Young Explorers: Study

Study © Charles Dickens Museum

Charles spent most mornings writing in this room. This is a page from the original manuscript from one of his most famous stories. It's incredibly difficult to read, but the longer you look, the easier it will be!

See if you can pick out some key words which give you clue as to which story this comes from? Have a go!

Fragment of the original manuscript of Oliver Twist, 1837, 
AA2 © Charles Dickens Museum

Did you guess? Yes, that’s right. This page is from one of Charles's best-loved stories, Oliver Twist. It is so messy because it is the first draft - this is when Charles was first transferring the story from his imagination to the page. Charles had to work very quickly because his books were published in instalments, like a series. Each month he had to write around 7500 words for each story, but he was often working on two stories at the same time. When Charles was working on Oliver Twist, he was also working on his next novel, Nicholas Nickleby!

Charles' writing equipment also made it very difficult to write neatly. Click here to have a go at our activity to find out more about the objects in the study.