Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Charles Dickens is one of the most popular and acclaimed English writers of all time. He is best known for his novels, such as Oliver Twist (1837-1839), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1849-1850), Bleak House (1852-1853), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860-1861).
These novels are famous for their vivid characters, complex plots, social realism, humor, and pathos. Dickens also wrote short stories, essays, articles, and letters. He was a champion of the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized in his society.
He exposed the evils of child labor, debtors' prisons, industrialization, corruption, and injustice. He also celebrated the values of family, friendship, generosity, and compassion. Some interesting facts about Charles Dickens are:
- He had a difficult childhood. His father was imprisoned for debt when he was 12 years old. He had to work in a factory to support his family. He later used his experiences as inspiration for some of his novels, such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.
- He was a prolific and successful writer. He wrote 15 novels, 5 novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction pieces. He also edited several magazines and journals. He was one of the first writers to serialize his novels in weekly or monthly installments. He had a large and loyal readership in Britain and abroad.
- He was a celebrity in his time. He gave public readings of his works to thousands of people. He also traveled extensively in Europe and America. He met many famous people, such as Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, and Hans Christian Andersen.
- He died suddenly at the age of 58 from a stroke. He was working on his last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) at the time. The novel was left unfinished and has sparked many theories and speculations about its ending.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Leo Tolstoy is one of the greatest Russian writers and thinkers of all time. He is best known for his novels War and Peace (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (1873-1877), which are considered among the finest works of world literature.
These novels are epic in scope, rich in detail, profound in philosophy, and realistic in portrayal of human nature. Tolstoy also wrote short stories, essays, memoirs, diaries, and letters.
He explored various themes such as love, death, war, peace, religion, morality, art, politics, and social issues. He was a moralist and a pacifist who advocated non-violence, vegetarianism, anarchism, and Christian anarchism.
Some interesting facts about Leo Tolstoy are:
- He was born into a wealthy and noble family. He inherited a large estate called Yasnaya Polyana when he was 19 years old. He lived there for most of his life with his wife Sofia and their 13 children.
- He served in the army during the Crimean War (1853-1856). He witnessed the horrors of war firsthand and wrote about them in his early works such as Sevastopol Sketches (1855-1856) and The Cossacks (1863).
- He had a spiritual crisis in his midlife. He became disillusioned with his privileged lifestyle and questioned the meaning of life. He renounced his aristocratic status and embraced a simple and ascetic way of living. He also developed his own version of Christianity based on the teachings of Jesus.
- He died at the age of 82 from pneumonia. He left his home secretly in the middle of the night to escape from his family conflicts and seek solitude. He died at a remote railway station surrounded by strangers.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is best known for his 37 plays, which include tragedies such as Hamlet (1603), Macbeth (1606), Othello (1604), King Lear (1606), and Romeo and Juliet (1597); comedies such as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595), Twelfth Night (1602), As You Like It (1599), and The Merchant of Venice (1596); histories such as Richard III (1593), Henry V (1599), Julius Caesar (1599), and Antony and Cleopatra (1607); and romances such as The Tempest (1611) and The Winter's Tale (1611).
Shakespeare also wrote 154 sonnets and several poems. These plays and poems are admired for their artistic excellence, linguistic innovation, dramatic intensity, psychological insight, and cultural influence.
Shakespeare also created some of the most memorable characters in literature, such as Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Lear, Juliet, Falstaff, Prospero, and many others.
He also coined many words and phrases that are still used today, such as “to be or not to be”, “the green-eyed monster”, “a rose by any other name”, and “the world's your oyster”.
Some interesting facts about William Shakespeare are:
- He was born and died on the same date: April 23. He was baptized on April 26, 1564 and died on April 23, 1616. He was 52 years old when he died.
- He married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 years old and she was 26. They had three children: Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith. Hamnet died at the age of 11 from unknown causes.
- He moved to London in the late 1580s and became an actor, playwright, and shareholder of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He performed at the Globe Theatre and other venues. He also wrote for other companies and patrons.
- He retired to his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon around 1613 and died there three years later. He left most of his estate to his eldest daughter Susanna and his second-best bed to his wife Anne.
- He is buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. His grave bears an epitaph that warns anyone from moving his bones:
Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To digg the dust encloased heare: Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones, And curst be he yt moves my bones.
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