Many literary authors and novelists influenced Charles Dickens to become the aspiring novelist that he is currently known for.  As a young boy, Dickens enjoyed reading; he loved reading voyage legends, fairy tales, and novels.  Dickens was primarily influenced by William Shakespeare, Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollet and through his childhood experience.  Dickens had a very rough childhood, thus contributing to his creation of characters in his novels.  Dickens used the poor individuals that were living in the grimy streets of London, the shoemakers, the homeless, and the widows as characters in his novels.  

It can also be noted that Dickens was influenced by the authors of the novels that he commonly read.  Dickens was always reading due to his family’s low income and inability to spend money.   The novels that Dickens commonly read were “Arabian Nights, The Bible, the works of Ben Jonson and the essays of Thomas Carlyle.”  Dickens began his literary career in the 1830’s when he was completely influenced by the Victorian Era and through the novels that he has read. 

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright who is most known for vast majority of sonnets and poems.   William Shakespeare is also known for writing a immense historical dramas that were commonly concentrated on the Royal Kings and Queens during the Renaissance Period.  There has not yet been any author that has had the same amount of fame and aspiration to write.  Tobias Smollet was a Scottish author who was born on March 16, 1721, he is best known for his visual imagery used in the novels Peregrine Pickle and Roderick Random. 

Henry Fielding was an English novelist who was born on April 22, 1707 who is best known for his humor in his novels, his best-known novel is Tom Jones.   Fielding is also known for his satirist and political writing style.  Overall, many authors have influenced Charles Dickens.  He has also contributed in influencing modern novelists and poets.  It can be concluded that Dickens was influenced by William Shakespeare, Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollet, and most importantly by his childhood experience in London.