Dickensblog

Dickens autograph sold at auction

The signature, accompanied by a quote from A Christmas Carol, brought over $23,000.

Celebrating 'A Christmas Carol'

In honor of the book's upcoming 175th anniversary, The New York Times has a lovely illustrated timeline about its history of covering the book over the years. And The Weekly Standard has a reflection -- inspired by the Muppet version, interestingly! -- on some of the deeper and darker themes in the story.

'A Christmas Carol' on TV

In accordance with our usual tradition, here is this year's list of Christmas Carol airings! As always, keep checking back for updates, and let us know if you come across any that I've missed. All times are Eastern.

• Scrooge (1935, starring Seymour Hicks): December 23 at 6 a.m., TCM
• A Christmas Carol (1938, starring Reginald Owen): December 2 at 8:30 a.m., TCM
• Scrooge, a.k.a. A Christmas Carol (1951, starring Alastair Sim): December 23 at 10 p.m., TCM
• A Christmas Carol (1984, starring George C. Scott): December 3 at 6:45 and 9:45 a.m.; December 11 at 2:25 and 5:25 p.m.; December 14 at 8 and 11 a.m., HBO2
• A Christmas Carol (1999, starring Patrick Stewart): December 3 at 8 p.m., Get TV
• Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009, starring Jim Carrey): December 7 at 9:50 p.m.; December 8 at 2:20 p.m.; December 12 at 9 p.m., Freeform

Recent Dickens mentions

A number of good new "books about books" have recently come out, quite a few of which offer Dickens recommendations. (I've read all the way through the first two -- with the others, I've just read the Dickens sections so far!)

• My friend Karen Swallow Prior, author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me, has a new book out called On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books, in which she uses various novels and short stories to highlight different virtues. A Tale of Two Cities illustrates the concept of justice. (I got to read an early version of the chapter and offer feedback, which was an honor and a treat!) Karen's excellent book recently was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Publisher's Weekly.
• In I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life, Anne Bogel (who blogs at Modern Mrs. Darcy) names David Copperfield as one of the books that helped her to come of age as a reader.
• Book Girl: A Journey through the Treasures & Transforming Power of a Reading Life  by Sarah Clarkson states, "There is no one quite like Dickens" and names him one of the author's "most beloved" writers. Clarkson pays tribute to David Copperfield for its striking imagery and understanding of human nature, Bleak House for its quietly faithful heroine, and Oliver Twist for its suspense. And she quotes a friend who recommends Dombey and Son and Martin Chuzzlewit. 
• James Mustich's 1,000 Books to Read before You Die: A Life-Changing List has a great chapter on Dickens. "It's as if the author has not set out to write a novel," he observes, "but has been dropped into a pulsing reality he has to write his way through, much in the way we must construct a life." Mustich specifically recommends David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, A Christmas Carol, Dombey and Son, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations.

 

Birthday party for 'A Christmas Carol'

Dickens's Christmas classic is turning 175 this year! The Dickens Museum is hosting a celebration with Lucinda Dickens Hawksley the evening of December 19, including "mulled wine, mince pies and tales of Christmases past." If you're in the area, click here to buy tickets!

Man of a thousand (Dickensian) faces

It's the time of year when news of various A Christmas Carol productions around the world floods my inbox. Most of them don't get a mention here because there are just too many, but every once in a while I spot one that I think merits a mention.

Such a one is the one-man version of the show at Los Angeles's Geffen Playhouse. Jefferson Mays is the actor portraying every character -- more than 50 -- in the story, and there are few actors more fitted to the task. Mays has made a specialty of this kind of show, playing more than 40 characters in I Am My Own Wife, and later playing nine roles in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (in which I was fortunate enough to see him). In short, as the Los Angeles Times puts it, he "is a performer who can unleash multitudes," and moreover, "is an ideal conduit for Dickens’ authorial voice . . . [who] relishes the sly observational humor as well as the horror." (Mays and his wife, Susan Lyons, also helped to adapt the story. In this interview he speaks of his history with A Christmas Carol, as well as his recently discovered love for The Pickwick Papers.)

Those of you who can make it to the Geffen during this run (which ends December 9) will most likely find it worth your while!  

Dickens in the comics

'Tis the season for Dickensian graphic novels, it seems. I've already mentioned Olivia Twist, and now (or rather, in January) comes OLIVER, a "steampunk interpretation" from Image Comics. Meanwhile, British graphic novelist Posy Simmonds has written what the Guardian calls "a loose reworking of Charles Dickens’s novella A Christmas Carol, which casts an elderly female art dealer as Dickens’s muttering male misanthropist." Her book Cassandra Darke has not yet been published in the U.S., but Amazon has a few copies available from international sellers.  The Guardian has an excerpt here.

An animated 'Christmas Carol' 'retelling'

A new adaptation of the story is in the works, with a voice cast including Carey Mulligan, Andy Serkis, Daniel Kaluuya, Martin Freeman, Simon Russell Beale, Siân Phillips, and Leslie Caron. Including a Victorian toy theater, dance, and "a dark fantasy realm," it sounds to me a bit like A Christmas Carol with elements of The Nutcracker.

'A Christmas Carol,' the cookbook

A Christmas Carol: The Classic Novel with Recipes for Your Holiday Menu is coming from Puffin Young Readers in October! It will contain recipes by Giada de Laurentiis, Ina Garten, Martha Stewart, and Trisha Yearwood.

'Humbug' lands at Netflix

Netflix has picked up Ice Cube's update of A Christmas Carol. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be getting a rewrite and a new director.