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Origin This phrase has been taken from the famous opening paragraph of Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities. The novel opens with, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, …” (Para. 1, Line, 1). This passage suggests an age of radical opposites taking place across the English Channel, in France and the United Kingdom respectively. It tells a story of contrasts and comparisons between London and Paris during the...

To hear Philip Palmer, the literary curator at the Morgan Library & Museum tell it, the story behind the writing of "A Christmas Carol" sounds, well, like something out of Charles Dickens. It is October 1843 and Dickens’ debts are mounting. The 31-year-old author has moved his growing family into a new home in London, a bigger house with more servants. His father and his brothers keep taking out loans using his famous name. He is forced to take out ads in newspapers warning creditors not to loan his father any more money. By 1843, Dickens was already known for...

My grandfather, who was born when Charles Dickens was still alive and writing, left me his books, including copies of David Copperfield, Bleak House and Barnaby Rudge, which is good because at no point in either grade school or high school did Dickens appear on any reading list. Dickens was – and still is – one of the most famous novelists ever, but like Mark Twain and Tolstoy, I have no sense whatever that he's being read. Back at the end of World War Two, when David Lean was a young director presented with Dickens' Great Expectations as his next...

The BBC’s modern reworking of Great Expectations has suffered a ratings flop, losing nearly 3 million viewers since the first episode aired last month. Steven Knight’s adaptation, which stars Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham and Fionn Whitehead as Pip, has been mired in controversy over accusations of wokery and the inclusion of opium addiction and sadomasochism. Episode one pulled in 4.4 million viewers, reaching a peak of 5.5 million, but 1.8 million had switched off by episode two. Last week’s penultimate episode only managed to draw in 1.5 million, some 2.9 million down on the first instalment.

She has won the good opinion of countless readers with her sparklingly witty prose. And now – in something of a snub to the Bard – Jane Austen has been voted the greatest British author of all time. The Georgian-era novelist beat Shakespeare to take top spot, with 44 per cent of the vote.

When Charles Dickens died of an apparent stroke on June 9, 1870, the news was not cabled to the United States until later that night. Many New Yorkers did not learn about the British novelist’s death until the morning of June 11, when it was splashed across the front page of The Times. No writer of the age was more beloved than Dickens. Just as people had once clamored for the next installment of his serialized novels, they now sought new details about his life and death at 58. For months, the newspaper brimmed with stories about Dickens’s final hours,...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Charles Dickens. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Charles Dickens was considered one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era. His stories championed the good of men in their actions toward their children and those who weren't as fortunate to become productive. A Christmas Carol is universally known as the best story on Christmas, with several hundred adaptations worldwide. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain...

Bah Humbug. Bah Ha-Ha. Bah Horror. When it comes to Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol,” how do you like your Scrooge served? Are you partial to the dramatic British version starring Alastair Sim, which has brought a tear to many a viewer’s eyes? Or maybe you prefer your Scrooge spiked with a dose of merry mischief like Bill Murray delivers in “Scrooged.” “A Christmas Carol” performed by puppets never fails to charm, as evidenced by the huge popularity of “The Muppet Christmas Carol.” It’s hard to resist the scenery-chewing Scrooges of George C. Scott and Patrick Stewart in their respective...

I shared my review of The Man Who Invented Christmas last week (I liked it.) In addition to screening the film, which was based off a book by author Les Standiford, Townhall also had the chance to sit down in a roundtable discussion with actor Dan Stevens and Director Bharat Nalluri at last weekend's premiere in New York City.Stevens, famous for lighting up the screen both in Downton Abbey and Beauty and the Beast, is equally charming and entertaining as Charles Dickens. In our discussion, he explained the true story of how the author, down on his luck after three...

Cold Case: Bankruptcy Reopened More Than 80 Years Later (Can only be linked to)

June 9, 1870. Charles Dickens sat writing at his desk. He had been laboring more than was his custom on his latest book. Though the story was progressing well, Mr. Dickens was not feeling well. His left hand clawed at the air. His left foot dragged on the ground. And though he had recently retired from public performances with a final reading from Pickwick, his pen scarcely ceased its scratching. A profound and perplexing mystery was unfolding beneath that pen and Mr. Dickens’ knew it well. If only his readers might know it as well.It had been five years...

...Although [Sylvester Stallone has] been called a Republican, for supporting John McCain's 2008 presidential run, Stallone says he's not a member of the GOP. "May the best fighter win," he said. "I don't think you can be totally one-sided forever. Then you close your mind to all sorts of possibilities. It's just, 'Who comes along better at that time for what the planet is going through?' Right now, it's pretty confusing on every side." What does he think of the Republican frontrunner? "I love Donald Trump," he said. "He's a great Dickensian character. You know what I mean? There are...

Principal photography has started on the six-part adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic War And Peace which is being made by BBC Cymru Wales in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton are already aboard to star, with new additions to the cast including Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson, Brian Cox and Ken Stott. The epic drama is written by House Of Cards and Bridget Jones‘ Andrew Davies. Anderson was nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn in his 2007 adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House.

Have you ever lied about reading a book? Maybe you didn’t want to seem stupid in front of someone you respected. Maybe you rationalized it by reasoning that you had a familiarity with the book, or knew who the author was, or what the story was about, or had glanced at its Wikipedia page. Or maybe you had tried to read the book, even bought it and set it by your bed for months unopened, hoping that it would impart what was in it merely via proximity (if that worked, please email me).

Apparently Rachel Carson no longer provides enough inspiration to environmentalists. They are now going back to find environmental messages written long before the first Earth Day was commemorated. In Charles Dickens’ novels, “Cities are ugly and dangerous and the country is pastoral and idyllic,” Troy Boone of the University of Pittsburgh pointed out in a panel on Dickens and the Environment at the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) annual meeting in Chicago this year. “Dickens himself asks us to think of him as a social novelist,” Boone noted. Sophie Christman-Lavin of the State University of New York at Stony Brook offered...

Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.” “Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.” “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

There is probably no figure more emblematic of the greedy, penny-pinching capitalist than Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Dickens is often seen as the chronicler of the injustices of the Industrial Revolution, including businessmens’ cavalier attitude toward the welfare of their employees. Yet, Scrooge, like many of Dickens’ other archetypal characters, was a product of an earlier era, and in that context merits some defense. By the tale’s account, Scrooge was honest and frugal—perhaps excessively so. But there’s something missing from Dickens’ picture. The Scrooges of the world were the stewards of the scarce capital—the seed corn...

The earliest surviving Charles Dickens film has been found in the BFI's archive after sitting on a shelf for more than 50 years.The Death of Poor Joe, a one minute-long silent film based on an episode in Dickens' novel 'Bleak House', was filmed in Brighton in 1901. It is thought to be the work of the pioneering Brighton filmmaker G.A. Smith, a view that is backed up by the his wife's appearance in it. Smith was married to the stage actress Laura Bayley, who appeared in many of his films and plays the role of the young boy 'Jo' in...

Today, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the English writer, Charles Dickens. His best known work, is his 1843 novel, "A Christmas Carol", which featured a greedy, selfish, and heartless businessman, Ebenezer Scrooge. The businessman was visited by three ghosts, from the past, present, and future, who forced him to reconsider his selfish ways. In the 1980s, the satirical Mad Magazine featured caricatures of Republican politicians praising Scrooge as a hard working businessman who created jobs for the Victorian economy. He refused to give people time off to spend Christmas with their families, which made him a...

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...