Random Extremely Dark Things You'd Never Suspect Charles Dickens Actually Did (16 items)

• 

  (#7) America Really Wasn't His Cup Of Tea

  Charles Dickens toured the United States twice: his first tour was in 1842 and the second in 1867. It would be an understatement to say he found himself unimpressed with the land of liberty. He published no less than two books about his American travels, accusing crude Americans of being uncouth opportunists who read pirated versions of his work for free. Upon visiting Washington DC, Dickens called it "head-quarters of tobacco-tinctured saliva." Despite Dickens' overt, and published, animosity, the feeling was hardly mutual, and most US fans continued to adore his work much later into his career.
• 

  (#16) He Fervently Believed In Spontaneous Human Combustion

  Bleak House is one of Dickens's most well known works, but it features a scene that would make any modern reader do a double take:

  "Then they saw the pile of ash on the floor. They stared for a moment, before turning and running. They burst onto the street, shouting for help. But it was too late: Old Krook was gone, a victim of spontaneous combustion."

  Yes, a Dickens character dies from spontaneous combustion. While science wasn't exactly at its best in the 1850s, there was enough reason in the world for this plot point to draw considerable criticism and indignation. Nowadays an author might tweet a half-assed apology and move on with it, but Dickens had his own way of doing things. He went on the offensive and began to angrily cite obscure stories and pseudosciences as proof of the validity of his story.

  Dickens carried on the battle for 10 months, only dropping the issue when Bleak House was finally fully published in all its monthly installments. Unfortunately, Dickens had such a hold on the popular imagination that he inadvertently gave the theory a whole new life, and it continued on in the popular imagination for years, even showing up in a medical text in 1928. Just so we're clear spontaneous combustion is not real.
• 

  (#12) He Coined A Bunch Of Words And Phrases Still Used Today

  Charles Dickens - like Shakespeare, another great English writer - created words and phrases when the English language failed him. And, like Shakespeare, people still use many of them today. Among his linguistic inventions were words like "butter-fingers" and "dustbin." Some of his characterizations and names were so vivid they have since lived beyond his stories - names like "Scrooge," for example, have evolved from names to universal descriptors. 
• 

  (#3) He Had A Secret Affair With A Teenager

  Charles Dickens cultivated an image of being an upstanding, moral Victorian gentleman. But it was an illusion. Privately,Dickens fell out of love with his wife after she gave him 10 children. In 1857, the 45-year-old Dickens began an affair with 18-year-old Ellen Ternan, an actress in a play he produced. His affair with Ternan, lasting a total of 13 years, largely took place in a house Dickens bought for the actress just outside of London. Dickens and/or Ternan thoroughly destroyed their correspondence, and very few ended up knowing about the affair. Even fewer still knew of the possible child they had together who died in infancy, whose existence was noted of by Katey and Henry Dickens.
• 

  (#5) He Had A Soft Spot In His Heart For Prostitutes

  Like many Victorians, Charles Dickens was liberal-minded and became interested in the plight of prostitutes. In his mind, these "fallen women" needed help to be rehabilitated into society. So Dickens worked alongside millionaire philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts to establish a home for prostitutes at Urania College where they would receive moral and financial assistance. Ultimately, most of the women at Urania would be shipped off to the colonies. 
• 

  (#8) He Became A Resentful Father

  Charles Dickens bore a total of ten children with his wife. Though a doting father during his children's younger years, he gradually lost interest in them as they grew up. Once they became teenagers and young adults, he saw them more as burdens than delights, even trying to decide his sons futures the moment they entered their teenage years. Yet even when his marriage fell apart, he followed the trends of his era and denied his estranged wife custody of their children. 

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking