Dickensblog

TCM alert

The film version of the musical Oliver! airs tonight at midnight (ET) on Turner Classic Movies. More information is here.

The 'Barnaby Rudge' Read: Week 3

Read chapters 4 and 5 and then share your thoughts below! By the way, if you're posting about the book on your own blog -- I know at least one or two people are -- please post links here. We'd love to see them.

A little Dickens for what ails you

Sick in bed? Grab a Dickens novel, says this author. (We'll give her a pass on the "17th century" part, as she has such stellar taste in literature.) Headed for a life of crime? Writing an essay on Fagin should help get you back on the straight and narrow.

I must say I like this trend!

The great Carton competition

So I'm thinking of doing a comparison of the major ATOTC films to decide who's the best Sydney Carton. I know, I still need to review Our Mutual Friend and the 1989 Great Expectations. The Olympics came on and I got behind. But I still want to do this project sometime soon. I've already re-watched the James Wilby version. I also own the Colman and Bogarde versions, so those are coming up next.

Two questions:

1) Do I need to include the Chris Sarandon version? I don't own it, but I could Netflix it. But as I think I've said before, I remember seeing bits of it and not liking it, a long time ago. I have this hazy memory of Sarandon as Darnay (he's the only one of the Cartons I've mentioned who played Darnay as well) making weird faces at Lucie while trying to be romantic, that were not exactly endearing. Still, I think it's generally considered one of the major adaptations, so I have a feeling I ought to include it. Thoughts on this? Has anyone seen it, and if so, what do you think?

(I will say in Sarandon's defense that he was very good in a guest spot on Psych last night!)

2) If anyone would like to do a similar project with Dickens adaptations, let me know -- I'd be happy to let you do a guest post. It might be fun to make an ongoing series out of it, with multiple contributors. You wouldn't necessarily have to compare actors; you could compare the films themselves, or the quality of the writing, or directing, or whatever struck your fancy.

But I will refrain from setting timelines and deadlines for any of this at the moment, because as we've seen, I'm not very good at keeping to them.

For Brits only

If you're a resident of the U.K., you can win a trip for two to Kent that includes tickets to Dickens World! You have until March 12 to enter the drawing.

Don't forget!

For those of you who want to try your hand at Scrabcake's Tale of Two Cities fanart contest, the deadline is almost here! You need to get those pictures in by Sunday, February 28.

It's that time again!

Time to publish your stories! As before, put a link in the comment section. Can't wait to read them all!

(Christy, please go ahead and link to yours again under this post, so we'll have it here with all the others. I shouldn't have jumped the gun and made you post the link early -- I was just so taken with it I couldn't help myself!)

Dickens is unsentimental?

Now there's an original thought! But so says Chinese novelist Yiyun Li in this Q&A:

Q. Many of your child characters, I thought, recalled Charles Dickens’s creations?

A. Dickens is one of my heroes in literature, so I am only flattered by that comparison. I think that he and other 19th-century writers often depicted childhood less sentimentally than many writers do today. I didn’t want bad things to happen to these children, my characters, but at the same time, bad things happen.

Interestingly, Li -- like Dickens -- grew up in very difficult circumstances. I can see how what may look sentimental to some of us today might look bleak and harsh to someone who's lived through bleak and harsh in real life.

The 'Barnaby Rudge' Read: Week 2

Read chapters 2 and 3. Put your comments below!

'A Tale of Two Cities': The video game

Not only is there going to be an ATOTC game, but you can be a part of it! Click here and follow the links to find out how.

ETA: More here.