The Life of Charles Dickens Charles Dickens was a nineteenth-century novelist who was and still is very popular. He was born in Landport, a region of Portsmouth, on Charles Dickens was the son of John Dickens and Elizabeth Barrow. John Dickens was a minor government official who worked in the Navy Pay Office. Through his work there, he met Elizabeth and eventually married her. By 1821, when Charles was four months old, John Dickens could no longer afford the rent on his house. John Dickens loved to entertain his friends with drinks and conversation. Throughout his life, he was very short of money and in