Dickensblog

Character contest

Thanks to Rachel for finding this competition at The Book Depository. Describe your favorite Dickens character in 140 characters or less, and you could win 30 Oxford World Classics!

Name that character

The New Yorker reviews the Morgan exhibit, ending with this:

". . . The author wrote in an initialed note to Marcus Stone, the illustrator of 'Our Mutual Friend,' about a certain character’s appearance: 'A weird sharpness not without beauty, is the thing I want.'"

They don't say who the character is, but I remember, from seeing the exhibit. Can you guess who it is? First person to get it right wins two Dickens postcards from the Morgan gift shop.

Reminder

Charity is still looking for writers for the Dickens bicentennial edition of her online magazine. So far she's only got Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities covered. If you're interested in writing about any other Dickens books, adaptations, or related topics, please contact her at femnista at charitysplace dot com.

Charles Dickens, clairvoyant?

The Guardian has a weird tale of how Dickens published a ghost story remarkably similar to one that was about to be published in another magazine, without having seen it.

PBS announces airdates for Dickens productions

The BBC productions of Great Expectations and The Mystery of Edwin Drood will reach this side of the pond in April. See the details here.

7 Quick Takes Friday

• The Northampton Chronicle and Echo has a piece about Holdenby House, used for Satis House in the upcoming Great Expectations miniseries.
• A press release from the BBC about upcoming programs touches on Great Expectations, spoof series Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, and various Dickensian documentaries.
• At SummitDaily.com, Patrick Williams points out, "Diligent reading of Dickens is a far better guarantee of high verbal SAT and GRE scores than all the drilling for vocabulary tests or Kaplan prep books -- take note, all students."
• BBC News talked to the curators of new Dickens exhibits at the Museum of London and the British Library.
• The Kansas City Star interviewed Andrea Warren, author of Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London.
• This article about the bicentennial mentions that the new radio adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit is a "reworking" set in Mumbai, India.
• Speaking of Martin Chuzzlewit, which I'm still reading . . . you guys didn't tell me it had a character named Pip in it! Imagine my delight when I got to the line "Pip's our mutual friend." What a quintessentially Dickensian sentence (even if Dickens himself had no inkling of it at the time)!

The David Copperfield tour

The Guardian's latest audio walking tour is based on David Copperfield. It includes the street where David lodged with Mrs. Crupp, and the pub where he had a glass of ale to celebrate his birthday.

TCM's tribute

Watch the video below to learn about TCM's bicentennial tribute to Dickens in December. Dickens films will be airing on the channel every Monday night, all month long. Particularly exciting is the TCM premiere of the hard-to-find Mystery of Edwin Drood from 1935! My thoughts on that excellent version are here and here. Fire up the DVR, because you won't want to miss this.

 

Another 'Great Expectaions' photo

 

This one's from the Daily Mail, which also has all the pictures from yesterday in a format that's easier to view.

More BBC 'Great Expectations' still photos

Many thanks to commenter "K," who just sent a link to several more cast photos! Take a look here. Those pictured include Pip and Estella (both as children and as adults), Miss Havisham again, Jaggers, Magwitch, and Compeyson.

My first impression is that they're going for a desiccated look for the whole cast, not just for Miss Havisham. Even Estella, instead of being simply a knockout, looks eerily like a young Miss Havisham in training. See what you think . . .