Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsmouth, in Hampshire. The second of eight children, Dickens was pulled out of school at the age of twelve and forced to work at a local factory. In his early twenties he began to publish stories about London life in various periodicals, but it wasn't until the publication of The Pickwick Papers in 1836 that he became well known. Dickens is now considered the most successful British author of the Victorian Age, having written such masterpieces as Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and Oliver Twist.
