Dickensblog

Dickens Museum acquires letters from Georgina Hogarth

The museum recently purchased a collection of 120 letters written by Dickens's sister-in-law to journalist Charles Kent after Dickens's death. A few of the letters are going on display, while curator Emma Harper works on transcribing the collection as a whole. As Harper explains, "Charles Kent was one of Dickens’s oldest friends and he and Georgina began writing to each other while the author was still alive, and were later able to share their mutually profound grief on his sudden demise. They will be a tremendous asset for researchers.”

Fine Books & Collections quotes this passage from one of the letters, written on Dickens's first posthumous birthday:

I know he is happy and blessed and indeed I do not think I would recall him to this dark world, if I could - but the burden of life without him is very very hard to bear - and sometimes, just lately especially I feel as if I could not bear it- and people always seem to think it is wicked to wish to die I am sure I don't know why - at any rate, if the wish does not prevent your (self?) humbly trying to do your duty while you live - as cheerfully and contently as you can! God bless you and yours - and help you through weary work of living.

Read more about the letters and their significance here and here.  

Happy 212th birthday, Charles Dickens!

Shortly after his birthday in 1868, Charles Dickens wrote to his daughter Mamie, "I couldn't help laughing at myself on my birthday at Washington. It was observed as much as though I were a little boy. Flowers and garlands (of the most exquisite kind) bloomed all over the room; letters radiant with good wishes poured in; a shirt pin, a handsome silver travelling bottle, a set of gold shirt studs, and a set of gold sleeve links were on the dinner-table."

Living near Washington, D.C., myself, I'm pleased to know that we gave him such a good celebration. Whether you raise a glass to the Inimitable today, or wear a geranium, or reread a favorite passage, or eat a free brownie at the Dickens Museum, or just think a kindly thought of him, I hope you enjoy his birthday too!

Dickens the diva?

Eleven unpublished Dickens letters are on display at the Dickens Museum, and also available to view online (go here and type "archives and manuscripts" into the search engine). Among them is one in which he complains about Sunday postal service being discontinued in his village of Higham -- described by two different commentators, Pete Orford and Adela Suliman, as "diva" behavior. Was Dickens being a diva or justifiably frustrated? Read the letter and judge for yourself!

Dickens code cracked!

Diligent decoders have finally solved the mystery of Dickens's "Tavistock letter," which turned out to be about ... advertising. Apologies to all who were hoping for something more exciting! BBC News has the story of how the code was cracked and who earned the reward for cracking it. 

A letter for sale

On December 15, Christie's will auction off a particularly "colorful" letter written by Dickens about a dinner gone wrong during one of his Christmas Carol reading tours. Click here for details!

Decode Dickens and win a prize!

The Dickens Code Project is offering £300 to whoever can decipher the "Tavistock letter," a letter Dickens wrote in his own "messy" personal version of shorthand. The Daily Mail has the details! Thanks to Rachel McMillan for the tip.

'Oliver Twist' in the news

Today we have a few different Oliver-related items of interest:

• The Daily Mail has some photos from the set of the new "Dodger" series, featuring Christopher Eccleston (Fagin) and Saira Choudhry (Nancy).
• The Guardian has a nice article about the Charles Dickens Museum's new Oliver Twist-themed walking tour.
• Finally, i news has an article about a couple of letters that the Museum is displaying in its new exhibit on Oliver Twist, which opened yesterday. The letters -- one written by Dickens himself, and one by his doctor -- show the toll that Dickens's public readings of the "Sikes and Nancy" episode took on his physical and emotional health.

The letter that wasn't?

British shopping channel Ideal World had to pull a Dickens letter they were offering for sale when Dr. Leon Litvack of The Charles Dickens Letters Project claimed it was a forgery. But the channel promises "further enquiries" to try to verify that the letter is genuine. Read more here.

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!)

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.