Dickensblog

R.I.P., Chita Rivera

If you're a theater geek like me, you'll recognize Chita Rivera as the iconic dancing star from West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, Chicago, and many more shows. But if you're a dedicated Dickensian theater geek (also like me), you know that she played Princess Puffer in the 2012 Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I had the great good fortune of seeing her perform in this musical adaptation, which requires lots of stamina and improvisational skill from its actors. Incredibly spry and spirited at the age of 80, Rivera pulled it off with aplomb.

Chita Rivera, by all accounts as spirited in life as on the stage, passed away yesterday at the age of 91.

Dickens gets caught up in school book purge

A Tale of Two Cities has gotten some attention recently -- not in a good way. It was one of nearly 3000 books pulled from school libraries in Escambia County, Florida, for review after being challenged for inappropriate content. Also pulled was an edition of David Copperfield "adapted for young readers." As were encyclopedias, dictionaries, Bible story books, and works by Agatha Christie and Emily Brontë, among others. More information is here, here, and here. (Note that different articles give different numbers, but as of January 11, the total appears to be around 2800.)

I try to keep politics off this blog as much as possible, but I suspect we would all agree that if your book review policy considers Charles Dickens a dangerous influence on the youth of America, you probably need to rethink it. 

'The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens': A review

The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens by Helena Kelly (Pegasus Books, 2023).

I might be a better judge of this book if I could figure out the point of it.

Helena Kelly (also the author of Jane Austen, the Secret Radical) has based an entire book on the idea that Charles Dickens routinely lied about his life, both through the things he told others about himself, and through his novels. She has set out to debunk those lies and reveal the truth. She's put a great deal of research into this effort ... and even more imagination.

Happy 200th birthday (belated), Wilkie Collins!

Dickens's fellow author, friend, and occasional collaborator had his bicentennial yesterday. (My apologies for posting a day late!) As Jane Clinton writes in the Camden New Journal, "A moustache-growing competition and a dramatic mountain rescue -- there was rarely a dull moment in the friendship of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins."

The Dickens Museum has announced it will extend its exhibition on Collins to April 21, "enabling more people to come and discover the personal side of these two great Victorian writers, as well as their collaborative stories.”

R.I.P., Tom Wilkinson

The British actor played Pecksniff in the 1994 miniseries version of Martin Chuzzlewit, and was the voice of older David in the 1999 David Copperfield miniseries. He passed away Saturday at the age of 75.

Wilkinson's BBC News obituary includes some of his thoughts on playing a Dickensian role:

"When he portrayed Pecksniff in Martin Chuzzlewit for the BBC in 1994, Wilkinson said: 'I looked at it and I thought, I can't get it any better than that. It came out exactly as I meant it to come out. It won a couple of prizes and I thought, I can act, there's no question.'"

'Our Mutual Friend' gets a musical adaptation

London Tide, a musical based on Our Mutual Friend with songs by acclaimed singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, will premiere in London this April. Visit the National Theatre's website for more information and to get tickets!