Dickensblog

Purse dogs are out, purse letters are in

If you'd told me that the next Dickens scandal would involve designer handbags containing small pieces of a letter he wrote . . . I'd probably have doubted you.

And yet, here we are.

(Just in case you should want one of these, all you have to do is scrape together 2,750 Euros!)

Happy 208th birthday, Mr. Dickens!

Just in time for the author's birthday, the Charles Dickens Museum has announced the acquisition of a "treasure trove" of letters and other memorabilia from a large private collection. Among other things, the letters -- like all his letters, "immediate, always passionate, often very funny and gloriously descriptive," according to museum director Cindy Sughrue -- include instructions to his butler about the gin punch, which he made himself and which could be "quite strong."

I hope you'll all raise a glass of gin punch -- or the drink of your choice -- to the birthday boy today!

Burial blues

Leon Litvack of Queen's University Belfast and the Charles Dickens Museum has done some extensive research into the death and burial of Dickens, to find out how he really came to be buried at Westminster Abbey. Spoiler: It's not how we thought!

Dickensian cosplay at 'David Copperfield'

Kudos to the members of the Rochester and Chatham branch of the Dickens Fellowship who turned out for The Personal History of David Copperfield in the height of Victorian fashion!

The sad tale of the Dickens turkey

According to a recently rediscovered letter from the author, the 30-pound turkey Dickens was to have had for his last Christmas dinner met with a very unfortunate accident.

Charles Dickens, foodie

Columnist Rich Barlow argues that Dickens was "the greatest Christmas food writer of them all."

The story behind the 'Carol'

"With Christmas approaching, Dickens wrote the book — some 30,000 words — in a matter of weeks. Off the page, his publishers played the role of Scrooge, showing little interest in the idea, so Dickens hired his own artists and editors and took care of the printing.

"His publishers weren’t totally wrong. Back then, Christmas wasn’t that big of a deal. But Dickens saw what they didn’t see: an opportunity to elevate Christmas as a symbol of hope and renewal, which would hopefully renew him, too."

--Michael S. Rosenwald, "The wrenching reason Charles Dickens wrote 'A Christmas Carol,'" The Washington Post, December 21, 2019

A Halloween Carol?

Though Dickens is so often associated with Christmas, Professor Joel J. Brattin of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (currently running a special Dickens exhibit) suggests that the ghostly elements in his work should make us think of another holiday!

Oliver Twiss and Martin Guzzlewit

We've all heard of the widespread literary plagiarism and piracy in Dickens's time, but a new biography of publisher Edward Lloyd suggests that it was even more widespread than we knew. Biographer Rohan McWilliam explains, “What’s particularly interesting is that many Victorian readers may have first encountered Dickens not through his own work, but through one of these imitations. There were many titles produced, which indicate that they were incredibly popular. And in some ways the plagiarisms could be seen as the original form of fan fiction, as they took familiar characters and did different things with them.” For more on Oliver Twiss and other plagiarisms of Dickens, go here.

Lucinda Dickens Hawksley: 'You can tell in his books when he is depressed'

Dickens's great-great-great-granddaughter gives an insightful interview to Noted on his troubled marriage, his mental health, her favorite of his novels, and what her next book is going to be about.