Dickensblog

Now that's my kind of haunted house

A literary haunted house in Takoma Park, Md., includes skits from A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations.

Worst headline ever

Don't have heart failure (like I almost did) -- this story is only about a merger between two publishers. But what kind of sadist would phrase it like that??

Drinking with Micawber

At a recent London celebration of gin in literature (because why not?), punch inspired by Mr. Micawber was served. Richard Godwin provides a lively writeup of the evening in the London Evening Standard.

Keeping up with the Dickenses

A few news items about the Dickens family:

• Gerald Dickens visited Ye Olde Bulls Head Inn in Beaumaris, where his great-great-grandfather once gave the food a scathing review. Fortunately, the current innkeeper didn't seem inclined toward revenge!
• Lucinda Dickens Hawksley gave a well-received speech before a performance of Great Expectations at Darlington Civic Theatre.
• And Sir John Everett Millais's portrait of Kate Perugini, Dickens's daughter, will be auctioned off at Sotheby's next month.

Two actor interviews

In the New York Times, Stephanie J. Block talks about being a woman playing a woman playing a man in Broadway's The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

(Speaking of Drood, I was unable to make the trip to see it this weekend as planned. I hope to reschedule for sometime soon.)

And at Express.co.uk, Adrian Dunbar talks about playing Ralph in the new BBC update of Nicholas Nickleby.

Getting literary in Leicester

The annual Literary Leicester Festival, at England's University of Leicester, will include several Dickens-related events this year. Among them is a roundtable discussion of the online reading group, sponsored by Dickens Journals Online, that's been doing a readthrough of A Tale of Two Cities this year.

TCM alert

The 1922 silent film version of Oliver Twist, starring Jackie Coogan and Lon Chaney, airs on TCM at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Rescued by Dickens

Robyn Lupton, appearing in a Brisbane production of Oliver!, has a special connection to Charles Dickens: "Robyn says it's hard to imagine she'd be around if it wasn't for the second chance that Dickens gave her great, great, grandmother." Read her story here.

Dickens and the stage

The Free Library of Philadelphia has an exhibit called "At Home on the Stage: Charles Dickens and the Theatre" that "features rare playbills, letters, and memorabilia from Dickens’s lifelong relationship with the world of theatre."

Thanks to Herb Moskovitz of The Buzfuz newsletter for today's and yesterday's items.

New stamps

The Ascension Island Post Office is issuing four new Christmas Carol stamps. Information and pictures are here.