Charles Dickens Birthday

My Charles Dickens Project

This week saw the 200^th anniversary of Charles Dickens birth and I for one am pleased with the positive response from the British public. 

I am a recent fan of Dickens. For a project that I undertook in the first year of University, I investigated Dickens’s life to discover what made him a successful writer. I took part in a Dickens tour of London and visited one of his London houses. I also read Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. 

What stands out about Dickens’s work to me is that he created such memorable characters. Even those who haven’t read his stories can conjure images of Oliver, Miss Havisham and Scrooge. The books were originally part works in newspapers and families would gather around the fire to hear what happened to their favourite characters. It was similar to how television programmes nowadays can appeal to several generations of the same family.

I was intrigued to read Claire Tomalin’s Dickens biography because it offered an insight into Dickens’s personal life, for that purpose it is worth a read, but I was disappointed to find that she described in great detail what happens in most of the books. Personally, I think these brilliant novels should be savoured, I am allowing myself one a year so I always have at least one literary masterpiece to look forward to. This year it is Hard Times. 

 Dickens said….

“Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.” 

“We need never be ashamed of our tears.”  

“I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.” 

“Credit is a system whereby a person who can't pay gets another person who can't pay to guarantee that he can pay.”