Dickensblog

Happy 100th birthday to the Dickens Museum!

The Charles Dickens Museum is celebrating its centennial with a brand new exhibition titled "Dickens in Doughty Street: 100 Years of the Charles Dickens Museum." Go here, here, and here to read all about it (the second and third links have some nice photos). They're also having a birthday party on February 20 for Dickens himself!

At the chalet with Dickens

Dickens's Swiss chalet, the building where he did much of his writing, is open to the public free of charge this weekend, as part of England's annual Heritage Open Days event. Medway Council, the Dickens Fellowship, and other groups hope the event will help "raise awareness" of the need for funds to restore the chalet. If you happen to be in Kent, go check it out!

Puzzling over Dickens

Author and teacher Julian Morgan gives an interview here about his book Charles Dickens Puzzles, a collection of 100 puzzles of various kinds based on Dickens's life and works. The book is available here. (Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualified purchases.)

More from the Dickens Museum

On July 3, at 2 p.m. U.K. time, Dr. Claire Wood and Professor Hugo Bowles will give a virtual talk on "Decoding Dickens: The Shorthand Mysteries," focusing on shorthand texts written by Dickens that are still being deciphered. Go here to learn more and to sign up! 

And if you're in London or plan to be there sometime in the next few months, go check out the exhibition "Faithful Companions: Charles Dickens & His Pets," which "explore[s] the stories of Dickens's own pets and some famous animals from his novels through precious objects, such as his hand-written letters, family photo albums and artworks." It runs until January 12. To promote the exhibition, the Museum's Facebook page offers a reading by Helena Bonham Carter of Mamie Dickens's anecdote about her father, his cat, and a candle; and Simon Callow's reading of a passage about Bull's-eye from Oliver Twist.

Lucinda Hawksley talks 'A Tale of Two Cities'

On Saturday, July 13, the Dickens Museum is sponsoring "A Tale of Two Cities: An Afternoon with Lucinda Dickens Hawksley," where Dickens's great-great-great-granddaughter and president of the Dickens Fellowship will read excerpts from the novel and lead a discussion. The event is free and can be attended in-person or online. Go here for all the details and to sign up!

Dickens celebrated on the Isle of Wight

Last month, Ian Dickens, great-great-grandson of the author and former president of the Dickens Fellowship, hosted a celebration of the 175th anniversary of Dickens's summer visit to the island. Several Dickens cousins, including Mark Dickens, Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, and Ian's brother Gerald Dickens took part in the festivities, which included a museum exhibition, a children's writing competition, and performances by Gerald. Gerald has an enthusiastic and enjoyable writeup of the event on his blog. 

Dickens at the Swan

Script Haven bookshop in Worcester, England, is applying for a blue plaque to commemorate Dickens's visit to their building in 1858, when it was the Swan Hotel. Best wishes to their endeavor!

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.  

Portsmouth prepares for Dickens's birthday

The Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum in Portsmouth will host a birthday celebration tomorrow and offer free entry all day. Click here for details!

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.”