This illustrated book, part of the Great lives series, tells the story of Charles Dickens, the Victorian novelist whose own background was as poverty-stricken as that of many of his characters. Dickens did not forget his own humble origins and drew on them in his writing in order to convey the misery of poverty in Victorian Britain. The author examines Dickens' life and the events which gave rise to the fictional world he created. The text is complemented by a date chart, a glossary, a further reading list and an index. Nigel Hunter has written several other books for Wayland in the Great lives series including Karl Marx , Martin Luther King , Gandhi and Helen Keller .