Dickensblog

Charles Dickens, rapper?

Okay, it's not a comparison I would have thought of. But Dana Wilson, the writer who came up with it, really, really knows and loves his Dickens (despite one mistake when he's talking about the plot of Great Expectations). His enthusiasm is a grand and glorious thing to see. By the time you've read this:

Reading Charles Dickens is a gambol, a romp, a stately measured tread, an indignant stamp, an obsequious crawling, an orchestrated dance, a stealthy hushed tiptoe; reading Dickens is a mad dash to the finish line, followed by a deliberate, measured pace (the re-reading) to enjoy the lushness of the surroundings; Dickens, to the modern reader’s sensibilities may be no walk in the park, but Dickens always moves the reader and the plot forward.

. . . you're actually almost ready for this:

Dickens imprints his work on the reader’s consciousness the way the insistent beat of rap insinuates itself into the hearer’s state of being. I compare Dickens to rap because I believe that one is just as relevant as the other to young people in this modern, ‘sophisticated’ day and age. Both present mighty anthems of the poor and the dispossessed, both deal with the results of life in inner cities and megalopolises and both have lessons for the young and unsophisticated.

When he puts it that way -- maybe he's got a point!

Happy birthday, Elizabeth Gaskell

Today is the 200th birthday of the author of North and South, Wives and Daughters, Cranford, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, and many more great Victorian works. A celebration is going on around the blogosphere -- you can find a comprehensive list of links, plus a chance to win one of her audiobooks, at Jane Austen Today -- and although I didn't get signed up to participate in that, I thought Gaskell's bicentennial merited at least a brief mention here.

Why? Not just because she happens to share a birthday with your Dickensblogger (although it's nice to hear of another famous person who shares my birthday besides Jerry Lee Lewis and Madeline Kahn, whose names are always the first to come up). But also because of her sometimes contentious yet generally profitable relationship with Charles Dickens, who happened to be one of her editors. He published her work in Household Words, co-wrote works with her and other authors, commissioned her to write more Cranford stories . . . and, I'm afraid, made a rather ungentlemanly remark about her in a fit of editorial exasperation.

Still, be that as it may, I'm sure he would be near the head of the line to pay tribute to her on this momentous occasion. Let us do so in his name.

Let's donate some Dickens!

Today I received an Amazon gift card for $11.17, my first payment from Amazon Associates of the fees collected from your purchases through this site. Thanks, guys!

I said a long time ago that I'd donate all Amazon fees to the Somaly Mam Foundation -- but that was before I knew they'd come in the form of gift cards, which are not that easy to donate. Nor does the foundation need any books or anything else I could get from Amazon. They're set up for monetary donations.

So here's what we'll do instead. Signet Classics has a line of nice, inexpensive Dickens paperbacks available at Amazon. I'll use the card to buy two of these, which will go to Books for America, a local organization that gives books to schools, shelters, prisons, and health-care facilities.

I want you to help me pick the books by voting in the poll at right, which lists all the books that Signet has available. You may vote for up to two books, and the top two vote-getters will be the ones donated. You have until this Saturday night, October 3, to vote!

(And let me put in a plug for Somaly Mam anyway -- if you happen to have some spare cash and are looking to donate it somewhere, her group is doing great work saving people from human trafficking.)

More 'Christmas Carol' release details

MovieWeb has more information about prices, extras, and cover art for the DVD and Blu-ray.

Dickens on eBay and Etsy

Some fun Dickens-related items have been popping up. Here's a set of cigarette cards from 1912 featuring Dickens characters -- pricey, but the seller does have the "Make Offer" option. And this seller has taken similar cigarette cards and made quilt squares out of them! (Why someone might want Squeers on his or her quilt, I'm not sure, but some of the others might be nice to have.) Over at Etsy, they have a number of creative things, including some beautiful drawings on pages from Dickens books.

And if you haven't yet seen Nina's lovely new Dickensian keychain from Etsy, head over to Wickfield and take a look!

