Dickensblog

Buy a book, help a good cause

We're selling a brand-new copy of Gary Colledge's book God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author. I'm currently reading this book, as I mentioned the other day, and recommend it highly. Here's your chance to get it before the official release date of June 1!

The price is $10 (on Amazon it's going for over $13) and the money will go to the charity of your choice from our Dickens Bicentennial Fundraiser list of charities. If you want the book, leave a comment in the comments section or e-mail me at gdalfonzo AT verizon DOT net. First one to contact me gets it. I'll then get in touch with you to arrange the payment. And I'll pay for shipping.

Thanks to Ruth Anderson of Booktalk & More for donating this book to our fundraiser!

(Image copyright Brazos Press)

Dickens-thon

Rapid City, South Dakota, is celebrating the bicentennial with a marathon Dickens reading!

Update: Here's another interesting article about this.

A Dickens dollhouse

How adorable is this!? Eighty-two-year-old Vena Bartlett created a little dollhouse just for Dickens in honor of his 200th birthday.

"I feel like Charles is my friend now," she says.

I'm sure it would be mutual.

(Image courtesy of Portsmouth News)

Found the stamps!

There are pictures and everything!

I think they forgot something

BBC News announced the creation of six new Oliver Twist stamps.

With no pictures of the stamps.

Harrumph.

Color me impressed

A reading group in Ulster is celebrating the Dickens bicentennial -- a reading group of 12 to 14 year olds! Good for them!

7 Quick Takes Friday

• Naxos is releasing all 16 of Dickens's major novels as audiobooks, in both abridged and unabridged versions, for the bicentennial. Visit their page for more information and to download their Dickens podcasts. And The Dabbler blog is exclusively serializing their abridged version of The Pickwick Papers.
• Actor Stephen Fry gave away free copies of A Tale of Two Cities on the set of his new film for World Book Night, earlier this week.
• Speaking of free books, the library system in Sheffield, England, is giving away 1500 free copies of Oliver Twist in honor of the bicentennial. Very nice, but since it's Sheffield, shouldn't it be David Copperfield instead? (You know, "Confusion to Brooks of Sheffield!")
• And speaking of Oliver Twist, Robin Stone of the Globe and Mail tells a terrific story about how she got both herself and her nine-year-old son hooked on the children's edition of that book. Kudos to both of them!
• Here's an interesting tale about why Dickens gave away his personal copy of David Copperfield.
• Rabbit Run Theater in Madison, Ohio, is going to be doing three different Dickens plays this summer and fall, and the nearby Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake is offering special packages that include overnight stays and tickets to see the performances. Read all about it here.
• Filming has started on The Invisible Woman. Can't say I'm too thrilled about seeing Dickens get the National Enquirer treatment, which is what I'm afraid this is going to be. In other movie news, the new independent film Nancy, Please tells the story of a graduate student who gets into a violent conflict with his old roommate over, of all things, a copy of Little Dorrit. Here's an interview with the director.

7 Quick Takes Friday

• A "Dickens' Legacy" conference will be held tomorrow at Cambridge University.
• Simon Callow has come to terms with the fact that Shakespeare, not Dickens, will be "the chosen poster boy for British culture" during the London Olympics. (I, however, have not.)
• Portsmouth is doing special "Discover Dickens" tours in honor of the bicentennial.
• An art show in New Zealand is showing watercolors inspired by Dickens, by the artist Paul Braddon.
• Christopher Gellert, in the Washington Square News, dares to suggest that "in his day, [Dickens] might have been considered as campy as Stephanie Meyer." BITE YOUR TONGUE, SIR.
• In a more palatable comparison, the New Yorker's Maria Tatar examines the tradition of child deaths in literature, from Dickens to Stowe to The Hunger Games.
• The Gravesend Messenger reports on the new Charles Dickens Ale, created by The Leather Bottle pub that was featured in The Pickwick Papers.

More new birthday editions

Overlook Press is bringing out new facsimile editions of the 1937 Nonesuch Press editions of Dickens, reports the LA Times. Six had already been published before this, and three more have just joined them. They cost a pretty penny, but they do look beautiful!

Dickens festival at Gad's Hill

The Gravesend Reporter has the details.