“There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant or practically humorous as that which supposes every man to be of equal value in its impartial eye, and the benefits of all laws to be equally attainable by all men, without the smallest reference to the furniture of their pockets.”

English writer and journalist, Victorian era

Charles Dickens was an English writer and journalist of the Victorian era. He is best known for creating some of literature’s most familiar fictional characters, and he remains closely associated with the novel form he helped define. His books and short stories were hugely popular in his lifetime, and later critics and scholars came to regard him as a literary genius. His work is still widely read, with many readers drawn to the vivid characters and social detail that made his fiction endure.