Charles John Huffam Dickens, (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870), pen-name “Boz”, was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner.

The popularity of Dickens’s novels and short stories has meant that they have never gone out of print. Many of Dickens’s novels first appeared in periodicals and magazines in serialized form—a popular format for fiction at the time—and, unlike many other authors who completed entire novels before serial production commenced, Dickens often composed his works in parts, in the order in which they were meant to appear. Such a practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by one minor “cliffhanger” after another, to keep the public looking forward to the next installment.