查尔斯·狄更斯 维多利亚时期文学巨匠.docVIP

查尔斯·狄更斯 维多利亚时期的文学巨匠 　　Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7th, 1812, in the English coastal town of Portsmouth. His father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the Navy[海军] pay office[偿付局]. When Charles was born, his father was 26 and was an excitable[易激动的], extravagant[浪费的] man who liked to entertain in style, a style that his salary as a clerk was unable to support. This led him into a succession of[一连串] financial crises[危机] throughout his life. 　　The second of eight children, Charles was a sensitive child. Unable to join in the play of the other children, he withdrew[缩回] into books. Later in life, recalling his boyhood days, he wrote: “When I think of it, the picture always arises in my mind of a summer evening, the boys at play in the churchyard and I sitting on my bed, reading as if for life.” 　　Among his favorite works were Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, Tom Jones by Henry Fielding注1, and Arabian Nights. This reading created for him a world of magic, wonder and adventure, a world that he himself could so vividly[生动地] create for others to enjoy in his own books. 　　At the age of 12, the childhood of Dickens came to a sudden and dramatic end. His father, unable to pay his large debts, was imprisoned[监禁]. Within a few days, the rest of the family were to join him there, except Charles, whose education was cut short and who was made to earn his living, washing bottles at Warren’s Blacking[黑色鞋油] Factory. This experience proved so shocking and humiliating[羞辱性的] to the boy that it was to haunt[萦绕心头] him for the rest of his life. “No words can express the secret agony[苦恼] of my soul... I felt my early hopes of growing up to be a learned and distinguished[卓著的] man crushed[粉碎] in my breast.” 　　Though soon reunited with his family, the previous easy life enjoyed by Charles was never the same. Two years later, at the age of 14, his irregular schooling ended and he began to work as a clerk in a lawyer’s office in Gray’s Inn, London. This experience, again n