CHARLES DICKENS

Charles Dickens. Written by Jim Eldridge.

《查尔斯·狄更斯》，作者：吉姆·埃尔德里奇

Charles Dickens Charles Dickens was a writer who lived in England in the 1800s. He wrote over 20 novels and in his books he created some very famous and well -known characters. He wrote about poor people, rich people, kind people and wicked people. Many of the characters were based on people he had met while he was growing up. Charles Dickens was very interested in how people lived and how they behaved. He wrote about what life was like living in London at that time.

查尔斯·狄更斯 查尔斯·狄更斯是一位生活在英国的作家 他生活在19世纪，一生写了20多部小说，还在书中塑造了许多非常出名的、 家喻户晓的角色。他的笔下有穷人、富人、善良的人，也有邪恶的人。 很多角色的原型都来自他成长过程中遇到过的人。 查尔斯·狄更斯对人们的生活方式和行为习惯非常感兴趣。 他记录了那个时代伦敦的真实生活风貌。

The Dickens Family Charles Dickens was born on the 7th of February 1812 in Portsmouth. Charles's father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the Navy pay office and his job was to pay wages to sailors on board ships and also to the workers on the docks. The Dickens Family moved many times because of John Dickens' job, usually to towns on the coast where the Navy ports were. Like many families at this time, Charles's parents had lots of children and Charles had seven brothers and sisters. In the 19th century, people didn't own houses unless they were very rich. They rented them instead. John Dickens earned enough money to rent a whole house for his family and have a maid servant live with them. In 1822, when Charles was 10 years old, John Dickens was transferred to London and the family lived in a house in Camden Town. In the 19th century, Camden Town was a village outside London surrounded by fields.

狄更斯一家 查尔斯·狄更斯出生于2月7日 1812年，出生地是朴茨茅斯。查尔斯的父亲约翰·狄更斯是海军薪酬办公室的职员。 他的工作是给船上的水手还有码头工人发工资。 因为约翰的工作原因，狄更斯一家搬过很多次家，通常都是搬到有海军港口的沿海小镇。 和那个年代的很多家庭一样，查尔斯的父母生了很多孩子，查尔斯一共有七个兄弟姐妹。 19世纪的时候，除非特别有钱，不然大家都买不起房子，只能租房住。 约翰·狄更斯的收入足够租下一整栋房子供家人居住，还能雇一个女仆住家帮忙。 1822年，查尔斯10岁的时候，约翰·狄更斯被调去伦敦工作，一家人就搬到了卡姆登镇的房子里住。 19世纪的卡姆登镇是伦敦郊外的一个村子，周围全是田野。

Charles' parents like to have the best of everything, the best clothes, the best furniture and the best food. If you didn't have much money, you ate food like potatoes, cheese, bread and a thin porridge called gruel. If you did have money, you could pay for food like meat and fish. John Dickens and his wife Elizabeth spent more money than they earned. Sometimes they had to sell pieces of furniture to pay their food bills. When that wasn't enough, Charles' parents told him he had to start work to earn some money. In the early 19th century, most children worked if they were from poor families. Some small boys as young as five years old worked as chimney sweeps and climbed up the insides of the chimney to clean them. Others swept the streets. Many children worked in factories sewing sacks or making ropes. Children's jobs were hard and sometimes dangerous. Charles was not from a poor family, so he'd never worked before. Instead, he'd gone to school. But as he was the eldest boy in the family, he had to work now, so his parents found him a job in a shoe polish factory. He was only 12 years old.

查尔斯的父母什么都想用最好的：最好的衣服，最好的家具 还有最好的食物。要是没什么钱的话，大家通常吃土豆、奶酪、 面包，还有一种叫稀粥的稀薄麦片粥。要是有钱，就可以买肉啊鱼啊这类食物吃。 约翰·狄更斯和妻子伊丽莎白花的钱比赚的还多，有时候他们不得不卖掉 几件家具来付饭钱。就算这样还是不够的时候，查尔斯的父母就让他 必须出去工作赚钱。19世纪初，大部分穷人家的孩子都要出去工作。 有些才五岁大的小男孩要当扫烟囱工，爬进烟囱内部打扫。 还有的孩子要扫大街，很多孩子在工厂里缝麻袋或者搓绳子。 孩子们干的活又苦，有时候还很危险。查尔斯家不算穷，所以他之前从来没工作过。 他之前一直都在上学。但他是家里的长子，现在必须工作了，所以父母给他找了个鞋油厂的活。 那年他才12岁。

The Shoe Polish Factory The Shoe Polish Factory, Warren's Blacking, was near the River Thames in London. For six days a week, Charles worked from eight in the morning until six at night, sticking labels of black shoe polish. The factory was a dark, dirty and crumbling building and Charles hated the work. He described the factory as a crazy, tumbled down old house overrun with rats. Charles was paid six shillings a week. Today this is only thirty pence, but at the time this was enough money to buy food and pay for somewhere to sleep. Charles did not get to keep the money he earned, he had to give it all to his parents. As well as working for ten hours a day, Charles walked three miles to and from the factory. Gas lamps lit the streets in the centre of London, but there was no lighting on the country roads between London and Camden Town. Charles started his job in the winter, so he had to walk in the dark. The roads were thick with mud when it rained and slippery and frozen when it was cold.

鞋油厂 这家鞋油厂叫沃伦黑鞋油厂，就在伦敦泰晤士河附近。查尔斯每周要上 六天班，从早上八点干到晚上六点，工作内容是给黑鞋油 贴标签。工厂是一栋又暗又脏、摇摇欲坠的房子，查尔斯特别讨厌 这份工作。他说这工厂就是一栋破破烂烂、到处都是老鼠的疯房子。 查尔斯每周能赚6先令，放到现在只值30便士，但在当时 这些钱足够吃饭和付房租了。但查尔斯赚的钱一分都留不住， 必须全部交给父母。除了每天要工作 10个小时之外，查尔斯每天上下班还要走3英里路。伦敦市中心的街道 有煤气灯照明，但伦敦和卡姆登镇之间的乡间小路可没有路灯。 查尔斯是冬天开始上班的，所以他得摸黑走路。 下雨的时候路上满是厚泥，天冷的时候路面冻住，特别滑。 冷得刺骨。

Prison Only a few days after Charles started work at the shoe polish factory, his father, John Dickens, was arrested because he couldn't pay his bills. He was put in Marshallsea, a debtor's prison in Southwark, London. At that time, it was common for whole families to live in the prison until the money had been paid. This is what happened to the Dickens family. Marshallsea Prison was split into two different parts. One part was for criminals and the other was for people like John Dickens, who owed money. In this part of the prison, there were eight large houses with a total of 56 rooms. The rooms were very small. John Dickens, his wife and six of their children all had to live together in one of these rooms. There were lots of people in the prison and it was a very crowded and dirty place.

入狱 查尔斯刚开始上班才没几天 就在鞋油厂上班的时候，他爸爸约翰·狄更斯就因为还不起账单被抓了。 他被关进了马歇尔西监狱，那是伦敦南华克区的一所债务人监狱。 那时候，一家人都住进监狱里还债是常有的事，要等欠的钱全部还清 才能出来。狄更斯一家就遇到了这种事。 马歇尔西监狱分成两个不同的区域，一个区域关罪犯， 另一个区域关的是约翰·狄更斯这种欠了钱的人。 在欠债者住的这个区域，有八栋大房子，一共有56个房间。 每个房间都很小，约翰·狄更斯、他的妻子还有六个孩子都得挤在 其中一个小房间里住。监狱里人特别多， 是个又挤又脏的地方。