(February 7, 1812) - Charles Dickens, English novelist, is born at Landport, in Portsea.

He published over a dozen major novels, a large number of
short stories (including a number of Christmas-themed stories), a
handful of plays, and several non-fiction books. Dickens's novels were
initially serialized in weekly and monthly magazines, then reprinted in
standard book formats.

Here is a link to David Copperfield. My personal favorite.

http://www.dickens-literature.com/David_Copperfield/0.html




I AM BORN







Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether

that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was

born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve

o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike,

and I began to cry, simultaneously.



In consideration of the day and hour of my birth, it was declared

by the nurse, and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had

taken a lively interest in me several months before there was any

possibility of our becoming personally acquainted, first, that I

was destined to be unlucky in life; and secondly, that I was

privileged to see ghosts and spirits; both these gifts inevitably

attaching, as they believed, to all unlucky infants of either

gender, born towards the small hours on a Friday night.