Posted on 02/05/2012 1:58:43 PM PST by Borges
Bicentenary of English novelist's birth will be marked by fans around the world, including by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Queen Elizabeth is throwing a star-studded party for him at Buckingham Palace, and in Buenos Aires, leading cultural figures will gather in an old orphanage to read from his works.
Charles Dickens may have died in 1870, but legions of fans around the world unite on Tuesday and beyond to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of a titan of English fiction.
In one sense, the story of the author of familiar classics like A Christmas Carol, Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities is thoroughly modern.
The journey from childhood poverty that deeply influenced the work and thinking of Dickens to international renown for his novels, bears comparison to that of J.K. Rowling, dubbed the world's first billionaire author.
Commercially, his books eclipse Harry Potter or any other modern-day publishing phenomenon - some estimates say A Tale of Two Cities is the best-selling novel of all time at more than 200 million copies.
Stories featuring household names such as Samuel Pickwick, the orphan Oliver Twist and miser Ebenezer Scrooge remain in print and live on in hundreds of films, television series and plays, and there is no sign of the adaptations letting up.
Director Mike Newell is working on the highest-profile new screen version of Dickens's work, with Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes starring in Great Expectations.
The appeal, say experts, is that as well as gripping stories, Dickens's themes remain relevant today.
"He surprises you constantly, shocks you constantly, moves you, but for me the flame of anger about inequity and poverty and cruelty, that's what endures for me," said Sarah Phelps, who wrote a TV version of Great Expectations for the BBC.
"Any writer wants their work to live on," she told Reuters.
"I think he would be pleased that what he felt strongly about then, people still do now."
Dickens's early experiences labouring as a child in a factory while his father sat in prison for unpaid debts fuelled his ambition and inspired some of his most famous characters and settings, probably including Fagin in Oliver Twist.
His sense of anger at the social injustice of Victorian Britain runs through his work and helps explain his appeal to later generations.
"He was making the world want to read about the state of the British under-class," TV writer Paul Abbott told the BBC.
Dickens's first short story appeared in 1833, around the time he became a parliamentary reporter in London.
His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, was serialized in 1836 and became a success, and was followed by Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.
Dickens travelled to the United States in 1842 and 1867 on reading tours, and in between produced some of his most acclaimed books - Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations.
He carried with him the whiff of scandal when, in his mid-40s, he met teenager Ellen Ternan, and their relationship led to his separation from Catherine, his wife and their 10 children.
The author died at his home near Rochester in Kent in 1870, age 58, and was buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.
Thousands of people visited his open grave to pay their respects and throw flowers before it was closed.
On Tuesday, the bicentenary of his birth, Britain's heir-to-the-throne, Prince Charles, will visit the Charles Dickens Museum in London, where the author lived from 1837 to 1839 and wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.
The prince will go on to Westminster Abbey to attend a ceremony and lay a wreath on Dickens's grave, the centrepiece of the Feb. 7 anniversary events that spread from Australia to Argentina, and Iraq to Russia.
The Abbey event also marks the largest gathering of the novelist's descendants, with over 200 family members attending, including his great-great-grandson Mark Dickens.
"This bicentenary should help renew our commitment to improving the lot of the disadvantaged of our own day," said the Dean of Westminster, John Hall.
Another favorite of mine is O’Henry. Just delightful.
This isn’t a schooling thread, but homeschooling parents may find this article interesting. Perhaps they will want to introduce his work to their children. Charles Dickins wrote compelling books which are in many ways still relevent.
Nicholas Nickleby used to be one of my three or four favorite books. I think I read it four times. Now I prefer A Tale of Two Cities. Last time I read it I listened to it. Wonderful. But the emphasis on his being the author of the downtrodden overlooks his finding of the true bravery and honor of people. It was the best of times it was the worst of times. ...... Tis a far far better thing I do than I have ever done.
If interested in his works, be sure to get the unabridged versions of his writing.
Absolutely!
Over the years, I’ve read most of his novels, some of them many times. And when I was doing a long commute to NYC, I got some of them on CDs in MP3 format, and listened to them in the car and on the train.
Also Jane Austen and Arthur Conan Doyle. Great listening when you have the time.
It’s his accurate portrayal of human nature and human’s character that make him so loved.
Sadly, two things today’s academia don’t even believe in.
Tale of Two Cities is my favorite book. In fact that’s where the carton came from in my freeper name.
Scrooge relied on government (prisons and workhouses) to deal with social problems. The work is a plea for private charity.
Scrooge relied on government (prisons and workhouses) to deal with social problems. The work encourages private charity.
I came back to it after learning that it was the most alchemical of Dicken’s works. Gold, white, red. But that aside, the story is amazing. I think I’ll listen to it again.
I think I’ll read it again.
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Dickens visited John Quincy Adams on the floor of the house where Adams served after his presidency.
He was able to portray true nobility of people with good character and true nastiness of bad people. Madame DeFarge, for instance v. Nicholas Nickleby.
One of my favorite Dickenisms is his description in, I believe, Little Dorrit of a prim dowager matron whose formidable bosom was likened to a dreadnought battleship. She never walked across a room, she "tacked" or "sailed" or otherwise maneuvered nautically, with intimidating results.
I always thought Dickens was a bit of a socialist.
Don’t like him, he sneers at his own characters. Also, he was paid by the word and it shows.
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