The deep remembrance of the sense I had of being utterly neglected and hopeless, of the shame I felt in my position; of the misery it was to my young heart....cannot be written. My whole nature was so penetrated with grief and humiliation that even now, famous and caressed and happy, I often forget in my dreams that I have a dear wife and children; even that I am a man; and wander desolately back to that time in my life.
--Charles Dickens (1812-1870), in his autobiography. His father had been jailed for debt and at age 12 the boy was sent to work for 12 hours a day in a rat-infested shoe-polish factory. When the father inherited enough money to pay his debt, he moved the rest of the family into a house and left Charles to work.
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