Dickensblog

From yesterday's commemoration

The Dickens Museum has posted a couple of videos that fans will want to see: one of an amazing light and sound installation that was projected onto Westminster Abbey for yesterday's anniversary, and another of a special greeting from members of the Dickens family.

Yesterday's virtual conference went great, and there should soon be some videos from that online as well!

On Dickens's death

"No writer of the age was more beloved than Dickens. Just as people had once clamored for the next installment of his serialized novels, they now sought new details about his life and death at 58. For months, the newspaper brimmed with stories about Dickens’s final hours, his funeral, his will, the auction of his art collection, even his estate sale, where a set of old flowerpots went for a guinea.

"On June 12, The Times followed its report of Dickens’s death with a melancholy editorial tribute to the man 'whose works are more or less associated with the events of our lives,' pointing out that 'people of middle age cannot but feel that they have "grown up," as it were, with Charles Dickens. The appearance of each successive story from his pen is linked with a thousand domestic recollections, for he was eminently the novelist of the household.'"

Tina Jordan, "When Dickens Died, America Mourned. Our Archives Tell the Story," The New York Times, June 7, 2020

(Image: The Empty Chair, painting by Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, 1870)

News roundup

On the eve of the 150th anniversary of Charles Dickens's death, a few items of interest:

• The Jersey Post is releasing a new set of eight stamps in honor of the occasion: "Created by Mark and Julie Wilkinson, the stamps have been designed to look like classic leather book covers and feature key scenes and characters from some of Dickens’ best-loved works." Here's the direct link to order.
• Country Life put together a lovely tribute to some of Dickens's greatest characters. Meanwhile, The Conversation did a "data analysis" to gain some insight on Dickens's methods of characterization.
• The Dickens Theatre Company, unable to perform their new play Dickens' Dream because of the lockdown, have put a short teaser video online (click "Continue reading" below to see it). Their hope is to perform the play later this year.

Hope to run into some of you at the virtual #Dickens150 conference tomorrow!

#Dickens150 calls for attendees and papers

In place of the Dickens conferences that had to be canceled this summer, a virtual conference will be held on June 9, the 150th anniversary of Dickens's death. Proceeds will be donated to the Dickens Museum, which, as we know, could really use them right now. 

Here's the website where you can register (starting tomorrow) and also submit proposals for presentations, panels, "lightning talks" of two to three minutes, and more (by May 10).

I hope to see you there!

(ETA: The event is not hosted by the Dickens Society, as I wrote originally. Thanks to Lydia Craig for the correction.)

Fireside reading and a character competition

Those book reviews are coming, I swear, but first a couple of quick news items:

• Actor and audiobook narrator Gildart Jackson will begin reading from Great Expectations at 8 Eastern this evening at @firesidereading on Instagram. He plans to read a chapter a day.
• The Journalists' Charity, co-founded by Dickens, is honoring the 150th anniversary of his death by asking for "written portraits of a modern-day Dickens character." The Guardian has more.  

News roundup

Just wanted to share a few news items before beginning the book reviewing:

• The Dickens Museum is, unsurprisingly, closed indefinitely, but remains active on social media. Actor Dominic Gerrard, who has performed a one-man Christmas Carol there, has done a reading of the first chapter of A Tale of Two Cities to raise money for the Museum.
• The joint Dickens Fellowship/Dickens Society Symposium in London in July is still scheduled to go ahead, but organizers are monitoring things and will make a final decision in May.
• In the New Yorker, Amy Davidson Sorkin argues, "Esther Summerson is one of the great heroines of literature, in part because she understands the vital importance of social distancing and isolation, even when it is hard."
• Phyllis Rose is re-releasing her 1983 book Parallel Lives, which focuses on five Victorian couples, including Charles and Catherine Dickens. In an interview with the Guardian, Rose argues that "is disappointing, and incredibly small-minded" to "cancel" great writers like Dickens over their bad behavior. The new edition of her book can be ordered here.   
• The TV series "Great British Menu" has a children's literature theme this year, in honor of the 150th anniversary of Dickens's death. (Seemed like a bit of a stretch to me too, but apparently it has something to do with Oliver Twist being the first child protagonist. Anyway, I'd never carp about a show honoring Dickens for any reason!)
• Dr. Pete Orford is beginning a Hard Times readalong on April 1.

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!

'The serious epitaph of Dickens'

On the 149th anniversary of Charles Dickens's death, here are some pertinent thoughts from his great admirer G. K. Chesterton:

"He was alive to the end. And in this last dark and secretive story of Edwin Drood he makes one splendid and staggering appearance, like a magician saying farewell to mankind. In the centre of this otherwise reasonable and rather melancholy book, this grey story of a good clergyman and the quiet Cloisterham Towers, Dickens has calmly inserted one entirely delightful and entirely insane passage. I mean the frantic and inconceivable epitaph of Mrs. Sapsea, that which describes her as 'the reverential wife' of Thomas Sapsea, speaks of her consistency in 'looking up to him,' and ends with the words, spaced out so admirably on the tombstone, 'Stranger pause. And ask thyself this question, Canst thou do likewise? If not, with a blush retire.' Not the wildest tale in Pickwick contains such an impossibility as that; Dickens dare scarcely have introduced it, even as one of Jingle's lies. In no human churchyard will you find that invaluable tombstone; indeed, you could scarcely find it in any world where there are churchyards. You could scarcely have such immortal folly as that in a world where there is also death. Mr. Sapsea is one of the golden things stored up for us in a better world.

"Yes, there were many other Dickenses: a clever Dickens, an industrious Dickens, a public-spirited Dickens; but this was the great one. This last outbreak of insane humour reminds us wherein lay his power and his supremacy. The praise of such beatific buffoonery should be the final praise, the ultimate word in his honour. The wild epitaph of Mrs. Sapsea should be the serious epitaph of Dickens."

G. K. Chesterton, "Later Life and Works," Charles Dickens

Ten years and counting

In January, this blog hit a major milestone -- which I totally missed at the time! January 26 marked Dickensblog's 10th anniversary. Here, for those of you who haven't seen it (and those of you who have!), is our first post from January 26, 2009.

Birthday roundup

Just catching up on a few Dickens birthday articles from yesterday: 

• The BBC's HistoryExtra website shared a few quirky facts about Dickens's home life, including his love for parties and his taxidermied pets!
• Newsweek offered a few basic Dickens facts and popular quotes in honor of the day.
• Female First compiled a list of actors who have played Dickens. I knew about Simon Callow, Dan Stevens, and Ralph Fiennes, but not the others. (I certainly didn't know about Anthony Hopkins!)
• And finally, Londonist had an article about the pubs that every Dickensian should know.