Years before his prolific career as a novelist, Charles Dickens worked as a court reporter. After studying Gurney shorthand, he became a freelance reporter at Doctor Commons courts in London in 1829. He reported the first of the Reform Bill debates, and because of his impressive work, he later secured the position as shorthand reporter of Parliamentary proceedings at the age of 19.

Dickens’ initiation into the working world was a difficult one. His father, John Dickens, fell deeply into debt when Charles was only 12 years old, and young Charles was forced to quit school and go to work in a shoe polish factory. His parents and siblings were sent to live in a debtors’ prison while Charles worked the daily grind of pasting labels onto pots of black shoe polish. Humiliated by this experience and malnourished, Charles left the shoe polish factory, known then as a blacking factory, three years later when his father was released from prison. He was able to return to school for a short while until his family once again experienced financial troubles.

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