2012 is the Bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens and all over the world people are celebrating his life and work with events and activities to commemorate this very special anniversary. Although a writer from the Victorian era, Dickens’s work transcends his time, language and culture. He remains a massive contemporary influence throughout the world and his writings continue to inspire film, TV, art, literature, artists and academia. The BBC have kicked off the year with brilliant adaptations of Great Expectations (wasn’t Ray Winstone great?) and the Mystery of Edwin Drood. There are celebrations in the USA and there is even a Dickens Festival in the Philippines. Closest to home for those of us in Glossop is the Discover the World of Dickens at Stockport Central Library from 1st - 29th February.
If you want to know more about this amazing chap then Claire Tomalin paints an unforgettable portrait of Dickens, capturing brilliantly the complex character of this great genius – Charles Dickens: A Life – this may whet your appetite:
Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: a demoniacally hard-working journalist, the father of ten children, a tireless walker and traveller, a supported of liberal social causes, but most of all a great novelist – the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination: the Artful Dodger, Mr Pickwick, Pip, David Copperfield, Little Nell, and many more.
At the age of 12 he was sent to work in a blacking factory by his affectionate but feckless parents. From these uncompromising beginnings, he rose to scale all the social and literary heights, entirely through is own efforts. When he died, the world mourned, and he was buried – against his wishes – in Westminster Abbey.
Yet the brilliance concealed a divided character: a republican, he disliked America; sentimental about the family in his writings, he took up passionately with a young actress; usually generous, he cut off his impecunious children.
And if you just fancy reading one of his classics then here’s a selection to remind you:
Pickwick Papers Oliver Twist Great Expectations Nicholas Nickleby Barnaby Rudge Old Curiosity Shop
Martin Chuzzlewit David Copperfield Hard Times Little Dorrit Tale of Two Cities Old Curiosity Shop
“Oh Sairey, Sairey, little do we know what lays afore us” - extract from Little Dorrit (not Bay Tree Books on a Monday morning)