British Literature Survey
Reference Pages: Charles Dickens Group

Charles Dickens and Warren's Blacking Factory
by Kandace Landers

The life of Charles Dickens took a sudden turn two days after his twelfth birthday on February 9, 1824. Prior to this date, Dickens was fortunate enough to attend school at the age of nine; unfortunately, his education was cut short because his father was incarcerated for bad debt at the Marshalsea prison. With the family bankrupt and Dickens’ mother forced to provide all financial support, a relative named James Lamert gave Charles the opportunity to work for him at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse. Lamert suggested that Charles get paid six or seven shillings per week, which was a moderate income for a twelve year old boy. Charles’ mother welcomed the idea of her son contributing to straightening out their family’s finances, all the while working alongside relatives. The original intent of Charles working at the Blacking Warehouse changed shortly after his arrival when he migrated from the first floor to the ground floor, where he and the other boys endured hard manual labor. Dickens describes his childhood experience at the warehouse as a soiled life of agony and humiliation flooded with rats, rotted wood and black paste. Many concur that his experience helped spawn the creation of Dickens’ great novels Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. His story became a truly rags to riches tale when Dickens returned to school so that he could become a “gentleman,” thus becoming one of the great writers to ever produce literature. Although he was sure that his experience worked together to make him the person that he ultimately became, Dickens was never able to get passed the degradation and refused to speak of his employment at Blacking Warehouse.

Works Cited

Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1990.

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. “Charles Dickens (1812-1870) The Boyhood of Dickens.”
Victorian Station. (1999-2001). February 1, 2006. http://www.victorianstation.com/authordickens.htm.

Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. 2 vols. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & co, 1874.

Grahame Smith, University of Stirling. “Charles Dickens.” The Literary Encyclopedia. 8 Jan. 2001. The Literary Dictionary Company. 1 February 2006. http:www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5085

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu