Charles Dickens wrote.
Charles John Huffam Dickens ( [ ˈdɪkᵻnz ] 7 February 1812 -- 9 June 1870 ) was an English writer and social critic . He created some of the world 's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era . On the other hand , Oscar Wilde , Henry James , and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth , loose writing , and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism .