CHARLES DICKENS DICKENS CHARLES Teen ELI Readers ELI Teen A1 Stage 1 Teen Readers Characters

Mr Sowerberry

Oliver

Mrs Sowerberry

Doctor Losberne

Mr

Monks Dodger

Fagin

Bill Sikes

Nancy

Mr Brownlow Mrs Bedwin

Rose Maylie Mrs Maylie

Oliver tells Mrs Sowerberry that Noah said horrible things about his mother but she doesn’t listen to him. She throws him in a cold, dark room. She closes the door but she forgets to lock it. Oliver stays in the room for many hours. It is very late and the house is silent. Mr and Mrs Sowerberry are asleep. Oliver doesn’t know what to do. He didn’t like the workhouse and he doesn’t like Mr and Mrs Sowerberry and Noah. Then, he has an idea. He decides to run away*. He slowly opens the door to the room and quietly walks to the kitchen. Then, he opens the kitchen window and jumps out into the street, but he doesn’t know where to go. He can see the church and the baker’s and the butcher’s in the town centre. Then, he sees a big road. He runs down the road, away from the town and ’s shop and the workhouse.

to run away to leave a place you don’t like 16

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After-reading Activities Grammar

1 Where does Oliver live? Number the boxes. A ■ ’s townhouse B ■ Rose’s cottage C ■ ’s house D ■1 The workhouse E ■ Mr Brownlow’s cottage F ■ Rose’s townhouse G ■ Mr Sowerberry’s shop

2 Complete Oliver’s family tree. Use the words in the box. mother father half-brother aunt sister Edwin is Oliver and ’ ...... father 1 Monks is Oliver’s ...... 2 Agnes is Oliver’s ...... 3 Rose is Agnes’ ...... and Oliver’s ...... Reading

3 Read the sentences and tick only the ones that are true. Bill goes back to . ■✓ 1 Charley helps Bill escape. ■ 2 Bill dies. ■ 3 Charley fi nds a job on a farm. ■ 4 Fagin escapes from prison. ■ 5 Monks doesn’t give Oliver his money. ■ 6 Mr Brownlow adopts Oliver. ■

70 Vocabulary

4 Find these words in the wordsearch.

document farmhouse painting prison rock rope wedding woods alleys

PAIN TINGDF ELGEANPR IA OLZSXGHOLR WE DD I NG P VM OYUQHSRECH OSPTWUAFAO DFPR I SONMU S I LOACNONS PDOCUMENTE ALNKPDOCUL Writing

5 Complete Oliver’s diary entry. Use the words in the box. lives went play live go was

Dear Diary, I’m very happy today. I’m in my new home in the countryside with my new family. Mr Brownlow is my new father and I (1) ...... with him and Mrs Bedwin in a beautiful cottage. We have got an enormous garden and I (2) ...... outside every afternoon. My aunt Rose (3) ...... nearby with her husband Harry and Mrs Maylie. We all (4) ...... to Rose and Harry’s wedding last week. It (5) ...... great! We often (6) ...... to visit them and we have lots of delicious cakes for afternoon tea. Love, Oliver

71 Focus on...

Biography Charles Dickens Charles Dickens was born on February 7th 1812 in Portsmouth, England. His mother was called Elizabeth and his father was called John. His father was in the Navy and worked in an offi ce and his mother stayed at home to look after the family. They lived in Portsmouth, near the sea, for a few years and then they moved to Kent in the south east of England and fi nally to London. Charles had fi ve brothers and two sisters.

1 January 1850, Charles Dickens at his writing desk. A Bad Event A lot of English children were too poor to go to school but Charles was very lucky and he started when he was nine years old. He liked school but when he was twelve years old, something bad happened. His father didn’t have any money to pay the bills and he went to prison. Charles’ mother and his brothers and sisters all went to prison too because they didn’t have a place to live and they had no money to buy food. First Job Charles didn’t go to prison but he stopped and he liked talking to them all and playing going to school and went to work in a with his little brothers. He didn’t like it when factory. He was sad and lonely without he had to go back to the room where he his family and he didn’t like working in was staying in Camden Town. The house the factory. It was a horrible place and he belonged to his mother’s friend and she was worked very hard for little money. He went a kind lady but Charles wanted to be with to visit his family on Sunday afternoons his family.

72 Back to school Early works He was very happy when his father He started work in an offi ce and later became a journalist came out of prison a few months on a local newspaper. He also started writing stories. His later. John Dickens inherited some fi rst story, A Dinner at Popular Walk, was published in 1833 money from a relative and used and his fi rst book, Sketches by Boz, in 1836. Charles Dickens the money to pay his bills and the wrote a lot of very popular books and many of his stories family went home. Charles went were about poor people and all their problems. He never back to school for three years and forgot about his terrible experience as a child and many of he left when he was fi fteen. his characters are young boys in diffi culty.

Famous Stories He wrote Oliver Twist between 1837 and 1839 and many others such as David Copperfi eld (1849) and Great Expectations (1860-1861). He also got married in 1836 to a lady called Catherine Hogarth. They had ten children together but separated in 1858. Charles had a girlfriend, the actress Ellen Ternan, and they stayed together for many years. The fi rst edition of Oliver Twist. Hobbies and Interests His Tomb He loved travelling and visited many He died in 1870 and is buried in Poets places including Italy and America and Corner in Westminster Abbey, London. even wrote some travel books. He also Charles Dickens made a great contribution loved going to the theatre and wrote to English literature and his tomb is near some plays too. He performed at the those of other famous English writers theatre for Queen Victoria in 1851. such as Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Throughout his life, Charles Dickens Hardy. worked on a lot of projects to help people who were in unfortunate situations, including young, unmarried mothers andd sick children. He also spoke about the problem of slavery in America and how it was wrong.

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