Dickens and Debt

As a grown man, Charles Dickens became famous for writing stories of the English poor and their struggles to make ends meet in a sometimes cruel age. What some people do not know is that for a time he lived the life that he described.

Dickens was born into a family with a little bit of wealth, enough so that he originally attended a private school. That changed when his father spent too much trying to pretend that he was wealthier than he was. His father would soon find himself in Marshalsea, one of the most notorious English debtor’s prisons. While Charles boarded elsewhere, the rest of his family went to live with his father in the prison, as was sometimes done.  On Sundays, he would go and spend Sundays at Marshalsea with his family.

The fall from money coincided with a 12-year-old Dickens taking a job at a factory, where he witnessed the rat-infested building and poor working conditions. He worked 10 hours per week pasting label on jars of shoe polish. The money he made helped him pay for his boarding house and avoid living in the prison. It also went to support his family.

Due to the death of a relative who left some money to the family, Dickens’ father was able to arrange payment for his debtors and leave Marshalsea after only a few months. But those months were enough to leave an impression on Dickens. Marshalsea would become the setting for his novel Little Dorrit. His time in factory work would inspire much of his writing. The character Fagin from Oliver Twist was even named after a co-worker at the factory.