Dickensblog

Good news for the Dickens Museum

The museum is now receiving some financial support from Britain's National Lottery Heritage Fund. Museum director Cindy Sughrue tells BBC News that the museum is "geared up to open as soon as possible over the summer."

Incidentally, the Dickens Society is running a fundraiser in which, when you donate to the charity of your choice, they'll give a matching donation to the Dickens Museum. Go here for details.

Virtual tours of the Dickens Museum with Lucinda Hawksley

Let Charles Dickens's great-great-great-granddaughter show you around his old home! Lucinda Hawksley will lead a virtual tour on Thursday, June 18, and another on Friday, June 19, to raise money for the museum. Go here to find out how to sign up for the first tour, and go here for details on the second one!

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!

Dickens in living color

The Dickens Museum has had eight photographs of the author colorized. Go here to see the first one and to learn more about the process and the results!

An evening with Dickens

The Dickens Museum and the University of Buckingham are teaming up to host an online "open evening" tomorrow from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. U.K. time, with a focus on the university's MA program in Dickens Studies. (For those of us on the East Cost of the United States, it's more of a late morning/early afternoon than an evening, of course!) In case you have some time to tune in, it looks like a very interesting event! You'll need to e-mail Dr. Pete Orford to register; go here for his contact information.

Visit the Dickens Museum online

The Charles Dickens Museum is now displaying images of many of its items online -- a project that began before the shutdown but turned out to be very "timely," according to curator Louisa Price. (A classic Dickensian coincidence, or Dickensidence, as we sometimes call them around here!) Go take a look, and while you're there, remember that the Museum could really use some donations right now, if you can spare anything!

#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.)

An appeal from the Dickens Museum

As an independent (non-government-funded) museum, the Dickens Museum is hurting for funds right now. There are many people, places, and organizations in need of donations right now, I know, but if you could spare something for this particular cause, I know they'd be very grateful and put it to good use. Go here to read their appeal and to donate.

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.

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!)