Going into Society is Dickens's story of a man who sets up a circus in a respectable neighborhood. The main attraction is a dwarf: "He was a un-common small man, he really was. Certainly not so small as he was made out to be, but where IS your Dwarf as is?" In To Be Read at Dusk, a group of men begin discussing ghosts, and one of them tells the story of the English bride. These two stories showcase Dickens's interest in the weird. Charles Dickens's early childhood was happy until his father was imprisoned for debt. The 12-year-old Dickens then began working ten-hour days in a boot-blacking factory pasting labels on the jars of thick polish. The shocking conditions of the factory made a profound impression on him. His anger at his situation and at the conditions endured by working-class people became major themes in his fiction.