Have you seen or bought any cool Dickensian art or collectibles lately?

The 'Barnaby Rudge' Read: Week 33

"'As truly as the loadstone draws iron towards it, so he, lying at the bottom of his grave, could draw me near him when he would."

Mr. Haredale had his prisoner put into Newgate, where he had a momentous meeting with Barnaby. And try as I might, I could not help hearing Darth Vader's voice in my head. This week, read chapters 63 and 64.

7 Quick Takes Friday

• Twist headed for Broadway? Could be . . .
• Singer/songwriter Morrissey likes Dickens "because he was a terribly gloomy character, embittered, and quite depressed." Um, okay.
• Dickens makes another best-of list. This time it's Dick Datchery landing on a "Best Disguises" list -- even though we don't know for certain that he was wearing a disguise!
• Apparently Dickens was quite sarcastic about the pre-Raphaelites -- and a little paranoid (as was already hinted in Pictures from Italy) about Catholicism. Interesting, coming from the author of Barnaby Rudge.
• Over the Christmas holidays, you can get a good deal on a stay at a London hotel that was once Dickens's dwelling.
• Here's another in our ongoing list of teachers who made Dickens exciting. A Dickensblog Order of Merit goes to the unnamed teacher whose "spirited and dramatic reading of 'Oliver Twist'" changed a dyslexic student's life.
• And while we're at it, how about another one, for the teacher who "said that anyone who voluntarily read Charles Dickens in the eighth grade was going to one day be a college professor"? (Too bad I didn't get to that point till the ninth grade!)

Dickens vs. Austen: Smackdown!

Oh dear. Columnist Dawn Bucket has written some very nice things about Charles Dickens . . . but in the process, she's gone and maligned Jane Austen.

"I can’t understand anyone who doesn’t like Charles Dickens," Bucket writes. "I can’t really appreciate anyone who is hooked on Jane Austen, a major dispute that took place with an old and trusted friend last week. . . .

"Give me Dickens’ heroes and all his slimy villains. Give me his twisted plots, his downtrodden orphans, his rags-to-riches and glorious revengeful tale-enders rather than Jane Austen’s quest to marry off every unattractive girl on the English countryside."

As a dedicated Dickensian, I'm always pleased to see him praised, but as an Austen fan, I'm appalled at such a cavalier dismissal. There's no need to run her down just to give him a boost.

But all kinds of people seem to want to pit the two against each other lately. Here's columnist Joe Klein, after some of his readers called him on the carpet for claiming that women are better at characterization and men better at plotting (scroll down to the comments section):

". . . as for my observation above, about the difference between men and women writers, it's obviously not true of every man and every woman writer. it's just an observation--and not even a particularly unique one: The old Jane Austin v. Charles Dickens debate and all that."

We may pass over the "Austin" (though not without a slight shudder), but -- debate? What debate would that be? If he's trying to indicate that Austen was proof of his thesis that women authors write better characters, then I can only say: columnist FAIL. It's common knowledge that one of the things Dickens was best at, and most celebrated for, was -- all together now -- characterization. Anyway, as far as Dickens and Austen are concerned, I'm not aware that there's any major ongoing "debate" over who was better at which aspect of writing.

Come on, people. There's no need for all this rivalry. Why can't we admit that they're both great writers *cough*eventhoughDickensisthegreatestnovelistofalltime*cough* and let it go at that?

Off with his head!

This is gruesome, folks! It seems there's a statue of Dickens that had its head taken off. Seriously, it had its head taken off! Apparently someone took it for a souvenir. What kind of sick mind would you have to have to want Dickens's head for a souvenir??

I couldn't help but note, though, that this outrage took place in -- wait for it -- Sydney.

If that's not a Dickensidence, I don't know what is.

Charles Dickens, soap writer

Dr. Holly Furneaux of the University of Leicester will deliver a special lecture titled "Serial Readers: Dickens and the Victorian Soap Opera" on October 5. The event will also include a costumed reading and a viewing of some of Dickens's manuscripts and possessions. Click here for more information.