Charles Dickens was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity. TRAVELLING ABROAD: I got into the travelling chariot it was of German make, roomy, heavy, and unvarnished I got into the travelling chariot, pulled up the steps after me, shut myself in with a smart bang of the door, and gave the word, Go on!