Charles Dickens might have had a bad rap in every high school his books landed in, but I’m about to make you a huge fan. Here’s why I love Charles Dickens: 

• Dickens’ writing brought to the fore some of the most challenging social issues of his time, and evolved the way we think about literature. At just 24 Charles Dickens became the father of serial publication, completely changing the landscape of the publishing industry. 
• Serial publication made his work accessible to an incredibly underserved population, which he built a community of readership around. Serialization allowed him to respond to social circumstances as they were happening in real time, creating an immediacy to his stories and a relevancy for his audience that not only entertained, but created movements. 
• Dickens’s installments arrived in newspapers like cultural thunderclaps. People read them aloud, debated characters’ fates, and discussed their ethical implications—much the way television viewers now break down plot twists on Reddit and Twitter today. It’s fascinating to see how the development of the genre connected him to his  readers in a way that had never before been accomplished—long before TV made this common place.
• In a particular position to realize the cause of the poor in Great Britain, Dickens drew from his own first-hand accounts growing up without access to many of the daily necessities we take for granted everyday. He worked from a young age to help support his family and became the head of his household at a young age when his father landed in debtors’ prison. He never lost sight of his struggle even after achieving incredible wealth and fame from his writing, and did everything he could to make class inequity widely known.
• While often criticized for his portrayal of female characters as flat, I’d purport this as a misrepresentation and blame societal norms that can’t be understood today. During his time Dickens was extremely attuned to the struggles of women and children, and it was known in his circles that his empathy in this regard heavily influenced his work.

P.S. I love imagining Londoners in the 1700s eagerly awaiting newspaper deliveries to find out why Lady Dedlock collapsed after a mysterious confrontation in the rain, wondering if Tulkinghorn killed her, or if l Esther will ever learn the truth, and later, once delivered, all bellied up to the bar, passing chip-stained copies of Pickwick Papers over pint glasses at the local Pub, reading aloud to one another and debating Dickens’ choices. A perfect moment of community.