On his first visit to America in 1842, English novelist Charles Dickens was greeted like a modern rock star.

On Valentine’s Day, 1842, New York hosted one of the grandest events the city had ever seen – a ball in honour of the English novelist Charles Dickens.

Dickens was only 30, but works such as Oliver Twist and the Pickwick Papers had already made him the most famous writer in the world.

Charles Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature’s most iconic novels and characters.

At age five, Charles moved to Chatham. When Charles was ten years old, his family moved to Camden, London. He worked in a blacking factory there while his father went to prison for debt. Dickens’s hard times in this blackening factory served as the base of ideas for many of his novels. Many like Oliver Twist soon became famous. When his uncle died and transmitted money, Charles’s father paid off his debts and was released from prison. Charles did not like working and wished to stop working after his father was released. However, his mother said that the family needed the money so Charles was forced to continue working. Charles then finished his schooling, and got a job as an office boy for an attorney. After finding that job dull, he taught himself shorthand and became a journalist that reported on the government.

Notable works: Sketches by Boz, The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Barnaby Rudge, A Christmas Carol, Martin Chuzzlewit, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Hard Times, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers.