait, facing slightly right. Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English author and social critic. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. He suffered a series of strokes and died in 1870 at the age of 58. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner, he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Lithographer Eliphalet M. Brown, 1839. |