Dickensblog

'Oliver Twist' audio drama released

Sam Mendes's new audio drama Oliver Twist is now available on Audible, and if you have a membership, it's free! The cast includes Brian Cox as Fagin, Daniel Kaluuya as Bill Sikes, Nicola Coughlan as Nancy, Emilio Villa Muhammad as Oliver, and Elijah Wolf as the Artful Dodger. Go here to read more about the production, which includes sound effects recorded at Dickens's own home, now the Dickens Museum. And go here to listen!

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Eleven unpublished Dickens letters are on display at the Dickens Museum, and also available to view online (go here and type "archives and manuscripts" into the search engine).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 and the supernatural

Smithsonian Magazine has an article on Dickens as a "fascinated skeptic" of supernatural phenomena. It's promoting the upcoming Dickens Museum exhibit To Be Read at Dusk: Dickens, Ghosts and the Supernatural, which will open in October.

New 'Bleak House' illustrations

Artist Gerry Mooney, an active member of the Dickensblog Facebook group, is offering a free download of the first seven chapters of Bleak House with his illustrations. He hopes to do a full version of the book someday, but this PDF version is his proof-of-concept. Gerry does beautiful work and his Dickens illustrations are a treat for the eye. Visit his website to get your free download! 

You can learn more about Gerry's ideas and process from this post he wrote for the Dickens Society blog.

Dickens in living color

Marina Amaral, well known as a digital colorist of old photographs, has applied her talents to an 1850 portrait of Charles Dickens. Visit her Substack to see the photo, and visit her shop to buy yourself a print!

Upcoming online talks

Tomorrow, April 27, Dr. Emily Dunbar of the Dickens Museum will give a talk on the museum's new Pickwick Papers exhibition at 10 a.m. Eastern. Go here to learn more and get a free ticket!

Also tomorrow, at 1 p.m. Eastern, the Dickens Fellowship will sponsor Lucinda Dickens Hawksley talking about her new book, Dickens and Travel. Go here for information.

Dickens House Museum in Broadstairs reopens

A hearty "welcome back!" to the Dickens House Museum, which was closed for two years because of the pandemic! Very appropriate for the season of resurrection.

Starring Pickwick

The Dickens Museum is going Pickwickian! They have an upcoming exhibition on Pickwick illustrations and three upcoming performances of The Trial of Mr. Pickwick. And the Minute Book, which "contains the official club notes of the first known Pickwick club," will be going on display there next month. 

Happy 210th birthday, Charles Dickens!

All hail the Inimitable on this happy occasion! 

In honor of Dickens's birthday, the Dickens Museum is kicking off a writing competition. The writer of the winning short story or novel excerpt will receive this beautiful facsimile of the Oliver Twist manuscript. Click here to see all the details, and then put those quill pens to paper (or fingers to keys, if you prefer). It's not that easy to follow in Dickens's footsteps, but one can at least give it a try!

(Image made by yours truly!)

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.