EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

Dr Lee Jackson chronicles Charles Dickens's journey from down-at-luck teenager to titan of Victorian literature

- Dr Lee Jackson

Charles Dickens did not come from a privileged background, but nor were his parents without prospects. John Dickens (1785-1851), was the son of servants to the Crewe family - Cheshire gentry with a townhouse in Mayfair - whose patronage secured him a good position as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. This was a notch up the social ladder and brought him into the circle of Elizabeth Barrow (1789-1863), whose father and brother were likewise civil servants. The couple married in London in 1809 at the church of St Mary-le-Strand and then returned to John's posting at Portsmouth. The following year, however, Elizabeth's father was discovered to have been systematically embezzling public funds and quietly fled the country. He pleaded that he had found himself incapable of supporting a large family. John Dickens, unfortunately, would prove equally bad with money.