Dickensblog

A Dickensian Halloween

Anne Mellar argues that Halloween is just as Dickensian a holiday as Christmas is!

Charles Dickens, morning person

Did you know Dickens was generally all through with his workday by 2 p.m.? I didn't! It's hard for me to imagine functioning that way -- almost the only thing I find more incomprehensible than a person who has lots of energy, is a person who has lots of energy in the morning.

Biography roundup

• Claire Tomalin's biography has been reviewed by the Winnipeg Free Press, the Daily Mail, the San Francisco Chronicle, TIME, the Independent, and the Spectator.
• Tomalin has been interviewed by Portsmouth News, BBC News, and The Arts Desk.
• The Spectator has links to even more reviews and interviews, and The Arts Desk has a short excerpt.
• Tomalin's biography and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's biography got joint reviews in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Telegraph, the Atlantic, and the Guardian.
• Other new books about Dickens include the travel book Charles Dickens at Home and the novel Charles Dickens and the Night Visitors by David James.

Another review of the Morgan exhibit

This is a very warm and enthusiastic review from Dickens fan Bonnie Squires (who shares my fondness for A Tale of Two Cities!).

Joe Gargery weighs in

Jason Flemyng talks a little about playing Joe in the Great Expectations feature film. It seems he's excited about taking his kids to see it, so apparently all that gothic stuff we've been hearing about isn't too horrific. (Unless his kids are truly brave little soldiers.)

New museum exhibit

London's National Portrait Gallery has a comprehensive new exhibit, Charles Dickens: Life & Legacy, which includes "portraits of the author, his family and influential contemporaries" as well as depictions of his characters.

On playing Miss Havisham

Gillian Anderson talks a little about the experience in this interview.

Travels with Dickens

The Atlantic is rerunning a piece from 1870 by George Putnam, Dickens's secretary during his first U.S. tour. Putnam shares fond memories of both Charles and Catherine Dickens. A couple of quotes:

A market-woman near by, seeing the rush, came up close to the windows, but she could not make out what all the excitement was about, and calling to a friend who was standing at the window near me, she loudly asked, "What's the matter? What is it all about, say, John, what is it?" "Why," answered the man, looking over his shoulder, "they've got Boz here !" "Got Boz!" said she; "what's Boz? what do you mean?" "Why," said the man, "it's Dickens. They've got him in here!" "Well, what has he been doing?" said she. "He ain't been doing nothing," answered the man. "He writes books." "O," said the woman, indignantly, "is that all? what do they make such a row about that for, I should like to know!"

***

All that was praiseworthy in our people and their institutions he praised without stint; but he would not indorse any wrong, especially that of slavery.

Dickens onstage

A few items of theatrical news from around the world:

• Reviews of Simon Callow's Dr. Marigold and Mr. Chops are here, here, and here. Interviews with Callow are here and here.
• Speaking of Callow, Whatsonstage.com has a special members-only offer for his upcoming Christmas Carol.
• Here's an article about the Young Shakespeare Players' 10-hour production of Our Mutual Friend in Madison, Wisconsin. Dickensblog reader David gives his review here.
• Charles Dickens Ghost Stories, a play based on several short stories, is currently running in Arvada, Colorado.
• The Haunted Bride, based on a Dickens short story, is coming to Hartlepool, England.
• The full five-hour version of Nicholas Nickleby recently played in Newcastle, England. Another production is currently running in Toronto, Canada.
• Here's an interview with the author of Scrooge 2070: The Reboot, a new musical that will open next month in Palatine, Illinois.
• The musical version of A Tale of Two Cities is currently running in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A nonmusical version recently had a run in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England; a review with very spoilery remarks and pictures is here.
• Auditions are underway for a production of Barnaby Rudge in Southsea, England.
• Finally, Stageplays.com is offering 10 percent off the script of The Haunting, a play based on Dickens's ghost stories, until Monday night.

The power of suggestion

Researchers report in Poetics Today, "Celebrated writers such as Charles Dickens and George Eliot described characters' faces vividly without going into detail about their features. . . . Experts in literature, psychology, neurology and music suggested that vividness can be created not only by describing individual features, such as the eyes, nose or chin, but by the strength of readers' feelings about how a person is depicted."

There's a lot of truth in that, I think. Think of some of your favorite Dickens characters; consider what each of them looks like. Then think about this: How much of each image came from illustrators or actors, how much from your own mind, and how much from Dickens's actual words?