1. ISAAC NEWTON
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727 by the Julian
calendar in use in England at the time; or 4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727
by the Gregorian calendar) was an English physicist, mathematician,
astronomer, philosopher, and alchemist; who wrote the Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica (published 5 July 1687), where he
described universal gravitation and, via his laws of motion, laid the
groundwork for classical mechanics. Newton also shares credit with
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for the development of differential calculus.
However, their work was not a collaboration; they both discovered calculus
separately but nearly contemporaneously.
Newton was the first to promulgate a set of natural laws that could govern
both terrestrial (earthly) motion and celestial motion. He is associated with
the scientific revolution and the advancement of heliocentrism. Newton is
also credited with providing mathematical substantiation for Kepler's laws of planetary motion. He
would expand these laws by arguing that orbits (such as those of comets) were not only elliptic; but
could also be hyperbolic and parabolic.
He is also notable for his arguments that light was composed of particles. He was the first to realise
that the spectrum of colours observed when white light was passed through a prism was inherent in
the white light, and not added by the prism as Roger Bacon had claimed in the 13th century.
Newton also developed Newton's law of cooling, describing the rate of cooling of objects when
exposed to air; the binomial theorem in its entirety; and the principles of conservation of momentum
and angular momentum. Finally, he studied the speed of sound in air, and voiced a theory of the
origin of stars.
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 - June 9, 1870),
pen-name "Boz", was an English novelist of the Victorian era.
The popularity of his books during his lifetime and to the present is
demonstrated by the fact that none of his novels have ever gone
out of print.
Dickens' writing style is florid and poetic, with a strong comic touch.
His satires of British aristocratic snobbery — he calls one character
the "Noble Refrigerator" — are wickedly funny. Comparing orphans
to stocks and shares, people to tug boats, or dinner party guests to
furniture are just some of Dickens' flights of fancy which sum up
situations better than any simple description could.
The characters themselves are amongst some of the most memorable in English literature.
Certainly their names are. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Fagin, Mrs. Gamp, Micawber, Pecksniff,
Miss Havisham, Wackford Squeers and many others are so well known they can easily be believed
to be living a life outside the novels, but their eccentricities do not overshadow the stories. Some of
these characters are grotesques; he loved the style of 18th century gothic romance, though it had
already become a bit of a joke.
One character most vividly drawn throughout his novels is London itself. From the coaching inns on
the out-skirts of the city to the lower reaches of the Thames, all aspects of the capital are described
by someone who truly loved London and spent many hours walking its streets.

2. Most of Dickens' major novels were first written in monthly or weekly installments in journals such
as Household Words and later collected into the full novels we are familiar with today. These
installments made the stories cheap and more accessible and the series of cliff-hangers every
month made each new episode more widely anticipated. Part of Dickens' great talent was to
incorporate this episodic writing style but still end up with a coherent novel at the end. The monthly
numbers were illustrated by, amongst others, "Phiz" (a pseudonym for Hablot Browne).
Among his best-known works are Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Nicholas
Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol. David Copperfield is argued by some to be
his best novel — it is certainly his most autobiographical. However, Little Dorrit, a masterpiece of
acerbic satire masquerading as a rags-to-riches story, is on a par with the very best of Jonathan
Swift and should not be overlooked.
Dickens' novels were, among other things, works of social commentary. He was a fierce critic of the
poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Throughout his works, Dickens retained an
empathy for the common man and a skepticism for the fine folk.
Dickens was fascinated by the theatre as an escape from the world, and theatres and theatrical
people appear in Nicholas Nickleby. Dickens himself had a flourishing career as a performer,
reading scenes from his works. He travelled widely in Britain and America on stage tours.
Much of Dickens' writing seems sentimental today, like the death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity
Shop. Even where the leading characters are sentimental, as in Bleak House, the many other
colourful characters and events, the satire and subplots, reward the reader. Another criticism of his
writing is the unrealistic and unlikeliness of his plots. This is true but much of the time he was not
aiming for realism but for entertainment and to recapture the picaresque and gothic novels of his
youth. When he did attempt realism his novels were often unsuccessful and unpopular. The fact
that his own life story of happiness, then poverty, then an unexpected inheritance, and finally
international fame was unlikely shows that unlikely stories are not necessarily unrealistic.
All authors incorporate autobiographical elements in their fiction, but with Dickens this is very
noticeable, particularly as he took pains to cover up what he considered his shameful, lowly past.
The scenes from Bleak House of interminable court cases and legal arguments could only come
from a journalist who has had to report them. Dickens' own family was sent to prison for poverty, a
common theme in many of his books, in particular the Marshalsea in Little Dorrit. Little Nell in The
Old Curiosity Shop is thought to represent Dickens' sister-in-law, Nicholas Nickleby's father is
certainly Dickens' own father and the snobbish nature of Pip from Great Expectations is similar to
the author himself.
At least 180 movies and TV adaptations have been based on Dickens' works.