Dickensblog

Drawing Dickens

I've blogged before about the Dickens exhibit in Yonkers by the Children's Book Illustrator Group. The CBIG blog now has quite a few of those illustrations available online. Just scroll down the homepage to see everything they've got up so far.

Good luck with that!

For its annual Read-A-Thon, Florida State University will be tackling Bleak House. They're going to read the whole thing aloud, expecting it to take about 30 hours.

(I kind of like WCTV's description of the book as "Downton Abbey on steroids.")

Toronto has all the luck

First they get the Great Expectations premiere; now they get a Dickens film festival.

(Of course, we got one too, so I shouldn't complain!)

Of the making of many lists

Dickens has showed up on two more "best of" lists. Much more of this and we'll have to create a "Lists" tag!

• Flavorwire included the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come on its list of "10 of the Creepiest Ghosts in Literature."
• Shortlist has a list of the "30 Most Evil Lines from Books," including this line from Bill Sikes: "Lie down, you stupid brute! Don't you know the devil when he's got a great-coat on?"

Further adventures of the Artful Dodger

Terry Pratchett's Dodger, based on the character from Oliver Twist, came out today. We'll be running a review of it as soon as our guest reviewer has had a chance to read it, so stay tuned!

Special event for English teachers in Britain

Lucinda Dickens Hawksley is hosting a special event in London for English teachers, on December 19. Just over 100 tickets are left!

New letter discovered

An 1858 letter from Dickens to his solicitor, making arrangements related to his and Catherine's separation, was found in an old Bible in Blockley, England. Naturally, the papers chose to sensationalize it as being about "his desperation to be rid of his wife," though in fact it conveys no such message.

7 Quick Takes Friday

• A conference called "Tales of One City: Charles Dickens and London" will be held October 6 at Chancellor's Hall, Senate House, in London. Go here for details.
• Penguin is putting out a series ("inspired by typography") called Penguin Drop Caps, featuring new editions of classic novels, and Great Expectations is included. Details and photos are available here.
• Simon Callow, currently performing his one-man show The Mystery of Charles Dickens in London, opines that Dickens would likely have been diagnosed as bipolar, were he alive today. As I've hinted before, I tend to think there may be something in that idea.
• Speaking of Callow's show, the Evening Standard reviews it here.
• Eugene Wrayburn makes Huffington Post's list of snarky literary characters to enjoy; blogger Dave Astor describes him as "nicer than he initially seems." 
• The collection of creatively titled fake books that Dickens designed and kept in his library has been recreated for the New York Public Library's new Dickens exhibition.
• Selina Scott of Malton, England, is trying to raise £30,000 to help the town buy an inscribed first edition of A Christmas Carol. (You may recall that Scrooge's counting house is said to have been based on a building in Malton.) Best wishes to her!

Music for Dickens

This year's Music@Malling Festival, to be held in West Malling, Kent, this weekend, will honor Dickens by playing some of his favorite composers. Go here to read all about it!

Getting ready for 'Edwin Drood'

In this video from Roundabout Theatre Company, the writer/composer, artistic director, cast members, and others talk about the upcoming Broadway production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. We also get to see glimpses of the costume and set designs.