On Poverty by Charles Dickens

On Poverty by Charles Dickens

A collection of Dickens's valuable writings on the most vulnerable segments of society

Dickens is famous for his moralizing and the entreaties within his fiction to help the poor, and characters such as the Cratchit family or little Joe in Bleak House have become iconic figures in popular recollections of the 19th century's working class struggles. This collection includes articles such as A Poor Man and his Beer and Walk in the Workhouse based directly upon Dickens' own involvement and experience of walking around the more derelict areas of London and England to meet the poor firsthand and report their plights to the reading population. It also considers Dickens' own charitable work, such as his involvement in setting up a refuge for prostitutes, as defended in his article A Home for Homeless Women. In contrast to his personal nostalgia for the innocence of childhood, Dickens tirelessly argued against those who hearkened back to the good old days, instead flying the flag for evolution and development.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) has been remembered in history as one of the greatest authors of the Victorian era. Not only having received tremendous success while he was alive, Charles Dickens' work continues to be read as voraciously as when it was first published. Because of his tremendous popularity, Charles Dickens has secured himself the position of not only being one of the greatest writers of his generation, but one of the most celebrated writers of all time. In addition to his writing, Charles Dickens was a prominent activist, dedicating much of his life to fighting for better social conditions for the poor as well as powerfully advocating for better laws to protect the rights of children. When a piece of literature refers to either unfair working and living conditions, or else portrays the state of a morally corrupt social class, the writing is thus referred to as Dickensian. Much of literary traditions thus owe their inspiration from the writing of Charles Dickens.